Upgrade CPU or GPU to improve IE9/Flash Performance?

I have a fast internet connection, but I’m not happy with the performance I’m getting on Flash-heavy sites. I think that IE9 and Flash both employ hardware acceleration. What is the best way to take advantage of this: faster CPU, faster GPU, or a balance between them? This is for a new system, not an upgrade my current one.

 

What are the specs of your new system?

I don't want to give you a blanket answer of "the problem is X. Upgrade X" because we don't have enough information. In general, a new system will have enough CPU and GPU to handle Flash acceleration. And there could be other areas that are bottlenecking you (insufficient RAM, slow mechanical HDD, etc).

But one very simple, fast, free thing you cna try is to use a different browser. Try viewing the Flash content through Google Chrome. That browser tends to be faster at rendering Flash-heavy sites and JavaScript-heavy sites than Internet Explorer.

 

I’m shopping for a new system so there are a lot options. All things being equal, will IE9/Flash hardware acceleration benefit most from a faster CPU, GPU, or a balance between them? What about dual core vs. quad core? What about AMD Fusion vs. Intel? My objective is to get the best IE9/Flash performance I can, not to switch browsers.

 

I've seen Fusion dual core running a 1080p flash video with no stuttering. Just about anything you buy as long as it is no more than 2 generations old will play flash fine. You would not benefit from a quad core in flash unless you have a thousand programs open at once (slight exaggeration), so dual core will be enough.

Why don't you post a few models you're looking at, or better yet, post in the "help me buy a new laptop" forum and fill out the form. Make sure to include the information on flash that you discussed here and people over there will help you find your next laptop for a great price.

 

In general, CPU / GPU doesn't matter for Flash hardware acceleration... especially for a new system (that isn't a netbook). The reason is because any new system you buy will be "good enough" to adequately run Flash applications and Flash-based video.

Flash acceleration specficially depends on the GPU more than the CPU. The lowest-end GPU you can find in a new system is going to be Intel integrated graphics. But the laptops you can buy with a modern Intel CPU (Core i3 / i5 / i7 CPU) will have integrated graphics (Intel HD2000 / HD3000) that is more than adequate for running Flash acceleration.

I still think you're barking up the wrong tree by assuming that getting a better CPU / GPU will help your problem.

* If your single problem is that playback of Flash video is lagging or out-of-sync, and you have an older system (4+ years old), then yes, getting a new machine with a faster CPU / GPU will probably help.

* If your problem is anything except that one specific issue mentioned above, then the right answer may not be to get a new laptop. If the webpage you are visiting lags in general, seems slow to render, or "lags" when you're scrolling up/down; if you own a laptop that was made within the past 4 years; if you own a laptop with a decent CPU (Intel Core 2 Duo or Core i3/i5/i7) and GPU (AMD / ATI Radeon or nVidia), then you probably just need to switch web browsers.

Seriously, before you do anything else, try using Google Chrome. It's a fast, free, easy way to check whether your problem is hardware related or browser-related. Microsoft Internet Explorer is notoriously slow (even newer versions) compared to Google Chrome... which is why you rarely see a hardcore tech nerd using Microsoft IE, or even Firefox these days. They are all using Google Chrome.

 

I thought that IE9 had some serious hardware acceleration. It’s supposed to much faster than previous versions and as fast or faster than the competition. Is that incorrect?

 

Yes, it is true that Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 is faster than previous versions of MSIE 8 and below.

However, it is still not as fast as its competition - especially Google Chrome. Google Chrome still blows it out of the water when it comes to responsiveness and user experience. Check out this quick video I made a few minutes ago demonstrating this:

MSIE9 vs Google Chrome - YouTube

Seriously, try Google Chrome. It takes 3 minutes to install Google Chrome and test it on a few formerly laggy and Flash-heavy websites. And in those 3 minutes, you will know whether you will need to spend $1000+ on new hardware or not.

Do it.

 

That, regardless of whether you like chrome or not, you can at least use it to determine the root of your issue.

 

Thanks for the info about Google Chrome but I really don’t want to install it. However, I would like information about IE9 and Flash. They both have hardware acceleration. I’ve never seen any benchmarks for them. As a point of interest, is the acceleration based on the CPU, GPU, or both?

 

"Hardware acceleration" refers to GPU-based acceleration. The idea is that video playback and decoding is handled more efficiently by a GPU than a CPU, because the GPU was specifically designed to handle the types of calculations required in video playback / decoding.

It is completely your decision for what you want to do. But I just want to make you aware that the problem is most likely related to the efficiency of the browser's rendering engine (software), and not related to the power of the underlying CPU / GPU hardware.

I know that you are considering buying a new laptop. But your current laptop has more than enough power to handle hardware accelerated Flash-based video playback (Core i5 CPU, AMD Radeon 6370M GPU). And if your current laptop stutters and chokes, then the problem is not hardware related. Even if you could magically snap your fingers and somehow magically upgrade to the world's fastest CPU (Intel Core i7-3960X Sandy Bridge E CPU) and the world's fastest GPU (AMD Radeon 7990), you are likely to still encounter stuttering if the problem is indeed related to an inefficient browser engine. The only difference is that you'd be encountering the same stuttering on more expensive hardware. I just want to make you aware of that, to set the expectation that buying a new laptop may not solve your problem.

So, I'll leave it at that. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

I'll try to answer simply to your question - get faster CPU and somewhat medium performance GPU.

 

LMAO!

Why???
Use Firefox or Chrome if current browser lags. That is like washing hands if they became dirty. You don't cut them off, right?

More information? IE sucks. Notepad sucks. Windows Media Player sucks. Master of deleting programs sucks. What microsoft' built-in soft did I miss?