My computer currently is pretty choppy when it comes to playing 720p files (encoded with x264). I was going to upgrade my PC's RAM, and I'm wondering if anyone can tell me if it should be able to play such high definition files after the upgrade. My processor is 2.66GHz, and I'm currently only at 512MB RAM. I just have a standard 128MB video card. I was going to upgrade to 1.28GB RAM (switch one of the 256MB RAM for a 1GB one). The one I am thinking of getting is a "1GB DDR2 240-Pin Memory". Do you think that would work any better, or does anyone have another suggestion that could speed my PC up a bit? Thanks.
You should be buying two new matching modules so as to run them as DDR, which is probably what you have. At least verify that your board can handle DDR2 (rather than just DDR) before buying any. Fact is though that RAM isn't that important when it comes to video playback since only a few frames need to be loaded into memory at a time. I would still recommend 1GB of ram for a 2k/XP based system. You could try CoreAVC, which is about the most efficient AVC decoder around. Should be cheaper, although I am not sure that they ever released a trial version. Not sure what the best CPU your MB supports, but a Pentium D935 isn't that much more than a 1GB DDR2 kit (less than 2GB's of DDR2 667). That and CoreAVC would certainly give you the grunt to decode a 720p stream.
