On Aug 22, 2010, at 12:41 PM, Yikes owner wrote: > Hello to the group! > > I currently am running a 400mhz Yikes G4 with a 1GB ram with the stock > ATI video card. I'm amazed that this computer is still viable for > everyday casual use, 10 years after we first purchased it. But I > don't like how it handles you tube and other streaming videos, the > video is very choppy while the sound is fine. The computer is hooked > up to a 6Mps DSL via ethernet. Will upgrading my video card to a > Radeon 7000 or 9200 take care of this problem? BTW, I'm not > interested in 3D gaming just smooth streaming video.
Choppy video on slower computers is due to the modern requirements for YouTube. They use a newer version of Flash which is more compressed with higher quality than older versions used to be. The downside to this is that you need a faster computer to play it back. I've found that for YouTube to play back fairly at all, you need at least an 800 MHz G4 AND a Core-Image capable graphics card. The newer iterations of Flash use the graphics card for decompression, and anything less than Core-Image compatible will cause the CPU to have to do all the word. The result: a glorified slideshow... The bad news is that with the Yikes, you're VERY limited with what you can do. CPU upgrades fall short on speed and processing power and due to the lack of an AGP slot on the motherboard, you can never have Core-Image or even Quartz-Extreme graphics. Unfortunately there's not much you can do except upgrade to a newer machine. -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
