PCI Bus Latency. More or less?

[Coki]

On the ASUS P3B-F I have the PCI latency to 32.

What's faster more latency or less?

Sometimes I have sound card problems(sound is distorted). So I was told to change the PCI latency to another value. Because at 100mhz at 1/3 divider it was at 32. But now at 133Mhz bus at 1/4 divider. I think I need another timing value to help the sound card.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[Vrangel]

I'd say less latency is faster, but its unlikely to solve soundcard problem.
Usually its a driver or IRQ problem. Check if soundcard shares IRQ.
If yes ,then try it in a different slot.

 

[Peter]

Not quite - PCI master latency setting is a fairness feature.

The number designates for how many PCI cycles a device may keep the bus and transfer data, before releasing the bus for others to grab it.

Meaning that with higher values, a single device may transfer longer blocks of data. The cost of that is that other devices that transfer a constant flow of small amounts of data (like soundcards) may be thrown off their rails.

Now as system BIOS offers only one global setting for all PCI devices, it might work either way - maybe the sound card can't transfer enough, which would mean a higher latency is needed. Or some other PCI card grabs the bus for too long, meaning lower latency would help.

Regards, Peter