Would a new video card speed up divx playback on an old G4?

[motulist]

So, I'm about to buy a G4 400 mhz sawtooth with ATI 128 rage pro AGP graphics and I'm guessing that it'll be too under powered to playback divx and other types of video files. If I add a new AGP video card, would that make video playback perfect, or is that not really a function of the video card? If it is, could you suggest a video card with tv out (s-video, component, or whatever) that would be good for this job?

 

[robbieduncan]

Depends on the playback software. I can't think of any that uses the graphics card so in that case a new card would make no difference at all. if you have some software I've not heard of that offloads some or all of the processing to the GPU then it might help, but only if you were maxing out your current GPU.

 

[motulist]

I'm picking up the computer later tonight, but I'm like a kid on christmas night, I just can't wait! Do you think a 400 mhz G4 could playback divx files of the type you get on newsgroups and other download places? I watch a lot of tv shows via downloads because I can't stand commercials.

 

[robbieduncan]

I'd guess not smoothly. The resolution and data rate are the important factors. If you can get some lower resolution ones perhaps but even then that's a pretty slow CPU by moderns standards.

 

[livingfortoday]

It;s pretty much ben said, but I think that you'll find the CPU to be the major bottleneck here. If you could find a cheap upgrade, it'd probably be a lot better than a new video card.

 

[motulist]

Dude! I'm so stoked I had to tell you all the follow up! I set this 8 year old Mac up, and the first thing I did was test full screen video playback, and guess what? It works flawlessly!!! I was wanting to set up a media server, but I just bought this machine to be an internet and word processor, I didn't think this ancient machine would be able to decode modern video compression formats. But it can! I can't believe how powerful and useful these 8 year old Macs are! It's so awesome! I'm gushing!

I thought I'd have to buy another newer old mac to setup as my media machine, but this single old machine is so powerful that it can be my computer for internet, word processor, video play back, audio playback, download, print station, scan station, etc. etc. and everything else station! Now I can dedicate my 1ghz powerbook to things that need portability so I don't have to constantly be plugging it in and out of the tv, stereo, scanner and everything else which'll just stay connected to the 400 mhz machine and I'll also dedicate my laptop to things that take more horse power, like music production. Of course, this machine's power has surprised me so much, is it possible that it'll be faster and more powerful in music production than my 1ghz laptop??? Could it possibly be? There's only one way to find out!

That was some of the best $85 I've ever spent!