An excellent read on PCI latency issues - any PC tweaker should read this.

[The Sauce]

Psst. In here.

 

[Budman]

Nice link Snatchface,very informative indeed. :light:

 

[Trevelyan]

Hm.... downloading powerstrip now...

 

[Trevelyan]

Anyone else have a comment on this? I'm interested in other people's opinions on this.

 

[Trevelyan]

EDIT: Holy crap... my first double post evar.

 

[RaiderJ]

Very informative. For those who have had latency problems, what chipset are you using? I'm using a VIA chipset, and will never do so again! I've had no end of latency issues.

 

[panhead49]

if you took a poll ......im sure you would find "other" chipsets are plauged by latency problems too.....its just people like to jump on the bash via bandwagon.....

 

[madthumbs]

No problems with latency since dumping all Creative hardware. I use Powerstrip for custom resolutions (for HDTV) anyway. For us htpc users, powerstrip is a "must have"!

 

[The Sauce]

It seems like VIA just popularized the PCI latency issue viz-a-viz all the trouble with their chipsets and Creative sound cards. However, I agree. From reading the article it seems as if there are a potential myriad of problems that can be caused by suboptimal timings on any chipset that people are just not aware of.

 

[ET2nuke]

That is definitely a good link- tho I tend toward the network- related ones more, myself. Particularly the one about WinXP and deleting other computers' passwords eliminating the aggravating wait when networking with non-XP pcs. Any ideas why this works as it seems to???? (RUN: cmd; control userpasswords2; then delete all entries)

 

[Trevelyan]

So what SHOULD I set the PCI latency to for my Sound card, network card, and video card?

Is higher always better?

 

[The Sauce]

Originally posted by: Trevelyan
So what SHOULD I set the PCI latency to for my Sound card, network card, and video card?

Is higher always better?

Good question. I was kinda hoping someone here would calrify how to adjust these as well. It's not clear from the article but I think he implies that lower is better (as he seems to have adjusted them all down). But I'm not sure. I'll try to run a search and figure that out at some point. I thought maybe powerstrip would have some documentation on that.

 

[eGAK]

Perhaps the information is within Phil's text;

"I discovered the likely source of my hitching problems: my video card's PCI latency was at 248, my network device's value was 128, and my poor Audigy 2 sound card was set at 32. In other words, the video card and network card could easily hog the PCI bus to the point whereat my sound card might not be able to keep up with the load. PowerStrip makes it a simple matter to set those values to 80, 32, and 64 respectively. "

George Breeze's VIA IDE patch is set for 96, I believe.

 

[FPSguy]

Thanks OP! I have a GA-7VAX motherboard (the author of the article had a GA-7VAXP) and I have noticed "hitches" in Windows periodically. I'll have to see if this helps.

 

[magomago]

I too read the article and it isn't clear on what the settings should be.

Either way I have a nfroce2 mobo and I connect to the net using a modem and I'm hoping this'll solve a lot of my woes (and my modem is the ONLY thing plugged into the pci slots - hell the only other thing attached would be the videocard)


uhh I only find where to adjust stuff for my videocard...i can adjust its latency (which is at 248 atm)

but where do i adjust something else such as the modem?

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

I've been playing around with this today, not sure I can see a benefit yet or not. I assume you'd want to raise the latency of components you want to have a higher priority on the bus, lower the ones you don't, or are perhaps too high and hogging it. Right now mine looks like:
video card - 128
sound card - 64
IDE controller- 64
modem - 32
NIC - 32
USB - 32

And for those that haven't seen how to change devices in PS, at the top there are arrows in the right of the row where the video card is listed.

 

[neutralizer]

are the settings registry encoded or do i have leave powerstrip running everytime i boot up winxp?

and are the effects instant or do they require reboot? cuz if i want to test all the settings with reboot, that would take a long time to find optimal.

btw ppl do this, post system specs, i might have similar specs and that might shorten my time to find an optimum setting.

 

[Sideswipe001]

The value is a timer. It's how long a device will use the PCI bus, preventing another device from using it.

The studdering comes from a device waiting for another device to finish using the bus. Some devices do need it longer than others - but nothing "needs" it 248 or whatever the video was set to.

So yes, lower is generally better.

By the way - if you use onboard stuff, this isn't an issue for some reason. My onboard network card and sound both didn't even have a value.

 

[Jeff7181]

I don't understand how higher latency gives higher priority to devices... ?

*EDIT* Nevermind... good explanation right before I posted this =)

 

[OverVolt]

I'll see if it'll help my 3DMark2k1 score... it's low for my systm, will post result tom.

 

[txxxx]

HANG ON !!!!!!!!!! Isnt the AGP bus seperate from that of the PCI bus, therefore its 248 latency timer wouldnt effect PCI bus performance?

 

[AnMig]

anybody else know of any free software to tweak the PCI bus?
I have been using rage3dtweak past 2-3 years and have gotten used to this.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: txxxx
HANG ON !!!!!!!!!! Isnt the AGP bus seperate from that of the PCI bus, therefore its 248 latency timer wouldnt effect PCI bus performance?

It would if he was using a PCI video card =)

 

[zmzhang]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181

Originally posted by: txxxx
HANG ON !!!!!!!!!! Isnt the AGP bus seperate from that of the PCI bus, therefore its 248 latency timer wouldnt effect PCI bus performance?

It would if he was using a PCI video card =)

My gforce 2 GTS comes up with a latency of 248 and it's agp. I was thinking about that. They should be seperate.

 

[FPSguy]

Originally posted by: FPSguy
Thanks OP! I have a GA-7VAX motherboard (the author of the article had a GA-7VAXP) and I have noticed "hitches" in Windows periodically. I'll have to see if this helps.