[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> See Below...
...
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> >
> > On newer motherboards two or more PCI slots may share an IRQ
> > allocation with integrated devices. Thus, in your case the PCI slot
> > you put the ethernet card into WILL ALWAYS share the same IRQ with
> > your motherboard's integrated audio. NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO, this
> > will be the case. You can change the allocation to say 11, but now
> > your audio and eth0 will go to 11... ugh.
>
> This would be OK if the video card does not require an IRQ, or can
> more than two devices share the same IRQ? (W98 on the same machine
> have no problems with three devices at IRQ5)
>
> Sharing an IRQ depends upon several things.
>
> 1) The BIOS and OS must be able to determine which device initiated
> 1) an IRQ in the first place and service the request.
> 2) No two devices being active at the same time, or masking the
> 2) IRQ's. (Something which a lot of driver manufacturers are fond
> 2) of doing...)
> 3) Full support for this in the OS.
> 4) Low IRQ handling latency.
>
> Linux is relatively new to IRQ sharing. While it seems to be able
> to handle some IRQ sharing there are problems.
>
> Sound, Video & Ethernet cards sharing IRQ's with other devices seem
> to be fairly problematic. So much so that often the drivers will
> disable cards that are sharing IRQ's with other devices.
>
> Hopefully 2.4 kernels will deal with this better.
>
> > I'm using X4.0.2 with DRI enabled. According to the log files and
> > glxinfo the card is HW accelerated. However, even though Q3A and gears
> > run OK, HG2, Heretic2, UT does _not_. Do the Banshee (tdfx) driver
> > require an IRQ?
>
> Yes the Banshee does require an IRQ for VGA type output (not for
> when it switches to 3D mode though...). Lacking an IRQ might make
> it impossible for the card to switch in and out of VGA/SVGA modes
> from 3D mode and vice-versa.
Maybe this is the reason for the slowdown in some 3D
applications. Eg. changing resolutions or starting up a game takes
forever.
>
>> If not, everything should be OK, or something else is causing the complete
>slowdown, maybe DMA?
>
> Slowdown? You didn't state this initially. If you are referring to
> a low frame rate, this may be due to other problems. Normally the
> main cause for this is that the program is trying to do something
> in 3D which the card cannot handle.
>
> This causes the graphics engine to resort to utilizing software
> rendering features that put a large drain on the CPU cycles.
>
> Your best bet is to drop all 3D features to their lowest, then
> crank them up one at a time until you get acceptable gameplay.
>
> Remember the Banshee is barely able to do 800x600x16BPP. If you set
> the resolution higher then graphics engine is working in software
> mode...
I'e been using "nice" video settings for the card in different
games. Also changing video options does not improve the situation for
games running slow. It seem to be more a problem with change of video modes.
>>
>> What happens if I exchange the Ethernet card (IRQ 5) with the PCTV
>> card (IRQ 3)? Then according to your info IRQ 5 will be allocated to
>> the sound device, the TV card and the Banshee (AGP) card and IRQ 3 to
>> the Ethernet card.
> Correct.
>
>> If all devices requires an IRQ, no solution is obtained this way!?
>
> Maybe not. The TV card is not being used when your Banshee is in 3D mode.
>
> Ideally your Ethernet card, Banshee and sound card should all have
> their own IRQ's for optimal performance. In turn the TV card is
> NEVER used when the Banshee is in 3D mode or you are accessing your
> LAN. So the TV card and Ethernet card sharing an IRQ would be good
> candidates to try...
I'll try to exchange cards, to see if things improve. What one really
would like is an LinuxBios/OpenBios/FreeBios solution not being
dependent on the different manufacturers BIOS capabilities.
On the mother-board is also an integrated 10MB/s ethernet adapter. I
can disable it in the BIOS, is it also possible to reuse its IRQ
(IRQ11)?
