PCI Latency for Maximum Performance

Dolphin · Post by **Dolphin** » Sun Mar 24, 2002 2:48 am

Hello to everybody - I am new to this forum.

I am using a Pulsar II in XTC-Mode on a Gigabyte GA7DXR, Athlon 1,4, 512 MB, Cubase VST and Win98 - I tried XP as well but got worse performance

My max. number of Masterverbs (before PCI-Overflow) is 4. That seems a little "weak" to me. I don't need so many MVs - I just use this as a performance test! On the infinite-vortex-site I read, that it is one possibility to set the PCI-Latency of the Pulsar-IRQ (No. 5) as high as possible. Right now it is only 32. But in my Award-BIOS (latest update) there is no way to change this. I searched the web for any tweak-utility but could not find any program that can do this for the GA7DXR. Can you help me? Is there any other way to tweak my system?

Regards,
Uwe

remixme · Post by **remixme** » Sun Mar 24, 2002 3:16 am

Have you heard of a device known as wpcredit? You can use this on the actual pulsar card to set the pci latency timer.
To how you want it.
Obtain the program from
http://www.viahardware.com/download/WPC ... cre12a.exe
Once in the program press Cntrl-D and select the pulsar card, which will be listed as 'other multimedia'
It appears that on any pci card (on my KT133A chipset series KT133 should work too.), the register you need to change is at offset:OD usually the hex value for pulsar reads 20 this stands for a pci latency timer of 32. Change to 40 for 64 clocks or 80 for 128 clocks.
Be sure to exit all pulsar background projects and software first though.
You don't need to reboot, as the setting works on a one per session basis.
You need to use wpcrset to make it more permanent.
I know this is not for the faint hearted, so save initial setting before changing.
Ask for more help if required.
you can check if the pci latency change has been succesful by using sisoft sandra.
If this doesn't work for your particular chipset, I can suggest an alternative solution but try this first.

Good luck

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: remixme on 2002-03-24 03:19 ]</font>

Dolphin · Post by **Dolphin** » Sun Mar 24, 2002 5:26 am

Thank you very much for your help - it really worked !!!

Unfortunately it did not solve the problem

I have changed my pci-latency to 128 (tried 64 before) but still have some scratches with a Ulli of 7ms (less is worse and with 13ms I get less scratches but hearable delay). If you have any other suggestion, I will really appreciate that. But apparently the GA7DXR is not a top-performer ...

Dolphin · Post by **Dolphin** » Sun Mar 24, 2002 5:29 am

... and of course the number of mv I can load still is 4. Then I get the pci-overload-warning.

remixme · Post by **remixme** » Sun Mar 24, 2002 5:45 am

Okay not to worry there are few more tricks to try. I don't know how much experience you have problem solving so I apologise if I patronise in any way.
Your gigabyte MB uses a AMD 761 chipset, do you have all the lastest drivers installed for it? Technically speaking although not a top performer should perform better than the Via chipset in my machine, I can load five masterverbs with all my tweaks applied.

What other cards do you have in your system; are using Windows 98 > Right click on my computer >properties > devies > look for the option view IRQ resources by connection.
Then list what IRQ's are being used by particular devices in your next post.

USB - causes strange clicks on mine under heavy dsp load. So disable in the bios if possible.
Disable any unused printer/serial ports.
Then if it isn't solved after that, there are other things things that can be tried.
See how you go with that lot first!

[Also other pulsarians with experience with the amd 761 chipset might want to offer their experience]

Dolphin · Post by **Dolphin** » Sun Mar 24, 2002 6:14 am

OK - let's give it another try. I think, that I have a quite good experience with PC so that we can try "weird" things as well

My Pulsar uses IRQ5 alone (only together with ACPI IRQ-Holder). I use a ELSA Gladiac 511 PCI (dual head) on IRQ 11. On IRQ 10 I use a TV-Card. No other pci-cards used. The onboard sound is Bios-disabled. USB cannot be unabled as I need it for my internet-access. The TV-Card could be removed, but I had the problem with the 4 mv also before I installed this card in my system.

All IRQs:

0 System Time
1 101/102 Keyboard
2 programmable Interupt controller
3 Com2
4 Com1
5 ACPI IRQ-Holder
5 Pulsar2
6 Standard Disc-Drive
7 LPT1
8 CMOS Systemclock
9 SCI IRQ used by ACPI-Bus
10 Hauppauge TV-Card
10 ACPI IRQ-Holder
11 ELSA Gladiac
11 ACPI IRQ-Holder
11 Win95-98 Promise Ultra100 IDE-Controller
11 VIA Tech 3038 PCI/USB Controller
11 VIA Tech 3038 PCI/USB Controller
12 Cordless PS/2 Mouse
13 Numeric coprocessor
14 VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller
14 Primary IDE Controller (dual fifo)
15 VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller
15 Secondary IDE Controller (dual fifo)

The bios is updated with the latest flash. Do you have any idea?

remixme · Post by **remixme** » Sun Mar 24, 2002 7:15 am

Well, I think alot of pulsarians would tell you that a AGP graphics card is a must. Because the pulsar needs a lot of the pci bus.
You might want to try temporarily disabling USB in the bios, see if it makes any difference to the clicks at 7ms, then you might eliminate it as the cause of the problem.
Download sisoft sandra, if you don't already have it, and using the 'PCI, AGP and card busses' module, look at the latency timers of the other cards.
If any of them are above 32 or 64, then lower them using wpcredit.
Here is the PCR file needed to edit your motherboard settings, http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/chris.day/amd761.zip
Load it into wpcredit.
I'm just gonna check what settings are best to change so after you've done all the above let me know with a post.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: remixme on 2002-03-24 07:18 ]</font>

Dolphin · Post by **Dolphin** » Sun Mar 24, 2002 7:50 am

OK - maybe I have to go for an AGP-Card ...

Earlier today you mentioned this program wpcrset which is necessary to fix the changes made with wpcredit (otherwise I loose my settings after every reboot). Where do I get this program? Can you mail it to me? If so, my e-mail-adress is uwe.sunkel@onlinehome.de.

Thank you

darolek · Post by **darolek** » Sun Mar 24, 2002 9:52 am

Here you are

http://www.viahardware.com/download/wpresourcepage.shtm

Dolphin · Post by **Dolphin** » Tue Mar 26, 2002 11:28 am

Sorry, that I didn't answer earlier.

I changed my graphic card to an AGP - Matrox Millenium 550. Changed Pulsar2 to IRQ10. Uninstalled my TV-Card. Clocked IRQ10 to 64clocks (with wpcredit and wpcrset - thank you remixme ...).

And no guess what: nothing has changed at all !!! Still max. 4 Masterverbs and nothing else. So the reason must (!) be the GA 7DXR.

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Tue Mar 26, 2002 11:40 am

I had a VIA board before this one, I thought the tweaks could solve the problems, they didn't. Sold it, got an Intel chipset.

Rob van Berkel · Post by **Rob van Berkel** » Wed Mar 27, 2002 12:49 am

On 2002-03-26 11:40, at0mic wrote:
I had a VIA board before this one, I thought the tweaks could solve the problems, they didn't. Sold it, got an Intel chipset.

I did the same. Didn't stop me from tweaking though, but I have no problems whatsoever anymore.

Rob

Morphium · Post by **Morphium** » Tue Apr 16, 2002 6:18 am

Hmmm.. strange. I get 7 w/o problems on the DXR without any specific tweaks. The problem must be somewhere else.