Speed up video on PC ?

Ebe_Scrooge

Hello, looking for some advice please. I have a PC ( COMPAQ ) which is perfectly OK in most respects, but my little lad has recently complained that it's very "laggy" ( his words ! ) when he's trying to record his MineCraft games to upload to YouTube. Just playing games or watching videos seems to be fine. I have Avast installed, and regularly run SpyBot and MaleWareBytes scans, which always report no problems.

Here's the current specs :

SYSTEM SUMMARY

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Windows 7 Home Premium
x64-based PC
AMD Athlon II X2 245 Processor, 2900 Mhz, 2Cores, 2 Logical Processors
Installed Physical memory 2.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 1.75 GB
Available Physical Memory 499 MB
Total Virtual Memory 3.50 GB
Available Virtual Memory 2.04 GB
Page File Space 1.75 GB


DISPLAY

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ATI Radeon 3000 Graphics
Adapter RAM 256 MB
Resolution 1440 x 900 x74 hertz
Bits/Pixel 32


Now, I know that adding memory is a cheap way of improving performance generally, and I'll probably do that. But I was wondering - I think I'm right in saying that you can get graphics cards with their own built-in processor - would this help do you think ? If so, any recommendations ? Or any other suggestions ?

I probably won't be back online until tomorrow now, so for all the useful suggestions that I know will be forthcoming - I'm not being rude if I seem to be ignoring you for a while !!

Many thanks in advance.

OneADay

More RAM would help.
A new graphic card would help more I think.

Ebe_Scrooge

Thankyou for your input. I realise the RAM is small by today's standards, so I'll definitely do this. I just wasn't sure whether a better graphics card would make much difference - I'll have a browse around, see what's available.

Nada666

Bit above my pay grade so someone will correct me if this is nonsense:

Are you running a 32-bit version of Windows 7 instead of 64-bit? Is that why you only have 1.75 GB of your RAM available? It might be worthwhile to take the time to install a 64 bit version of Windows 7 and then installing 4 GB of RAM first before trying a new graphics card. Trying to run a new card still with only 1.75 GB RAM and virtual memory may be pointless.

(Could be wrong, though.)

Nada666

(Yup, I'm wrong - confusing 32-bit limitation with shared memory of your card. Ignore me.)

(Well, apart from increasing RAM which you should really do regardless.)

(And you shouldn't keep putting off adding more RAM - older modules age very quickly and precipitously and the prices go up.)

NiftyDigits

Compaq SG3-350UK? Specs here But that model states 4GB of RAM.
So what is your model number?

A clean install and a better graphics card would help. An example here: Gigabyte GT 610 1GB £24.99 or this ex-display; EVGA GT 620 1GB for £25.10

I'd go for the GT 620 at that price point, but the issue here is the power supply of just 180 watts, where the card claims to require a 350 watt PSU.

So for you, perhaps the GT610 would be a safer option. Again, suggest 300 watts, but I think it will be fine.

RAM is DDR3, so the 'older model' issue above does not apply.

Ebe_Scrooge

Thankyou all for your input. I've just ordered some more RAM - which will help in general anyway ( bizarrely, used the Crucial scanner to find out what I needed, then bought the same Crucial item via Amazon for a couple of quid cheaper than from Crucial itself ! ).

Will see how that goes, if no better then will look at the graphics cards that have been suggested. Thanks again

NiftyDigits

Ebe_Scrooge wrote: »

Thankyou all for your input. I've just ordered some more RAM - which will help in general anyway ( bizarrely, used the Crucial scanner to find out what I needed, then bought the same Crucial item via Amazon for a couple of quid cheaper than from Crucial itself ! ).

Will see how that goes, if no better then will look at the graphics cards that have been suggested. Thanks again

The HP Compaq link above confusingly states that you need laptop RAM, whilst the Motherboard itself states Desktop of course.

2GB Desktop RAM here for £10.99

I would have gone for the upgrade from 2 GB to 4GB and the Graphics card, for a total of £36.