TerraTec DMX 6-fire

Soundcards and Speakers 106 Page 9 of 10 Published by

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Page 9

Games 

There was a slight problem with the TerraTec, largely due to the Asus A7N8X and its IO-APIC controller, and my dumb ass, where it would stutter while using the keyboard.  The IO-APIC controller on this motherboard is a newer high-speed type used in multi-processor mobos and allows for more than the standard 15 IRQs.  More interrupt lines ensures that there is little or no IRQ sharing, which is a Good Thing (TM).  The cure for this is to re-install WinXP, and make sure that the IO-APIC is dis-abled.  I got this advice in the amdmb.com forums, but this did not work for me.  I will have to experiment more with this, but that is the recommended fix.  Something tells me that this is a driver issue and not a hardware issue, however.  Without the IO-APIC, extra IRQs are mapped through the keyboard.  Yup.  That means s-l-o-w.  Please see the links at the end of the article for a microsoft.com paper on the subject.  It's very interesting and quite funny.  No, really.

 

For games I just used a select few.  During testing Freelancer was released, so Ive been living in that.  Ive grown used to the stutter, as the action is too fast to really notice and it doesnt affect the game play.

 

In Counter-Strike, however, where sound is far more important, I found the stutter quite irritating.  Its easy to not use the keyboard while listening to music, but with C-Strike, I had to switch back to the Audigy2.

 

SimCity is a great and long running franchise and I remember stealing time in my high-school yearbook class to play SimCity on the Macs.  We were supposed to be doing layout, but doesnt city planning count as layout?  Ahh, the fond memories of wasted youth linger with the taste of a first kiss.  With SimCity4, you dont use the keyboard at all, except to name your city.  So, there were no sound problems at all.

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