hiya everyone!
I thought I'd come and post here as I googled DPC latency results for my new Gigabyte board. Having been aware of DPC latency for some time and also quite aware of how it can often be a difficult problem to diagnose, due to graphics cards, network cards and even things like which USB port you are using for your mouse and keyboard can make a difference(albeit a small one in comparison), I thought I would share my results.
They aren't exactly great in comparison to a P5 Asus board I have configured for audio production but they are somewhat more acceptable than some of the other results I've seen throughout this thread.
System Spec
XPProSP3
GA-DS3L Rev2.0
Intel E7200
Nvidia 8800GT
Corsair 6400C4 (2x1GB sticks)
Belkin 3 Port Firewire card.
USB Logitech MX518
Saitek USB Multimedia Keyboard
Samsung SP2014N 200GB (IDE)
Seagate ST3160023AS (SATA)
Plextor 750A (IDE)
Mostly the system is stable using XPSP3 and the latest Intel P35Express Drivers and also the latest drivers as listed on the Gigabyte website. I am also only able to try the very latest BIOS release, F8f, as it is the only one that supports my E7200.
I built the system to achieve a cheap but adequate performer, mostly to run FSX among a few other games but also with a view to use it as a secondary PC for audio production. This is really why I would hope that the BIOS release can fix the problem of the spikes that I do get, which aren't huge but are there and it is my belief that they shouldn't be. If I can't do this soon I am going to have to go through replacing the board as the same peripherals on my ASUS board (P5WDG2WSPro) work fine and gave me latency of around 2-3us up to about 70 maximum, only when loading my audio software would the maximum be reached, using the mouse would take the reading up to the mid 40s. Not sure if that is inevitable but it is a step up from the peformance of the DS3L.
DPC results...
Absolute Maximum
900us
Current Latency
Anything from 6us to mid 30s but spiking at around 300us/600us and occasionally the 900s.
The graph shows one large sky scraper onto two small bars, then I'll see the 300us tower block and a few more small bars bringing me back to the larger 600s and very occasionally reaching 800-900us.
The motherboard is not being overclocked and I also disabled most onboard devices. No audio, no ethernet, no serial ports etc for the sake of this test. The results didn't change at all whether these devices are disabled or not. I am about to go through a fresh install as I will be installing the OS on the SATA drive leaving the DVD drive on the IDE port alone. I doubt that'll have a major affect but I know I don't like having to share the IDE port with a Master/Slave combination.
I will try and see if SP3/SP2 makes a difference and after that I will see if using different driver versions make a difference. I will probably remove the single PCI Firewire card I am using, knowing that I used to have issues with an 8800GT I will try the driver release that solved that problem before (having only installed the most recent driver for the card, the ones that solved it previously for me were the 169.21 release).
I hope Gigabyte can solve the issue, it is actually my first Gigabyte board after using Asus boards for years.
Glad to have registed! Always been aware of the site and have been curious to join up.