New video card needed?

after checking the specs of the Dell Dimension 3000 i'm not astonished that you experience serious lagging when watching streaming TV or videos.

the chipset i865 that has an integrated extreme graphics 2 is that old i not even can remember the graphics specs of it (even i900 series chipsets with integrated graphics are pretty weak).

as this computer only has PCI expansion slots your upgrade opportunities are very limited. fitting graphics cards are still sold for the same price as 4 years ago. the best bet for your computer might be this one

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...

If the Video you are watching keeps stopping every 2 Minutes for about 30 Seconds it means it is buffering. Buffering is where the video has to load before you can watch it. This happens if it is online videos. Sometimes it buffers at the start of movies on your computer too but thats only the one time. If it keeps doing it and the picture stops when you are watching from your hard drive then yes you need a new video card. But don't bother buying one. Go to Search on your start menu and type in device manager. Then find your video card driver (in one of the sub menus) double click it and click update.

Try downloading a complete video of same quality and play from the computer (preferably with same media player - WMP for media player plug-ins, Divx player for divx movies..etc). If it is still slow, it is a hardware issue. It may be anything from RAM/Video card/even mother board.

Other wise it should be the internet issue. Try connecting the computer using ethernet cable from router or directly from modem, in case if you have been using wireless. Sometimes switching off-on or resetting modem and router may improve.

This often happens to me and this is course of the sites load. Its not up to your computer since you don't need much in graphics to watch a streaming video.

But its a different thing if you are watching streaming hd videos.