3DsoundSurge FAQ Manager v1.0: I’ve heard about PCI bus hogging by video cards


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3DsoundSurge FAQ Manager Version 1.0

F.A.Q: General Audio FAQs

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4. I’ve heard about PCI bus hogging by video cards – what is that all about? - Top

This information taken and modified from the excellent document available here:

http://www.zefiro.com/vgakills.txt

A good number of VGA card manufacturers are squeezing out a few extra points on their benchmarking scores by locking up the PCI bus. This is fine for graphics and most systems on the PC (hard disks and such) don't even notice the problem.... Unfortunately this can hurt the audio system in a big way. Most audio cards use ISA/DMA to trickle samples over the bus one word at a time. Even PCI cards can be hurt by this problem because they trickle the data over the bus in tiny transfers. When another device illegally locks up the bus for more than 1/88200th of a second, there's a good chance you will lose audio samples resulting an a glitch in the recording or playback.

This glitching can appear in the form of brief, silent pauses in the sound, as well as crackling or popping sounds. This is NOT the fault of the sound card! This is not even the fault of the VGA card... it is in fact the fault of the VGA driver.

For more information on this, and ways to look into fixing it, be sure to read the entire article at the link above. - Updated: November 29, 1999

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Everything that we can't find a specific home for.

4. I’ve heard about PCI bus hogging by video cards – what is that all about? - Top: This information taken and modified from the excellent document available here:

http://www.zefiro.com/vgakills.txt

A good number of VGA card manufacturers are squeezing out a few extra points on their benchmarking scores by locking up the PCI bus. This is fine for graphics and most systems on the PC (hard disks and such) don't even notice the problem.... Unfortunately this can hurt the audio system in a big way. Most audio cards use ISA/DMA to trickle samples over the bus one word at a time. Even PCI cards can be hurt by this problem because they trickle the data over the bus in tiny transfers. When another device illegally locks up the bus for more than 1/88200th of a second, there's a good chance you will lose audio samples resulting an a glitch in the recording or playback.

This glitching can appear in the form of brief, silent pauses in the sound, as well as crackling or popping sounds. This is NOT the fault of the sound card! This is not even the fault of the VGA card... it is in fact the fault of the VGA driver.

For more information on this, and ways to look into fixing it, be sure to read the entire article at the link above. - Updated: November 29, 1999