Topic: How low can I go? Via 533 mHz... (Read 3476 times)

Mastiff · « **on:** September 28, 2005, 10:52:51 am »

I'm trying to make an extreme lightweight computer for a special application, and I want to use MC for playback. But on this system, a Via 533 mHz with 128 meg 133 RAM and Windows 2000, playback of one zone with no extra plug-ins takes around 100 %, and two zones or DirectX plug-in playback is impossible. Is there something I can tweak, or is this just to weak to use MC11 on?

JimH · « **Reply #1 on:** September 28, 2005, 10:57:10 am »

Did you try more memory?

There were playback problems related to latency problems for via chipsets. Google search for BIOS tweak?

Mastiff · « **Reply #2 on:** September 28, 2005, 10:58:57 am »

Thanks, Jim! I will try both of those!

Mastiff · « **Reply #3 on:** September 28, 2005, 11:41:19 am »

Nope, that didn't help. I tried playback with WinAmp and that takes around 35-40 %, which to me implies that there's something weird here. Even on a 533 mHz computer there shouldn't be that much load with playback of a simple MP3. I'll ask the question at MP3Car.com, I have absolutely no experience with these Via motherboards with embedded CPU.

JimH · « **Reply #4 on:** September 28, 2005, 11:47:16 am »

Try switching playback between DirectX and Wave Out.

Make sure no visualizations are running.

Mastiff · « **Reply #5 on:** September 28, 2005, 11:49:03 am »

I have tried both Direct sound and wave out. And nothing's running. Maybe Win2K is too heavy for a 533 mHz CPU?

LonWar · « **Reply #6 on:** September 28, 2005, 11:51:26 am »

No, it should be fine on a 533,

I have 2K, on a 650 and a AMD 450mhz.

Mastiff · « **Reply #7 on:** September 28, 2005, 12:08:08 pm »

Wow! And you're able to run MC on that?

LonWar · « **Reply #8 on:** September 28, 2005, 12:17:31 pm »

I didn't run it long.... If I have time, I'll run it again tonight and let you know if it runs propperly,

Mastiff · « **Reply #9 on:** September 28, 2005, 12:18:49 pm »

Never mind. A guy at the MP3Car forum told me that this CPU runs like a non-mmx pentium 120. Plan B next...

Matt · « **Reply #10 on:** September 28, 2005, 12:27:20 pm »

One thing to consider is that MC's 32-bit playback engine will use the FPU more heavily than a player like Winamp. With a modern chip, floats can be as fast or faster than integers. However, I think the VIA has a weak FPU so this could explain some of it. I remember my ~900 VIA couldn't play DVDs while my 533 Celeron could.

Mastiff · « **Reply #11 on:** September 28, 2005, 12:51:19 pm »

Yeah, I think this box is gonna wind up as one of my many "fun to try - goodbye" projects... Or maybe a firewall, a pure NetRemote computer somewhere. MC seems to be a lost cause. I'm running PCMark on it now, but even that seems to have stalled.

Edit: It finally finished. CPU score was 511, while a PIII 500 would score 1300 or so. Which means that this is a lost cause. Oh well, fun as long as it lasted!

hit_ny · « **Reply #12 on:** September 28, 2005, 01:28:26 pm »

Quote from: Matt on September 28, 2005, 12:27:20 pm

One thing to consider is that MC's 32-bit playback engine will use the FPU more heavily than a player like Winamp. With a modern chip, floats can be as fast or faster than integers. However, I think the VIA has a weak FPU so this could explain some of it. I remember my ~900 VIA couldn't play DVDs while my 533 Celeron could.

Any way to tell MC not to use 32-playback.. ?

would setting DSP Studio->Output format for

bitrate : (16 bit)
sample rate : source sample rate
clip protection : none

achieve this ?

No eq's or any other sound shaping that might make MC go into 32 bits.

i'm guessing the source is clearly only 16 bit so it's not going to sound any better.

Alex B · « **Reply #13 on:** September 28, 2005, 04:08:49 pm »

MC's output can be bit-perfect with ASIO drivers when nothing that uses DSP is selected in the playback options. I have verified that by playing 16-bit/44.1 kHz DTS wave files through the SPDIF output. My HT receiver can decode the stream correctly. When the output is bit-perfect no processing has taken place.

If the files are compressed decoding them uses some CPU cycles anyway.

Uwe · « **Reply #14 on:** September 29, 2005, 04:47:03 am »

Mastiff,

which version of MC 11 do you use? On my 600MHZ/256 Mb, MC runs quiet well under W2K without Vizualisation. But i made the experience, that some Versions of MC are more responsive than others. I didn't test the last 3 or 4 Versions...

Uwe

Mastiff · « **Reply #15 on:** September 29, 2005, 04:49:21 am »

If you rean a bit higher up, you will see the main reason: This 533 mHz is in reality below a 200 mHz Celeron, so I'm afraid different versions won't help...

Uwe · « **Reply #16 on:** September 29, 2005, 05:35:19 am »

Sorry for wasting your time, i didn't read the Edit, i just want to put my two cents

Mastiff · « **Reply #17 on:** September 29, 2005, 08:40:22 am »

Thanks, but you're not wasting my time. I manage that without any help! On projects like this, for intsance...

Right now I have installed Windows 98SE, and that actually works pretty well! I can play one track with the CPU use swinging between 60 & 90 %, so maybe I can actually use this box for something!

Tab · « **Reply #18 on:** September 30, 2005, 08:17:39 am »

MJ8 needs around 180MHz of CPU, maybe thats an option for you.

If youre looking at junking the 533, overclocking is worth a shot. Nowt to lose, and some CPUs clock easily and heavily, without getting into any overvolting, latency timings etc.

More or faster RAM might also help, it'll cut down on paging.

And finally, while 2k will run on a 200MHz CPU and 128 RAM, 98 is quite a bit quicker. And 98 does a lot less paging than 2k with 128 RAM, since its a far smaller footprint OS.

In principle I spose 95 would be even leaner - but unless youre really stuck, a decent CPU would make the most sense here

Tab

Mastiff · « **Reply #19 on:** September 30, 2005, 10:03:43 am »

Well, the CPU isn't really an option since this is an embedded board, and I bought this box (rather cheaply, to be honest) to be an MC box for my wife's car. I have tried more RAM, and you can't get faster SDRAM than 133, as far as I know. Overclocking doesn't seem to be possible on this board. I do that on my HTPC, with water cooling and all that. Not an option here, though... Right now I'm trying out ME, it turns out that it has a little thing that sets it above 98 (never thought I'd say that about such a bugfest...), and that's a real suspend to disk mode.

Tab · « **Reply #20 on:** October 07, 2005, 07:40:59 am »

If you want to clock it, just add a dip switch and a few crystals. Then you can switch to whichever speed is stable easily nuff.

Whether that'll be enough to solve the problem I dont know, but it'll certainly help, and may fix it.

Real shame about the cpu.

The lighter the OS you use, the quicker it'll run. Will MJ run on 3.1? (joke!) Seriously, if I were stuck I might even try 95.

Tab

Mastiff · « **Reply #21 on:** October 07, 2005, 12:13:20 pm »

Windows ME seems to work pretty well. I'm gonna stay with that for a while. And hardware mods isn't something I do, I would only end up with an expensive paper weight!

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