Project Reality Forums

Hello all

I have an Nvidia EVGA 9800 gt 512 mb video card and a Soundblaster "XtremeGamer" (ironic name for a budget card, right? lol) PCI sound card

On my motherboard, I have
1 PCI Express x16 true x16 slot
2 PCI Express x16 slots that are actually x8 slots (I believe this means only 8 of the pins receive power from the psu, but I'm not an expert on the subject)
and a whole bunch of PCI slots

Here's the issue:
Whenever my video card is in the true x16 slot and my sound card is in a pci slot, the audio will crackle when playing games or watching videos with hardware acceleration enabled. This crackle will persist as long as I am running the "strenuous" activity, or until the sound cuts off entirely, and have to go into the ctrl panel and reenable the sound card.

However,when my video card is in one of the other PCIe slots, everything works fine. There is no crackle or audio disturbances at all.

My hypothesis is that when the video card is in the true x16 slot, it uses some of the power/resources from the PCI slots during high-speed activity, which causes the snap crackle pop from the audio. But when in an x8 slot its resources are constrained...

Which leads me to my actual questions:
Will keeping my video card in this slot cause any noticeable performance drops or not allow my card to reach its full potential? And if so, is it a wise choice to compromise some drop in performance for a considerable gain in sound quality?

JackAttack91 wrote:Hello all

I have an Nvidia EVGA 9800 gt 512 mb video card and a Soundblaster "XtremeGamer" (ironic name for a budget card, right? lol) PCI sound card

On my motherboard, I have
1 PCI Express x16 true x16 slot
2 PCI Express x16 slots that are actually x8 slots (I believe this means only 8 of the pins receive power from the psu, but I'm not an expert on the subject)
and a whole bunch of PCI slots

Here's the issue:
Whenever my video card is in the true x16 slot and my sound card is in a pci slot, the audio will crackle when playing games or watching videos with hardware acceleration enabled. This crackle will persist as long as I am running the "strenuous" activity, or until the sound cuts off entirely, and have to go into the ctrl panel and reenable the sound card.

However,when my video card is in one of the other PCIe slots, everything works fine. There is no crackle or audio disturbances at all.

My hypothesis is that when the video card is in the true x16 slot, it uses some of the power/resources from the PCI slots during high-speed activity, which causes the snap crackle pop from the audio. But when in an x8 slot its resources are constrained...

Which leads me to my actual questions:
Will keeping my video card in this slot cause any noticeable performance drops or not allow my card to reach its full potential? And if so, is it a wise choice to compromise some drop in performance for a considerable gain in sound quality?

I think the quality will be a little lower, maybe the same?

x8 means it will use half the bandwith a x16 slot can which would cause 1-3 frame lost in w/e your using.

as for the crackle I can't really tell you because PCIe slots are only designed to output 75watts max. (that's why you need PCIe Power Connectors) so it shouldn't be drawing ANY power from the other slots, then again I'm not sure what type of motherboard you have since you didn't specify anything other than the GFX card and Sound card.

____
If your still using the mobo on your profile then the x8 mode should only be used when you have 2 Ati cards using Crossfire, Otherwise they would operate at x16. Do you notice any performance lost when you put it in the 2nd PCIe slot? If not just use what ever works..

x8 VS x16 does not make any difference at resolutions lower then 1920x1200,and do you
have all 3 power connectors plugged into the motherboard ?

http://www.intel.com/products/motherboa ... xbx_lg.jpg

'[R-COM wrote:SocketMan;1448312']x8 VS x16 does not make any difference at resolutions lower then 1920x1200,and do you
have all 3 power connectors plugged into the motherboard ?

http://www.intel.com/products/motherboa ... xbx_lg.jpg

ah looks like someone has Indiana Jonesd my mobo

but all 3 major power connectors are hooked up, and the video card and sound card both have power receptacles that are connected to the appropriate cords...

actually now that I think about it, i may have disconnected the cord hooked up to here

and reconnected it to the sound card.
I didnt think that was an essential connection though.

BTW the max resolution of my video card and monitor is 1650x1080, so i guess it doesnt make a difference

Anything connected to the motherboard should be considered essential. Its a very good idea to keep them connected. Also research your PSU, thesedays there are many devices which are sensitive to power from the same rail on the PSU and/or a certain current requirement from a connector. Many PSU's you will find are utterly unsuited to whatever motherboard you buy. A good guide is to buy way more variety of preferably modular and high power PSU than you need now, and it could well last for 2 or 3 mobo changes, or GFX card changes.

That connector looks like an audio-passthrough, or perhaps a fan header connector, check the manual to be sure, it doesn't look like a power connector.

Recommend consulting the PSU manual and see what you have plugged into what, and checking the sticker on the back of your PSU for power specifications.