Poor imac video performance (video works better in bootcamp)

[pixeltarian]

If I boot into windows, videos play smooth as silk and flash games have a really nice framerate and are run perfectly.

in osx 10.6.8 this is not the case. any fullscreen video I try to play (even content that was downloaded and not streamed) is choppy. flash is choppy. it seems like the performance in snow leopard is worse than windows.

any idea why? I don't remember it always being this way. I KNOW when I first got my imac it could handle this stuff with no problem.

specs:

imac spring 2009
Core 2 duo
8GB ram (DDR3)
GeForce 9400 GPU


I am really sad about this lately. I don't any money to buy a new imac. I just want it to work like it did when I purchased it.

Has anyone had a similar thing happen? Is there anything I could do to improve performance? Would upgrading to Lion help or would it put even more strain on my system?

 

[GyroFX]

is your flash up to date? What browser do you use? Tried repairing permissions and clearing parameter ram, etc?

 

[lamboman]

Make sure Flash is up to date. In System Preferences, in the bottom section, click on Flash Player, then Advanced tab, then click Delete All, and make sure ONLY "Delete All Site Data and Settings" is selected. Flash seems to get crapped up over time, this always fixes the problem for me.

 

[pixeltarian]

flash is up to date. it's not exclusively a flash problem. even when trying to play an mp4 (for instance) in quitime/vlc it's choppy.

 

[philipma1957]

how full is your hdd? more then 75% can slow it down

 

[pixeltarian]

how full is your hdd? more then 75% can slow it down

not that full.