Can a cheap GPU improve video playback on an old PC?

[@XanderRowlet]

This brings me back. Used to tinker with trash-picked PCs when I was a kid. I kinda want to get back into it but I have no space and a fiancée who likes the house to be organized lol

[@HardwareHaven]

I can completely relate haha. I have to work pretty hard to keep my junk out of the way. Luckily my wife is pretty cool with it all. Thanks for the comment!

[@elfedorausado]

Happy (almost) wife, happy life...

[@GoingtoHecq]

@@HardwareHaven how do you do it? I have trouble with my admittedly small space.

[@GoingtoHecq]

@@HardwareHaven how do you do it? I have trouble with my admittedly small space.

[@vladimirvparfenov3935]

@@GoingtoHecq try to be organized about it. maybe get some chrome wire shelving where each shelf can hold a few hundred pounds. that can make huge difference if youre a ‘boxes on the floor’ type

[@markschwartz5614]

I didn't know about youtube and the codec issue with older GPU's. Nice video, well done sir.

[@HardwareHaven]

Thank you! I enjoy learning things like this so it was a lot of fun

[@alexzoin]

I used to have this GPU. It was my second ever GPU back in the day. Slapped that bad boy into my old Dell pre-built.

[@HardwareHaven]

Heck yeah ya did! The good ol' days

[@repatch43]

A nitpick, from someone who was part of the early UVD and VCE verification effort at AMD: the R7 240 DOES have x264 decode. You were looking at the VCE support. VCE is the ENCODING engine. What you want is the UVD support. R7 240 is Oland, which certainly has x264 decode support in it's UVD block: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Video_Decoder The reason you see so much utilization with x264 on that card is BECAUSE it's doing the heavy lifting!

[@HardwareHaven]

Not a nitpick at all, that’s really good info. I realized I had mixed up encoding/decoding some in my script, but that’s really helpful to know! Thanks!

[@MaxUgly]

This channel is so relatable! I went through the same process of upgrading adding a GPU (GT 710 I believe) to an old Phenom system and eventually learning about h264ify to get it to finally play KZbin. I respect the attempt at replacing the DVI port. I could see myself doing the same and not getting very far, haha! As your channel grows I am sure someone will see this video and say "you put the RAM in wrong!" At least on newer PC's the slots you should use are 2 and 4 for the best signal. Not sure if this is the case in these older DDR3 machines. The machine in the video is pre XMP? I have never had a problem using 1 and 3 like you did but I often see people making the point to do otherwise. I don't normally hit the bell but I did for your channel. I am excited for your content and to see you inevitably blow up with subs!

[@HardwareHaven]

Wow thank you! That's super kind. And as far as RAM, if it's a pc I actually care about, I'll usually just check the mobo docs, but I've rarely had issues with choosing RAM slots as long as its in dual channel. Maybe worth testing though!

[@MaxUgly]

@@HardwareHaven it would be fun to test but I think you are right about dual channel and it not being important. I did kinda go down a little rabbit hole (these questions will keep me up at night, haha) and found a nice explanation/summary in the comments of a buildzoid video: -DavidtheDoom "The reason for the higher clock speed on the later dimm in a daisy chain is due to impedance matching. The same goes for terminations of Coax-communication (75 Ohm). Another interesting tech is RDRAM (Rambus) which needed termination dimms (Basically dummy dimms) to ensure proper termination. Same goes for Nintendo N64 where the black pack where the expansionpack goes is just a termination of the RAM-bus." It would also be awesome to play with some RAM-bus stuff! I know it would be a far cry from your (useful and practical) videos but would make for some sweet content. Not too many videos out there about it. I had a roommate awhile ago that hooked up an unterminated coax splitter as an extension for his TV. It took me a month of troubleshooting and calling my ISP, flashing router, etc.. to finally realize he had caused all of these dropouts in my cable internet. haha!

[@HardwareHaven]

Woah that’s crazy. Far from my level of understanding haha Could still be fun to look int

[@andrewmcewan9145]

For the ram the siginal rates where alot lower so the issues matter less. Also these prebuilt boards don't really support overclocking/xmp. Although some am3/2+ baords have a weird ram layout of a1b1a2b2 where you would want the sticks in slots 3 and 4 for overclocking purposes. Overclocking wise there is setfsb to change the clock and if I recall correctly the old amd overdrive could change ram timings on the fly. Also ram ranks make a difference up to 2. Essentially a rank is how many sides of the ram stick has chips on it with double sided being better aside from some exceptions.

[@speedsrj]

Very good to know about the codec problems! Very nice approach

[@all2funnycomments724]

@3:15 nice usage of the The Price is Right failure horn!!!! You have gained a sub.

[@AstAllianceHQ]

Please keep these videos going. Great vibes

[@HardwareHaven]

Planning on it! Just takes a lot of time on top of a full time job and all 😅

[@xero110]

Thanks for the h264ify tip. While I have a kinda powerful system, any help lowering system resources is definitely appreciated.

[@BoomChockolaca]

I didn't know the purpose of h264ify. I tried it in the past because some people were "just use it, it's better", but i never knew the real reason Great video and thanks for keeping old, still absolutely usable computers, alive

[@mistermudpie]

Back in 2008 (i think) I helped configure and build a new system for a friend. It was an AM3 platform, Asrock motherboard, Athlon II X2 240 or 245, 2GB of ram and a Gainward 8600GT. He's a light user, so I helped him maintain the system in good running order over the years but never did any upgrades. Last year he called me about some video issues and I found his old 8600GT was artifacting badly. I knew I had to fix but also upgrade his system, so I swapped the Athlon II X2 for an X4 640, gave him the exact same Asus R7 240 that I happened to have lying around, threw in a 120GB ssd, upgraded to 8GB of ram and installed Win10. The similarities to what you have here are striking, and he's also quite happy with the results!

[@abdurrashid]

Rabbit hole! You are so right!! I upgrade a lot of old OEM PCs. Use to rely on Amd r5 240 gpus as they use to still receive latest driver updates and was cheap as chips on eBay. Went through the exact same journey trying to playback KZbin 4K flawlessly. H264ify couldn’t do 4K60. This pushed me onto vp9 capable gpus and onto cheaper Nvidia Maxwell based quadro gpus. They where three times the price of the r5 240s but now you could actually game on the pc too.

[@maladamedialabs4214]

Just recently found your channel and I like it very much! Good information, good voice over, good writing and nice production values.

[@KW-oe4lq]

Love your 'Test Bench'! Given me some ideas for my own now.

[@HardwareHaven]

Hahaha nice

[@averagedev7768]

Had an old i3 2120, it uses intel hd thingy that it comes with, but when i slapped in the GT1030 in it (3y ago) and a new ssd with a fresh install of windows 10 made this pc like a brand new one, i have it as a backup system now, was impressed how much a simple thing like a new low end gpu can make the system play 4k videos with no extra effort

[@Splarkszter]

THAT H.264ify IMPROVED MY LIFE. THANK YOU!!!!!

[@antoniom.andersen6704]

Nice to see that old systems are used instead of being thrown out, nice vid. Chuck in a network card, install pfsense/opnsense and use it as a router/firewall (you may have to tinker a bit wih it if you don't use an intel network card). Another idea would be to use it as a storage server with a nas os like truenas 😁. Just some ideas in case you want to make a follow-up vid.

[@Vegetal999]

I just discovered your channel and it's wonderful

[@arahman56]

The upcoming Arc A380/A310 with AV1 support might be a pretty good fit for these old PCs. Also, for PCs like these, another option is to download the videos with yt-dlp and play them with mpv. Sometimes playing the videos without the extra browser overhead ends up making the videos run smoother.

[@Cruz1fix]

Nice! I'm gonna put a 3090ti in my grandparents PC now!

[@leightaylor8069]

The more I watch your channel, the more I like your content.

[@nixo_o]

All these videos are so cool.

[@waynerowlinson6177]

I built a computer for my friend to use in his garage for watching KZbin videos. That is the computer's only job. He has a big screen TV hooked up to a stereo and plays his music video playlist when entertaining. It has an Athlon II X3 445 (3.1 GHz), 8GB RAM, and an AMD Radeon HD 6670. It has been going strong for a couple of years now.

[@irigormo]

I have 4 old pcs, some of which need a graphics card. I didn't realize even the cheaper ones are so expensive now. I was going to take them to e-waste but maybe I'll try to bring them back. Thanks for the codec info.

[@sherwing9054]

Even my A10-6800k pc saw a great boost to viewing youtube videos when I added a gt730.

[@westongibbonmusic1334]

Fire content

[@HardwareHaven]

Thanks man!

[@Geert365]

4:42 Thanks for the info on that codec, did not know of it's existence. Somehow my gpu does not show up in task-manager, like it does here. Not sure if i notice, or placebo effect going on here. PS mentioned old you tube in other comment, maybe it uses that codec by default, then same principle , for a part at least. Hmm since i can now scrole smooth while playing video, without severe stutter, i am pretty sure this codec works for me here to (on an even lesser, but great to me card, then this one). And thanks again, forgot to back up, write down name. Long searching vids. Now thinking, maybe somehow i can search recent video's i (probably) commented on? Man oh man, but, ah well, got it now, and written it down. 218 pages otherwise to scroll through, just to be surprised at the end for all i know, there are a next 218 pages (you cannot skip directly to the end, unfortunately).

[@TheGoldgoat]

I learned h264ify from this video. I think it will help my old dual core XPS laptop, i hope.

[@andrewmcewan9145]

If i remember correctly vce is just the encode block there is a separate decode block on the gpu. The radion x1000 had some form of h264 decode acceleration all the way back in 2005. Intel chipset gpus also had h264 decode. I dont know about radeon chipset gpus but I would assume they had it as well.

[@HardwareHaven]

Yeah I accidentally got that mixed up in this one 🤦🏻‍♂️

[@andrewmcewan9145]

@@HardwareHaven Dont worry about it too much. In rdna amd has merged the blocks together. Probably why the rx6400/6500xt does not have hw decode.

[@VikingDudee]

You know if you are not afraid to get a little more custom with say that board with no full length PCIE slot, you could drimal or even cut the back of the 1x slot away and install a x16 length card into it and it will work just fine, I had a OEM system sorta like that where the onboard was dead, it was either junk the board or hack away a 1x slot and see if it was salvageable, and what do you know, the board was fine and it worked with my spare HD6770 I had at the time.

[@virtualtools_3021]

you can also use a native 1x gpu, or even hacksaw away at the 16x connector on a cheap gpu and convert it to 1x, lots of video guides on it to make sure you do it right

[@SilverX95]

i have the CQ5112F the older model and swapped out the Athlon for a phenom II x4 945 kept windows vista 32bit and kept the factory restore image on the HDD. i use that system to play all my older games with a GTX 560, smoothest vista system i ever used. always did love Compaq even though HP owned them i still think they ran there own operations shame HP nuked them along with most of there support pages.

[@HardwareHaven]

Nice! Yeah I’ve liked most of the compaq stuff I’ve come across from this time period

[@SilverX95]

@@HardwareHaven i mostly have a soft spot for them because my first pc in the late 90S was a compaq, one of those Best buy specials bundle deals. system was powerful enough to play need for speed porsche unleashed but slow enough that command and conquer red alert 2 ran slow.

[@ClayWheeler]

The H264ify add-ons is more than enough for IntelHD 3000 to be able to play KZbin 1080p 60 FPS.

[@jabezhane]

I have used the odd PCIe x1 Quadro card in the past.

[@mactep1]

i have one of these card, but with 4gb vram, never really understood its purpose.

[@dentjoener]

You can actually just cut a slit at the end of a PCIe slot and use PCIe cards with more lanes just fine. Most cards will just realize that it's an x1 slot and just work.

[@repatch43]

FWIW, if a card DOESN'T work that way it's not to spec since being PCIE certified means you support running at less than design lane width and gen. A 3090Ti should work perfectly fine in a PCIE Gen 1 x1 slot.

[@youzernejm]

I discovered h364ify when I decided to make hardware decoding run on Linux. As for the gpu, have you ever tried it under Batocera? My i3 4130 does surprisingly well, but maybe that gpu could let it upscale a bit more, or run a few ps2 titles it can't run now.

[@HardwareHaven]

I have not. I might look into it though!

[@johncate9541]

I'm surprised you even have this problem on Linux. I can stream with no stuttering on HD settings with nothing more than a C2D T9900 and a Radeon HD 4330, which is way less power than an Athlon X4 and an R7 240.

[@maynardcrow6447]

Lol I just commented on your first vid about using an GPU for encoding then I run into this vid.

[@kparserpcs6699]

even better, A older cheap gpu can also let you play older games faster.

[@MyNameIsBucket]

I also have an older HP that I was using for 32-bit stuff, that only has a PCIe x1 slot. Miraculously, I was able to find someone on FB marketplace selling a box of junk that included a GeForce GT610.

[@HardwareHaven]

Oh nice find 👍🏻

[@QuyNguyen-tz6zh]

Hey! I have heard about some x1 pcie to x16 pcie like the ones used for mining and stuff.

[@chaosisthebestsauce]

possibly put a 1030 in it? to see if that would be any better

[@floydfan2026]

I have a company cq5700f that I put a athlon ii x4 in but it only has a pcie x1 slot so I had to go with a gt 710, but it is still decent

[@SSJfraz]

You could get a used HD 7570 GDDR5 for around the same price and it wouldn't have any issues

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

You need a soldering iron hotter then the blases of HELL to desolder that dvi port. The ground plain wicks all the heat away

[@HardwareHaven]

Good to know! Thanks

[@mintymus]

@n n Glad you mentioned this, many people would potentially damage their stuff otherwise.

[@71bw]

Can't you just use a X1 riser for the Compaq?

[@HardwareHaven]

Most likely yeah!

[@kaktusseo]

I think, PCI-E x16 GPU will work in PCI-E x1 slot. You just need put it there somehow. Use PCI riser, or cut off extra board on Graphics card, or cut off extra plastic on slot, so that card will fit in.

[@AaronAlso]

While it is nice that you are saving these things from landfill E-waste. Consider that a Rasp Pi 4 [8g RAM w/EMMC - OC@2.2Ghz - in a PiTower] Would perform about the same as this decade+ dinosaur ofa PC with about 1/10th the power draw. Not that there is anything wrong with rescuing old PCs, more so to put perspective on how far the technology has come.

[@HardwareHaven]

Yeah RPis are awesome! Unfortunately they’ve become pretty expensive recently. And even when shortage stuff calms down, I imagine they’ll still be pretty pricy because they’ve become more and more popular over the years. It’s also a good learning experience to work on stuff like this in my opinion, plus it’s often easier to find compatible software and hardware and do things like add hard drives.

[@garethbeaton8414]

I got old pc and cart updat direct X can I do it off a usb stick?

[@garethbeaton8414]

WiFi is not so good on pc

[@stephanb5945]

look for : x1 to x16 riser

[@robertsteel3563]

When you were Connecting the SSD and Powering on the system I was thinking "Why is there nothing connected to the GPU?"

[@HardwareHaven]

Hahaha I'm glad you're more observant than I am

[@nashcomp]

My 2nd pc have 9800gt and 3rd have hd6450 both can handle youtube 1080p with no issues but with windows7 😄

[@nashcomp]

@n n well it just for streaming youtube and browsing sometimes retro gaming, the hardcore internet surely with my mobile phone.

[@Bxrsxrk8600]

I've got the same motherboard chipset (780g) but from lenovo , was paired to an athlon ii x2... And yes playback wasn't the best

[@protowarefuzz5894]

I need a pc like this for a server

[@kevinmasilung]

I am a Kindred spirit here.

[@HardwareHaven]

Heck yeah you are

[@isrraelchavez-martinez7220]

Oh god my friend gave me an R7 240 for free while I waited for a gpu for gaming and I pushed that thing to the limit until I got my current graphics card. It doesn't hold up well when you try to run ark survival evolved on it

[@Leoco3]

Interesting

[@KasparOnTube]

I remember when KZbin still had flash support, back in then I used Athlon XP (super oldschool, from year 2002) paired with the most modern AGP video card Radeon HD4670 and there was somewhere in settings GPU acceleration, if it was switched on that dinosaur PC run KZbin HD1080p without any question - perfectly. But when they took flash away it unfortunately barely held on 360p as HTML5 ran entirely on (very weak) cpu :( - as probably HD4670 does not support Your mentioned codec or who knows why.

[@virtualtools_3021]

h.264ify might help

[@chloedevereaux1801]

oh my fkkn days. you have put the ram in single channel..... the 2 BLUE slots are dual channel also the gpu is pcix 2 not 3

[@HardwareHaven]

I appreciate the feedback, and it actually made me want to double check that I hadn’t made an error. hwinfo64 reports that the system in this configuration is in fact in dual channel, and the GPU is operating at pcie 3.0 x8. But thanks for the concern 👍🏻

[@twizz420]

RAM IN WRONG SLOTS... WHYYYYY? Those slots are clearly not even the same colour... It's pretty hard to fuck this up It's not that hard to look up the memory config for any motherboard. It's actually pathetic how many "PC youtubers" don't have a clue how to install ram properly, then insist on showing other people how to install THEIR ram incorrectly.

[@HardwareHaven]

Yikes.. coloring isn’t always indicative of where the modules should go for dual channel. On some boards like this, it indicates the slots by channel. I even confirmed that it was running in dual channel after getting a similar content earlier today. Appreciate the comment though 👍🏻

[@shorty808100]

I’ve seen plenty of 720p 30 *( US it’s actually 29.97 FPS for HD it’s not actually 30 )* streams that look amazing I’ve even seen 1080p 25 *( EU HD standard )* look great

[@leangxd]

Old but not useless

[@ProximoNovio]

I would 100% just throw away that psu. It's not even good for parts.

[@FalcoNemises]

My gpu has no fan xd

[@jec_ecart]

How come do you get so easily & repeatedly scammed? Don't you check things before buying??

[@HardwareHaven]

I feel like I explained both situations fairly well, and I’m a lot more cautious when it’s something of more value and not for a video lol