In overview, the various embodiments provide methods implemented by a processor executing a DASH client on a receiver device for determining when, in view of a change in the receiver device's resources (e.g., bandwidth, battery power, etc.), to cancel or abandon downloading the current segment at the current representation and restart download of the current segment at a different representation to meet one or more performance objectives and/or optimizations related to the change in the receiver device's resources. In various embodiments, the receiver device processor may perform a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether switching representations during the ongoing download of the current segment will benefit the performance of the receiver device, and the receiver device processor may switch representations in response to determining that switching representations would improve the performance of the receiver device.