Laggy HD playback..

[nateallen84]

Starting to get some laggy playback on .MKv videos. My cpu is an old AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+, 2611 MHz. I was wondering if I could replace it with a AMD Phenom x4 9650 2.3GHz Quad Core Socket AM2+ 2MB 95W and just do a straight up swap? No new mobo or anything..? My mobo is also an old ASrock N68c--S UCC.. Just looking for some smoother playback on these high quality HD videos..

[Cornucopia]

Was it not laggy before (with same CPU)?

What storage media is it on?

Background processes?

Scott

[hello_hello]

You might be better off with a GPU that can decode. If I've clicked and followed the right links, it seems your onboard GPU can't.
(Nvidia PureVideo) http://www.nvidia.com/object/mobo_gpu_tech_specs.html

The MB has a PCI-e slot though, so you could add a card. I know nothing about ATI but Nvidia cards from around the Geforce 7000 era can decode h264. The 8 year old 8600GT in this PC does the job nicely. You could probably pick up a second hand card of similar vintage for slightly less than not much.

There's a list of old cards here and their decoding capabilities. A tick in the column labelled "H.264 Decode Acceleration with IDCT and CAVLC/CABAC" would be preferable. Without it they can't do all the decoding work, or not any of it, as the case may be. For h265 decoding, you'd need a fairly recent card. http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo_support.html

I don't know much about player options, aside from MPC-HC. It's internal video decoder can be configured to use Nvidia Cuvid. MPC-HC no longer supports DXVA for XP (assuming that's what you're running), but Cuvid works well for me. I think MPC-BE might still support DXVA on XP. I'd have to check.

[themaster1]

A good 2nd hand graphic card from nvidia should be more than enough i say (Gtx 560 / Kepler).
With that mobo you can go up to a 6 cores Phenom II X6 2.8 Ghz.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/NVIDIA/N68C-S%20UCC/index.fr.asp?cat=CPU

[nateallen84]

It was never laggy before. I have a NVidia GeForce GTX 560TI. Started going laggy when I switched from a 47" LED 3D tv to a 65" LED tv, this pc is only used to play movies on my tv thats all. Would going from a medium sized tv to a large tv make any difference? So installing a new chip will be worth it or no?

[Keyser]

I don't think the problem is your CPU. I own a humble Pentium G630 (dual core 2.7 GHz) and I have no trouble playing 1920x1080 HEVC x265 videos with a CPU load of "only" 35-40%.