Can an AGP improve performance?

[Nineoniner]

Quick question here guys..

I'm improving my old 5106CL from Compaq, and it's inbuilt GPU is just crappy peaking at 20some mbps. I was told I can upgrade to a GeForce 6200, which is the most this motherboard will take.

At the moment youtube, WMP, Skype, Facebook animations, etc..etc.. are laggy. Youtube runs okay at 320p, but it lags a bit when I move the cursor. Skype videocalls are laggy, but not so much that it's choppy. WMP will sometimes cause a system lockup, forcing a restart.

A couple of people tell me all that requires CPU usage, not AGP usage, so it would be pretty much useless to get the 6200.
Other people.. including store salesmen, my cousin who is a computer technician, and a friend who is also a technician, tell me that an AGP WILL improve media performance.

I'm just looking for a solid answer before buying the video card because I don't have much money.

Thanks for your time.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Websites like FB freezing is not based on your gfx card. Videos, however, will improve with a gfx upgrade.

A new CPU, and probably more RAM, will help it as well.

But the cost after updating all this, it will probably be more worth getting a new system.

 

[Nineoniner]

Websites like FB freezing is not based on your gfx card. Videos, however, will improve with a gfx upgrade.

A new CPU, and probably more RAM, will help it as well.

But the cost after updating all this, it will probably be more worth getting a new system.

I'm aware, I am planning on building a system of my own, but I need something running good while I save money to do so.
Since SyncDRAM is pretty much obsolete, I'm getting a new motherboard that accommodates DDR2 or DDR3,and a new AMD dual core CPU. I already chose all the parts that will go into the new computer, but it will be months until I'm able to buy all of it.

I only care about Media to be honest. Smooth videocalling, playing Project 64, watching movies... that's not too demanding with an AGP right..?

 

[patonb]

No is not to demanding, you can also look at pci slot too.

What OS are you on? XP?

Have you tried a reformat and install?

From the specs I've seen on thge 5106CL its mainly just getting tired. A new gpu will help, mainly as it will have the ability to do newer stuff.

 

[Nineoniner]

No is not to demanding, you can also look at pci slot too.

What OS are you on? XP?

Have you tried a reformat and install?

From the specs I've seen on thge 5106CL its mainly just getting tired. A new gpu will help, mainly as it will have the ability to do newer stuff.

Mmhm XP 32 Bit. And I've been wanting to, but I still can't manage to perform a backup to be honest. heh.
There's... this card in a PCI slot that I can't quite recognize, this computer didn't come with a Joystick slot. Only 4 USB ports, but in the 2000's. USB joysticks were rare, and expensive. So later a technician put this new card on the PCI slot claiming it was a video card. It had a slot for joystick, and also AUDIO inputs, and outputs for speakers, and a microphone.

Later when my cousin performed a checkup, he said ''Dude, you don't have a video card, why is your AGP slot empty?'' Then I realized that tech stole my ATI Rage, and just put this thing claiming it was a better GFX card.

 

[MindoverMaster]

If it doesn't have a VGA/DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort, it is not a graphics card.

And I use to have cards of your describing. I had the Creative sound cards.

 

[Nineoniner]

Thanks for replies guys. So to sum things up. A new AGP WILL improve video streaming, calling, movies, and low end videogaming. Right?

 

[Trotter]

Yes. A video card will take graphical tasks from the CPU. GPUs are designed to do this so they are much more efficient at it. Just make sure that the card you get is better than your current onboard chip... but if the computer is that old that won't be a problem.

Oh, and "turbocache" is not a good thing... it uses part of your computer's own RAM for graphics.

 

[patonb]

I'm going to suggest you take some pictures and post them up.

I'm not comfortable suggesting anything till i get a better idea just whats going on in your computer.

 

[Nineoniner]

I'm going to suggest you take some pictures and post them up.

I'm not comfortable suggesting anything till i get a better idea just whats going on in your computer.

I don't see how pictures would work, but have this:

AMD Athlon - Thunderbird 1.2 GHz

Motherboard is a Compaq 0708h

Graphic Interface

AGP Version 2.0
Xfer rate 4x

Memory
SDRAM 376 MB
Frequency 100.2MHz