Does disabling drivers improve performance?

bshole

Diamond Member
Mar 12, 2013
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I recently built my own computer with top of the line compenents. The motherboard came with its own ethernet port, graphics and sound support. I installed separate NIC, sound and graphics cards. I left support enabled for the motherboard ethernet/video/audio in BIOS and Windows 7. Would it improve performance of the system if I disabled support for these unused motherboard features?
 
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Bubbaleone

Golden Member
Nov 20, 2011
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There isn't any performance to be gained by disabling unused device drivers. If there's a conflict between onboard and peripheral drivers that requires one or the other to be disabled would be the only reason.
 
Nov 26, 2005
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I'm not expert but the drivers could be on a Deferred Procedure Call otherwise known as DPC. The latencies involved with DPC are most discussed by Audio-philes. Depending on what you do, there could be a noticeable difference if turned off.
 

bshole

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Mar 12, 2013
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Well I left both enabled. When I watch movies, no problem. When I play video games, at random intervals (minutes apart) I get a short static noise. The sound card I got wouldn't fit into the motherboard until I flipped the EMI shield so I am wondering if I am getting EMI distortion.
 

Sheep221

Golden Member
Oct 28, 2012
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I disabled all mobo devices I don't use, it less complicates stuff when I reinstall system so I don't need to install drivers for them. Today it doesn't do much performance-vise. Every connected device present within system uses the so called IRQ address, which means this device has fixed reserve in system performance and memory, but with present day fast computers and huge amounts of RAM and better motherboard drivers and operating systems, it won't increase performance if you disable them.
 

denis280

Diamond Member
Jan 16, 2011
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There isn't any performance to be gained by disabling unused device drivers. If there's a conflict between onboard and peripheral drivers that requires one or the other to be disabled would be the only reason.
I agree with Bubba on this.
 

sidexman

Junior Member
Mar 20, 2013
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I'm not a professional. I think it doesn't matter if you will disabled or enabled some other unused features of your mother board. It depends on the specs of your RAM if it can handle many devices.
 

bshole

Diamond Member
Mar 12, 2013
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Actually the question has kind of changed. What would cause random static sounds during video games. Is it EMI? I am thinking about hooking up to the motherboard sound and see if I get the same static sounds. They are irritating, especially considering that I spend 170 dollars on the sound card alone.