If tweaks do work, seems to depend to the hardware, BIOS update, Linux driver etc.. For the ICE cards I can use 256/2/48000 without xruns, the HDSP card can't be used lower than 256/2/48000 and even then or with higher latencies, it still cause xruns. Keyboard mini din, mouse USB, since the mini din mouse didn't work with some Linux installs anymore. AMD Athlon dual-core 2.1 GHz, 4 GiB RAM. I didn't use the the uname -r kernel below for serious audio work, but other x86_64 and x86 RTs. For MIDI I use HR timer, but I can't use it for audio. Nowadays I use the HDSP for audio and the ICE cards for MIDI. If I don't need MIDI, I disable the ICE cards. For audio nothing changes when changing PCI/PCIe slots or using a NVIDI card instead of the integrated ATI graphics, it just has got impact to the intervals, when MIDI jitter happens, but even for MIDI it doesn't make a big difference. [rocketmouse@archlinux ~]$ uname -rm 3.10.61-rt65-1-rt-lts x86_64 [rocketmouse@archlinux ~]$ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor performance performance [rocketmouse@archlinux ~]$ cat /usr/local/sbin/tuning #!/bin/bash # /usr/local/sbin/tuning - Arch Linux # 2013/Apr/05 ### http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/PCI_Latency ### http://wiki.linuxmusicians.com/doku.php?id=system_configuration#pci_bus_latency ### Bluetooth #service bluetooth stop ### Network #service network-manager stop #service networking stop # does cause serious issues #modprobe -r r8169 # Ethernet NIC driver ### TerraTec EWX 24/96 #modprobe -r snd_ice1712 ### Others modprobe -r firewire-ohci modprobe -r firewire_core #service cups stop modprobe -r ppdev # parallel port modprobe -r lp # printer ### Unbinding devices echo -n "0000:00:13.2" > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/ohci_hcd/unbind echo -n "0000:00:13.4" > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/ohci_hcd/unbind ### Log file l="/var/log/tuning.log" #echo "$ lspci -v " > $l #lspci -v >> $l #echo >> $l echo "# service rtirq status " > $l service rtirq status >> $l echo "# grep 18: /proc/interrupts" >> $l grep 18: /proc/interrupts >> $l echo >> $l echo -n $(date)" - "$(uname -r)" - " >> $l cat /etc/issue >> $l echo -e "\n########################################################################\n" ; cat $l exit 0 [rocketmouse@archlinux ~]$ diff /usr/local/sbin/tuning /usr/local/sbin/tuning-rice 3c3 < # /usr/local/sbin/tuning - Arch Linux --- > # /usr/local/sbin/tuning-rice - Arch Linux 18c18 < #modprobe -r snd_ice1712 --- > modprobe -r snd_ice1712 [rocketmouse@archlinux ~]$ grep music /etc/fstab /dev/sda11 /mnt/music ext3 noatime,defaults 0 2 /dev/sdb12 /home/music ext4 noatime,defaults 0 2 [rocketmouse@archlinux ~]$ service rtirq status PID CLS RTPRIO NI PRI %CPU STAT COMMAND 44 FF 90 - 130 0.0 S irq/8-rtc0 199 FF 85 - 125 0.0 S irq/18-snd_hdsp 206 FF 80 - 120 0.0 S irq/20-snd_ice1 213 FF 79 - 119 0.0 S irq/21-snd_ice1 78 FF 75 - 115 0.0 S irq/19-ehci_hcd 81 FF 75 - 115 0.0 S irq/16-ohci_hcd 94 FF 74 - 114 0.0 S irq/17-ohci_hcd 100 FF 73 - 113 0.0 S irq/17-ohci_hcd 42 FF 70 - 110 0.0 S irq/1-i8042 30 FF 50 - 90 0.0 S irq/9-acpi 61 FF 50 - 90 0.0 S irq/42-radeon 82 FF 50 - 90 0.0 S irq/14-pata_ati 83 FF 50 - 90 0.0 S irq/15-pata_ati 88 FF 50 - 90 0.0 S irq/22-ahci 185 FF 50 - 90 0.0 S irq/7-parport0 371 FF 50 - 90 0.0 S irq/43-enp3s0 3 FF 1 - 41 0.4 S ksoftirqd/0 19 FF 1 - 41 0.5 S ksoftirqd/1 [rocketmouse@archlinux ~]$ aplay -l **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices **** card 0: HDSPMx579bcc [RME AIO_579bcc], device 0: RME AIO [RME AIO] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 1: EWX2496 [TerraTec EWX24/96], device 0: ICE1712 multi [ICE1712 multi] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 2: EWX2496_1 [TerraTec EWX24/96], device 0: ICE1712 multi [ICE1712 multi] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 RTIRQ_NAME_LIST Regarding MIDI jitter caused by USB MIDI, there's no difference between "usb" or making the USB port for the MIDI interface head of the USB ports, perhaps for USB audio it has got noticeable impact. [rocketmouse@archlinux ~]$ grep RTIRQ_NAME_LIST /etc/conf.d/rtirq RTIRQ_NAME_LIST="rtc snd_hdsp snd_ice1 usb i8042" JFTR the newer kernels assign individual IRQs to the graphics and HDSP, but with older kernels they share the IRQ and not sharing the IRQ anymore didn't improve anything. Regards, Ralf _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user