# jumpy streaming - video card? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 24, 2010, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jumpy-streaming-video-card/537164 "2010-04-24T00:39:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![blood63](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@blood63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blood63)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jumpy-streaming-video-card/537164/1 "2010-04-24T00:39:27Z")
In the middle of the Stanley cup playoffs, I got tired of the jumpy streaming of games and upgraded both my computer and my internet. I bought a value emachines computer that has this list as its video component - GeForce 6150SE nforce 430. My internet speed is up to 6 MBps. What is the cheapest way to fix my jumpy streaming? ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jumpy-streaming-video-card/537164/2 "2010-04-24T01:09:44Z")
Get a better internet connection. You’ve got a connection that’s advertised something like “up to” 6 mbps, which isn’t particularly fast. And the “up to” is a major weasel word used by ISPs to hide the fact that you don’t actually have a dedicated 6 mbps line to your house – you’ve got to share a pipe with your neighbors at some point, and that often becomes a bottleneck if the neighborhood is oversubscribed. For example, there might be a 24mbps line to a nearby node. The ISP, in turn, sells “6mbps” service to ten customers that share that node. If the ISP does this carefully, it usually works out, since most people leave their connection idle most of the time. You might be able to upgrade your service with your current ISP. This may help, but not if ISP oversubscription was the source of your poor video streaming. The video card doesn’t matter at all for streaming video over the internet. Same thing with your computer; only the slowest and cruftiest old computers can’t handle low-resolution streaming video. Or, potentially, it could be a problem with the streaming video site if they don’t have enough bandwidth to serve video to all of their viewers. As an aside, how are you watching the playoffs? I’d like to watch, but I can’t figure out how the hell the NHL gamecenter whatchahoosit is supposed to work. I see that they advertise $20 for a “day pass” to see every game in a given day… or $20 for a month’s subscription that includes “select playoff games”. Is there a reasonably priced way to see all of the games for a given team? ---
**Author:** ![blood63](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@blood63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blood63)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jumpy-streaming-video-card/537164/3 "2010-04-24T01:47:02Z")
> [@lazybratsche](#): > > As an aside, how are you watching the playoffs? I’d like to watch, but I can’t figure out how the hell the NHL gamecenter whatchahoosit is supposed to work. I see that they advertise $20 for a “day pass” to see every game in a given day… or $20 for a month’s subscription that includes “select playoff games”. Is there a reasonably priced way to see all of the games for a given team? I use [ATDHE.com](http://ATDHE.com) Great site. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jumpy-streaming-video-card/537164/4 "2010-04-24T06:46:10Z")
Your problem is not the top speed of your internet connection - 6 Mbps is just fine - but the quality of the connection. You need to find out how much you’re actually getting, and if your ISP is throttling streaming video. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jumpy-streaming-video-card/537164/5 "2010-04-24T12:34:33Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Your problem is not the top speed of your internet connection - 6 Mbps is just fine - but the quality of the connection. You need to find out how much you’re actually getting, and if your ISP is throttling streaming video. Try [speedtest.net](http://speedtest.net). My 3 Mbs connection is plenty fast for streaming at least up to 720p. Any good streaming site should at least offer that or lower. Oh, and I have a worse video card than you. The only time I get stutters is when Firefox starts taking up more memory than it should, and start using the hard drive. (Chrome doesn’t do that, but it still a bit raw for everyday use.) ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jumpy-streaming-video-card/537164/6 "2010-04-24T13:22:15Z")
Your problem is the host. You can’t do anything about it.