PCI Overflow Help

YiannisK · Post by **YiannisK** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 7:06 pm

Hi People I'm sorry if this has come up before but after many hours

(days actually) of reading posts here and searching the net, I thought I would ask for some help here on PZ.

I get PCI overflow messages but my dsp meter is below 20%.
Can't work like this when i need to use more dev.s

I read on one of the posts about the Masterverb test and I tried it out and my conclusion is that something is not right. I would get 8 MV and on the 9th i would get PCI Overflow ( for 30 dsp's I don't think thats right)

I have:
Asus P4T533-c 2.8 Ghz
1gig Rdram (samsung 1066)
Matrox G550 VGA
2 x Scope 15 Dsp Type 2
Adaptec ultra 320 controller with 2 seagate 15k Hardrives
Running in Standard PC WinXP SP 1

I have updated the latest drivers for the graffics card.

I have read through the help files of CW and tried some tweeks with pci latency timing to 64 in the bios but no change.

I then noticed that one CW card was on the same IRQ as my (OnBOARD) Network controller.

I then set the irq's of my cards to somethine else but the network controller would follow ever change i would do.

How can I get the Cards to be on their own irq's?????

I don't want to go on and on making this a long post, so If anyone would give my some pointers on how to tweek my system to get more out of my CW cards that would be great.

Again sorry if this has come up before.

Thanks

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 7:18 pm

The only way you can change IRQ is to change the slot. At least that's the only way I've ever been able to do it.

Also SCSI is a big PCI hog.

husker · Post by **husker** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 7:52 pm

Yes, my pick would be the Adaptec 320 will be hogging the PCI bus. SATA is really a better option for a workstation as it completely bypasses the PCI bus. Probably not what you want to hear with your expensive 15K drives and SCSI controller

Post by **garyb** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 9:58 pm

meaning no disrespect, just my initial thoughts...

yeah, those drives are really overkill. they're expensive and regular ide drives will give plenty of tracks for audio, although video would be another matter.

likely the network adaptor isn't having a problem, because you're probably not using it while you're making music. a shared irq problem would result in a freeze or crash. the scsi card is the most likely pci bandwidth abuser. why do you need scsi? do you need more than 40 tracks simultanious playback?

perhaps if you also do video, and really need the raid array, this would be a good time to get another computer....as an audio box, a computer with a scope card in charge of the pci bus is a beautiful thing.

synthetic88 · Post by **synthetic88** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 9:44 am

husker wrote:SATA is really a better option for a workstation as it completely bypasses the PCI bus.

Does SATA also provide less strain on the PCI buss than motherboard-based IDE?

Herr Voigt · Post by **Herr Voigt** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 9:47 am

PCI overflow and DSP overflow a two completely different things.
You'll get PCI overflow if you use more MV's simultaneously, delays or big sample banks. Also if you use many audio tracks simultaneously, as GaryB says.
Scope's synths, mixers, other effects like choruses, distortions etc. etc. don't affect the PCI bus. You can use them until your card is "full".

husker · Post by **husker** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 12:53 pm

synthetic88 wrote:
husker wrote:SATA is really a better option for a workstation as it completely bypasses the PCI bus.
Does SATA also provide less strain on the PCI buss than motherboard-based IDE?

Motherboard based IDE will skip the PCI bus also

Some motherboard based network adaptors will skip the PCI bus (not all)

valis · Post by **valis** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 3:29 pm

He can go into the Adaptec SCSI bios on boot and lower the transfer rate that the cards operate at. 40 Mb/s or even a bit less should give enough PCI bandwidth to scope. This is going to remove any benefit of running RAID though (unless he's running a redundant array for data security).

I agree with the above posts that u320 SCSI RAID is mostly unnecessary for modern audio work, unless of course you're mixing 100+ tracks of 96k/192k audio in broadcast format.

synthetic88 · Post by **synthetic88** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 3:45 pm

I used to run a post studio, and found that audio is actually more taxing on a drive than video. A video file is one big file that runs linearly. Even a cutty video is going to have long stretches of just playback. And it's only going to play one video clip at a time, possibly two if dissolves are unrendered, with eight tracks of audio tops.

A post audio project would have a dialog clip or twenty, then a gunshot, while 10 layers of music, traffic, car bys and crickets play in the background. Oh, and video streaming on top of that. The drives are constantly skipping around trying to keep up, playing 48 or more streams simultaneously. So depending on your needs, the hard drive system he described is not overkill. Perhaps you can house it in an external FireWire case, which should have enough bandwidth to handle the load. You may have to stripe them as a RAID server.

YiannisK · Post by **YiannisK** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 11:33 am

Thanks for everyones input on this issue first of all.

I had a long conversation with Ali (CW represantative based here in Canada for you who don't know) and basically I am going to do some test to see how I can get a better pci bandwidth.

Removal of my scsi controller ( temperarly) and instatall Win XP SP2 on a IDE drive.
Then install Scope4.5 with Nuendo and do the MV test along with loading some older projects that i have which are quite big to compare.

I understand that scsi 320 will be a pci bandwidth hog and thats very disapointing for my scope settup.

I'll get back to all of you with my findings ASAIC.

If any of you have any other thought please share them with me.

BTW.

Perhaps you can house it in an external FireWire case, which should have enough bandwidth to handle the load. You may have to stripe them as a RAID server.

??

Is there away to use my scsi's in a firewire box? FW 400 or 800?

Thanks

valis · Post by **valis** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 8:17 pm

Definately install your OS and main applications to an IDE drive. Once that's done might still try leaving your SCSI card in and going into the Adaptec bios (Ctrl-A or something during the bootup BIOS POST screens). WHen you dig down into the menus you'll find settings for each scsi 'address' exposed. Since you should know the scsi addresses used by your cards (mine list them as they're found on boot) you can limit these scsi channels (or all channels to be safe) to 40 Mb/s, which is basically old SCSI UW's datarate. This should leave at least another 50 Mb/s (real world not theoretical peak) for your Scope cards and usb etc.

It's worth a shot since you already invested in the scsi gear.