Hardware or soft causing my browser to lag?

[kn1012]

I'm not sure whether it's hardware- probably- or software. Please give me your input whether my hardware specs may be the cause of browser unresponsiveness; and if software, any tweaks or tips you know of that may help. Specs:

Athlon X2 3800+ 2.0 GHz
3 GB DDR2-800 MHz

300 GB (Maxtor 3B300S0 sATA), 7200 RPM, 16 MB cache; Win7 install 2 days old
128 MB AGP 8X Quadro FX-500 video, 1280x1024 resolution (Microsoft says 128mb should be enough for my resolution)

450 Watt power

System not overclocked, should be adequately cooled, and I've disabled all Aero enhancements on Windows 7.

Thanks!

Is it just a slow video card?

 

[kn1012]

Oh- in case it helps, I'm on a wired connection (wireless router) over a secured network. Though, the issue seems more hardware of software than connectivity problems-- I'm not an expert though so who knows!

 

[supasieu]

It could be hardware since those spec are little old and maybe infected with Viruses/Adware.

 

[kn1012]

Hi! Yeah- they are pretty old, like 4 generations old I think, considering the Athlon has been succeeded by the Athlon II and Phenom, to the APUs etc.

And the graphics cared was probably a champ in its heyday but I got it foe like 15 bucks on ebay. I think that could be the culprit, but I'm not sure. I'd really appreciate any constructive feedback you or anyone could give about whether I could fix the lags, or will need a better GPU or CPU.

 

[supasieu]

If you're on budget and still want to spend time to work on your current computer lagging issue. I suggest a few options:
1. Scan for viruses/adware/rootkit.
2. Hardware diag (memtest for ram, seatools for hdd).
3. Scan system file (tweaking.com have some useful tools).

Hope this helps,