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

[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.

 

[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.

Everything is set to 32 except my AGP video card which is set at 248. It doesn't look like this will be any help for my periodic "hitching".

 

[bluemax]

Good info... wond what it'll have to say about MY system? :Q [fear]

 

[txxxx]

Originally posted by: 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.

Everything is set to 32 except my AGP video card which is set at 248. It doesn't look like this will be any help for my periodic "hitching".

Higher timer value = more time device can hold PCI bus for. So your soundcard (if thats what's hitching) or whatever is hitching could do with a larger timer value.

 

[kryan711]

Kind of confused how to use this thing... my AGP card is set at 248 while the rest of my PCI devices are set at 32. Any ideas?

 

[The Sauce]

Nevermind, I'm an idiot.

 

[Jeff7181]

Sounds a little like a problem I've been having with TESIII: Morrowind... frame rates are in the 60-80 range, but it's choppy when I move the mouse... it's a USB mouse... change video settings and sound settings doesn't seem to effect it... I wonder if I mess with the latencies if that would help?

 

[zephyrprime]

but nothing "needs" it 248 or whatever the video was set to.

But a value of 248 only amounts to 60 microseconds so why does it matter?

 

[The Sauce]

Originally posted by: zephyrprime

but nothing "needs" it 248 or whatever the video was set to.

But a value of 248 only amounts to 60 microseconds so why does it matter?

I just tested 2 video cards one with 3.33ns ram and one with 2.86ns ram. The difference is about 600 point improvement in 3DMark03. I would argue that comared to that 0.47ns difference, 60 microseconds is quite large, in computer terms anyway.

 

[zephyrprime]

I just tested 2 video cards one with 3.33ns ram and one with 2.86ns ram. The difference is about 600 point improvement in 3DMark03. I would argue that comared to that 0.47ns difference, 60 microseconds is quite large, in computer terms anyway.

But that's not a valid relationship between terms. The PCI latency is analogous to Windows timeslice lengths not to chip clock speed.

 

[The Sauce]

Eh, it all academic for me anyway. There's no way I'm going to deal with having another application loading everytime I start windows and a bloody pop-up "Tips" box (which you cant get rid of unless you register, apparently) just to play with my PCI latencies.

 

[Chadder007]

It fixed my problems with the sound card repeating sounds every once and a while.....

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: Snatchface
Eh, it all academic for me anyway. There's no way I'm going to deal with having another application loading everytime I start windows and a bloody pop-up "Tips" box (which you cant get rid of unless you register, apparently) just to play with my PCI latencies.

There's GOTTA be another way to do it. How does power strip do it? Wouldn't be a registry setting... how bout if you just make a small bat file that does what powerstrip does, then put it in the startup folder?

 

[neutralizer]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181

Originally posted by: Snatchface
Eh, it all academic for me anyway. There's no way I'm going to deal with having another application loading everytime I start windows and a bloody pop-up "Tips" box (which you cant get rid of unless you register, apparently) just to play with my PCI latencies.

There's GOTTA be another way to do it. How does power strip do it? Wouldn't be a registry setting... how bout if you just make a small bat file that does what powerstrip does, then put it in the startup folder?

Yeah, my sound skips sometimes and I want to change the PCI latency but I don't want to run Powerstrip.

 

[kursplat]

he he . love this thread
from - wow , unbelevable , thanks -
to - this sucks , another startup item ? , got to be a better way -

put me in the later group. anyone know what powerstrip actually changes ? what and where ?

 

[grant2]

Originally posted by: 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.

Too bad he wastes so much time blabbing about other irrelevant stuff.

 

[tk149]

So, umm, for those of you who've tried this: What's the verdict?

 

[Goi]

Erm, how exactly do you select which device you want to adjust the PCI latency of? The article mentions scrollbar buttons to the right of the video card's name, but I don't see them. I do see the "Read Only" checkbox though, and I've unchecked it and changed the latency of my video card on the fly, successfully. What about the rest of the devices?

Edit: Nvm, found the buttons after looking at the screenshot, they're really sneaky...