Re: [CGUYS] Upgrade the video card?
A delayed update. I got rid of Spysweeper which I long suspected of bogging down the computer, and voila things are better. But the question still stands, would there be any incemental improvement with a heftier video card? Quentin Fisher Bethesda, MD * == QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in == * == the body of an email send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] == * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * List archive from 1/1/2000 is on the MARC http://marc.info/?l=computerguys-l * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header X-No-Archive: yes will not be archived
Re: [CGUYS] Upgrade the video card?
I don't have your answer but I will ask this before the others do, what are the details? Operating system, type monitor, current amount of memory, what you are trying to run or do that's so slow, what other programs are running all the time such as antivirus and firewall... If you aren't sure what's slowing the computer down, use ProcessExplorer, a great free tool by SysInternals, which runs in the background and lets you know at a glance how the system is doing. I use Spy Sweeper also, in conjunction with AVG antivirus and ZoneAlarm firewall, and while SS does impact my slower computers but it works great on my new one which has 2GB memory. After its initial startup which takes about 20 seconds, I can't even tell it's running based on performance slowdowns. However on my old Win 98, it is a bear to run. If I could afford it, I would max out the memory on the 98 too but it would be a waste of money. In the meantime, I will keep Spy Sweeper because of its interactive protections. For me, it's worth a slower boot time to not have to deal with the headache of reinstalling my operating system when it gets compromised. Richard P. Quentin Fisher wrote: A delayed update. I got rid of Spysweeper which I long suspected of bogging down the computer, and voila things are better. But the question still stands, would there be any incemental improvement with a heftier video card? Quentin Fisher Bethesda, MD * == QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in == * == the body of an email send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] == * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * List archive from 1/1/2000 is on the MARC http://marc.info/?l=computerguys-l * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header X-No-Archive: yes will not be archived * == QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in == * == the body of an email send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] == * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * List archive from 1/1/2000 is on the MARC http://marc.info/?l=computerguys-l * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header X-No-Archive: yes will not be archived
Re: [CGUYS] Upgrade the video card?
I forget the details now too, but in general: A new video card might help 3D games. For office apps and internet browsing, you will see no improvement at all. On Jan 7, 2008 2:46 PM, Quentin Fisher [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: A delayed update. I got rid of Spysweeper which I long suspected of bogging down the computer, and voila things are better. But the question still stands, would there be any incemental improvement with a heftier video card? * == QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in == * == the body of an email send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] == * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * List archive from 1/1/2000 is on the MARC http://marc.info/?l=computerguys-l * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header X-No-Archive: yes will not be archived
Re: [CGUYS] Upgrade the video card?
Any P4 level machine should be able to handle photos easily, even 5-7 megapixel ones (but you weren't real specific). I'm going to guess this is a problem with whatever app you're using to process the pix. Try updating it or un/reinstalling it. Be more specific about what part of the process is slow, e.g. when you drag a pic onto Windows Media Player is it slow to display it? What's slow is painting the thumbnails of a few hundred photos (1.5-3 Mb apiece) located in a folder on the hard drive. The upload is equally slow in Windows explorer or my apps (Corel Ulead or Photoshop Elements Organizer). Most especially, when I weant to rotate a picture, it takes 30-60 seconds/picture, so its hard to manage a few dozen at a time. Maybe I expect too much? ___ Quentin Fisher Bethesda, MD * == QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in == * == the body of an email send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] == * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header X-No-Archive: yes will not be archived
Re: [CGUYS] Upgrade the video card?
For what it's worth, I had the same problem with my computer being slow in painting the thumbnails, even though it has 2GB of memory. I switched programs from Fuji (the make of the camera), to Adobe Photoshop Starter edition and the problem went away. I don't know what makes one program slower or faster than another but it made the difference with mine. The fact that with your computer, it doesn't seem to matter which program you're using. Can you tell what other processes are running that may be taking up the system resources? The whole point of thumbnails is that they should be able to load quickly. Richard P. What's slow is painting the thumbnails of a few hundred photos (1.5-3 Mb apiece) located in a folder on the hard drive. The upload is equally slow in Windows explorer or my apps (Corel Ulead or Photoshop Elements Organizer). Most especially, when I weant to rotate a picture, it takes 30-60 seconds/picture, so its hard to manage a few dozen at a time. Maybe I expect too much? * == QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in == * == the body of an email send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] == * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header X-No-Archive: yes will not be archived
Re: [CGUYS] Upgrade the video card?
Yes, drawing thumbnails can take a while the first time for large pics. After that they should be cached and instant. If you're going to work with folders full of hundreds of large photos, you need lots of RAM too. Bring up your task manager (ctrl-alt-del) and look at the performance tab. Does it always show lots of Physical Memory available? What's slow is painting the thumbnails of a few hundred photos (1.5-3 Mb apiece) located in a folder on the hard drive. * == QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in == * == the body of an email send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] == * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header X-No-Archive: yes will not be archived
[CGUYS] Upgrade the video card?
As digital files get larger and more numerous, I find even simple sorting and labeling tasks get more sluggish. I have a Dell Dimension Pentium 4 running XP. I have maxxed on RAM, and installed a SATA hard dive. Would upgrading the video card make much of a difference, or have I gotten near the limits of my processor and bus? Other suggestions? Quentin Fisher Bethesda, MD _ * == QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in == * == the body of an email send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] == * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header X-No-Archive: yes will not be archived
Re: [CGUYS] Upgrade the video card?
Get a 4GB flash drive, install it permanently, and put the swap file on it. Use it all for the swap file. For that portion of the swap file, set the min and max sizes of the swap file to be the size of the whole drive (as much as Windows will allow, which is a few megabytes less than all of it). Keep some swap file on the installed hard drive, and set its minimum size as low as possible. Then, early use of the swap file should default to the flash drive, but there is swap file available if the flash drive should fail or become accidentally removed. Fred Holmes At 07:36 AM 12/26/2007, Quentin Fisher wrote: As digital files get larger and more numerous, I find even simple sorting and labeling tasks get more sluggish. I have a Dell Dimension Pentium 4 running XP. I have maxxed on RAM, and installed a SATA hard dive. Would upgrading the video card make much of a difference, or have I gotten near the limits of my processor and bus? Other suggestions? * == QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in == * == the body of an email send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] == * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header X-No-Archive: yes will not be archived
Re: [CGUYS] Upgrade the video card?
a new generation of flash memory has come out. it is much faster, and not that much more expensive. http://www.steves-digicams.com/pdf/sdhc.pdf when I bought one of these from bestbuy on stupid sale: Card-SDSDBR-409 SKU: 7956599 it came with a card reader. an $8 value!! it is not backward compatable with old sd. At 08:02 AM 12/26/2007, you wrote: Get a 4GB flash drive, install it permanently, and put the swap file on it. Use it all for the swap file. For that portion of the swap file, set the min and max sizes of the swap file to be the size of the whole drive (as much as Windows will allow, which is a few megabytes less than all of it). Keep some swap file on the installed hard drive, and set its minimum size as low as possible. Then, early use of the swap file should default to the flash drive, but there is swap file available if the flash drive should fail or become accidentally removed. Fred Holmes At 07:36 AM 12/26/2007, Quentin Fisher wrote: As digital files get larger and more numerous, I find even simple sorting and labeling tasks get more sluggish. I have a Dell Dimension Pentium 4 running XP. I have maxxed on RAM, and installed a SATA hard dive. Would upgrading the video card make much of a difference, or have I gotten near the limits of my processor and bus? Other suggestions? * == QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in == * == the body of an email send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] == * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header X-No-Archive: yes will not be archived * == QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in == * == the body of an email send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] == * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header X-No-Archive: yes will not be archived
Re: [CGUYS] Upgrade the video card?
Any P4 level machine should be able to handle photos easily, even 5-7 megapixel ones (but you weren't real specific). I'm going to guess this is a problem with whatever app you're using to process the pix. Try updating it or un/reinstalling it. Be more specific about what part of the process is slow, e.g. when you drag a pic onto Windows Media Player is it slow to display it? If you're 'maxxed on RAM' then I assume you mean 2gb or more. That should be plenty and you should never be hitting your paging (swap) file. If you were, I'd still disagree that using a flash drive and trying to force the page file to it would be a good idea. First, Windows automatically chooses the best page file to use, and there's no way it should pick one with only 4gb on the whole drive. On Dec 26, 2007 7:36 AM, Quentin Fisher [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: As digital files get larger and more numerous, I find even simple sorting and labeling tasks get more sluggish. I have a Dell Dimension Pentium 4 running XP. I have maxxed on RAM, and installed a SATA hard dive. Would upgrading the video card make much of a difference, or have I gotten near the limits of my processor and bus? Other suggestions? * == QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in == * == the body of an email send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] == * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header X-No-Archive: yes will not be archived
Re: [CGUYS] Upgrade the video card?
Fred Holmes wrote: Get a 4GB flash drive, install it permanently, and put the swap file on it. Use it all for the swap file. For that portion of the swap file, set the min and max sizes of the swap file to be the size of the whole drive (as much as Windows will allow, which is a few megabytes less than all of it). Keep some swap file on the installed hard drive, and set its minimum size as low as possible. Then, early use of the swap file should default to the flash drive, but there is swap file available if the flash drive should fail or become accidentally removed. Fred Holmes At 07:36 AM 12/26/2007, Quentin Fisher wrote: As digital files get larger and more numerous, I find even simple sorting and labeling tasks get more sluggish. I have a Dell Dimension Pentium 4 running XP. I have maxxed on RAM, and installed a SATA hard dive. Would upgrading the video card make much of a difference, or have I gotten near the limits of my processor and bus? Other suggestions? This seems counter intuitive to me. I would think that writing to the SATA hard drive from the processor would be way far faster than writing to a USB thumb drive. John * == QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in == * == the body of an email send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] == * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header X-No-Archive: yes will not be archived
Re: [CGUYS] Upgrade the video card?
It is counterintuitive. mike On Dec 26, 2007 9:18 AM, John H. Davis [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Fred Holmes wrote: Get a 4GB flash drive, install it permanently, and put the swap file on it. Use it all for the swap file. For that portion of the swap file, set the min and max sizes of the swap file to be the size of the whole drive (as much as Windows will allow, which is a few megabytes less than all of it). Keep some swap file on the installed hard drive, and set its minimum size as low as possible. Then, early use of the swap file should default to the flash drive, but there is swap file available if the flash drive should fail or become accidentally removed. Fred Holmes At 07:36 AM 12/26/2007, Quentin Fisher wrote: As digital files get larger and more numerous, I find even simple sorting and labeling tasks get more sluggish. I have a Dell Dimension Pentium 4 running XP. I have maxxed on RAM, and installed a SATA hard dive. Would upgrading the video card make much of a difference, or have I gotten near the limits of my processor and bus? Other suggestions? This seems counter intuitive to me. I would think that writing to the SATA hard drive from the processor would be way far faster than writing to a USB thumb drive. John * == QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in == * == the body of an email send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] == * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header X-No-Archive: yes will not be archived * == QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in == * == the body of an email send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] == * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header X-No-Archive: yes will not be archived
Re: [CGUYS] Upgrade the video card?
For small files, quite true, but for large files, I suspect that the rotational speed and cylinder-to-cylinder tracking would be the bottleneck. It sure has helped my machine with very large files, and it does get used, as evidenced by the activity light on the thumb drive. It's not very difficult to try and see whether you like it. Fred Holmes At 11:18 AM 12/26/2007, John H. Davis wrote: This seems counter intuitive to me. I would think that writing to the SATA hard drive from the processor would be way far faster than writing to a USB thumb drive. John * == QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in == * == the body of an email send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] == * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header X-No-Archive: yes will not be archived
