low end video card - need advice

[hossdaddy]

how much ram does the pc have? Is there lots of room on the hd?

[ccm001]

Originally Posted by frontier204

What's the integrated graphics platform, I/O, and CPU on the computer?

The GPU "acceleration" in Flash games is so dodgey (especially now that Adobe doesn't care about it anymore) that you're more likely getting hit by a CPU or even I/O bottleneck. Any DX10 capable graphics platform can acccelerate flash, whether it be a GeForce 8400GS or a GTX 690. (See: GPUs supporting Adobe Flash 10.1) Something I learned recently from switch from an SSD back to a HDD was that the hard disk can cause what looks like frame skipping in a browser on Flash-heavy sites (I soo hope my new SSD will arrive tomorrow!)

Do they happen to have 10 tabs (or malware toolbars) open when they play? Is the computer running a hard drive that's never been defragged in the 3 years you've owned the computer? If so, "there's yer problem!"

It's a Dell computer. They have a "generic intel motherboard", g33 chipset, intel gma 3100 on board graphics, intel core2quad q8300 2.5ghz (socket lga775) with 4gig ddr2-800 ram.

Not sure about the state of the hard drive. I'll have to have it defragged - but I know it hasn't been 3 years since defragging, I've done it but I just can't remember when. There's lots of room on the drive. It was a 1tb drive and they hardly use the computer.

I always keep things/processes running in the background to a minimum for them - it's a habit when I go visit I disable unneccesary start ups, browser toolbars/plug-ins, etc.

Flash has been upgraded, that's the first thing I tried.

For under $50 I might just try a basic vid card for them and see - maybe a Christmas present