geforce 320m driver causing latency (ableton)

Indeed you are correct, there is a problem with the 320M driver on the MacBook Pro 13" while running bootcamp. This problem does not exist on the MacBook Pro 15" inch and up (I'm referring to the new 2010 models). This is because it uses a different driver.

I called Apple and had a rather long discussion with Brandon who is reporting the problem to the senior engineers. I gave him all the information he needed to reproduce the problem. He said typically they would have something like this fixed within a couple of weeks assuming they can replicate the problem easily (which is a no brainer).

I'm going to follow up with my case number in 2-3 weeks. He said a fix should be in the next Bootcamp update.

Currently the only fix is to disable the 320M in the windows devise manager. This will automatically kick in the standard windows VGA driver. It does have it's limitation obviously, but it's the only work around for now.

Dean

Ralph, I would also call apple support and report this problem separately from me. This affects any USB audio devise or camera hooked up to the port. The more people that report it - hopefully the faster they will fix it.

Also the 320M video card is on the USB bus - That's why the USB ports are affected by the bad driver. So this should mean that if you use the Firewire port for an audio device, one would think this port would not have these problems. I realize it means buying a Firewire card, but it's a thought. Firewire in general should be more reliable than USB. In fact many professionals recommend firewire over usb for audio. I've been thinking about buying a Firewire audio card because the macbook pro 13 only has two usb ports. This way I can dedicate that port to audio. I'll let you know more if I end up buying one this weekend and whether I have any problems.

Dean

Dean

Ralph,

I've done some more experimentation and found one obvious item worth mentioning right away. Under Windows Power Management choose "Best Performance". You can also tweak the power management setting by clicking on the "Advanced Settings" link. I was able to get everything pretty much in the yellow range (under 2000 in DPC Latency program). Every so often it would go just a little above the yellow range, around 2200-2300µs). So obviously the graphics card is going into some type of power savings mode and when choosing best performance this is turned off. I have not looked through each "Advanced settings" to determine witch item is set differently.

Then of course you'll want to turn off WiFi, bluetooth, and any other non essential items in the devise manager, essentially all the standard pc tweaks. So at this point things stay in the yellow. It's not where it should be but if you set your sound card with a slightly higher latency it should be at least usable without any drop outs.

Now once you've done all the above if you then disable the 320M in the devise manager it stays under 200µs and stays there. With the 320m on it reliable stays under 2000µs. Play around with your sound cards latency to find a reliable setting. I'm not sure how important really low latency is for you, but this should at least put things in a working state without drop outs. I'll stay on top of Apple and hopefully this will get fixed quickly.

The other thing worth noting is that you can go into the Nvidia control panel and in the 3D section turn off all the high performance items. There may be other settings that will get the latency even lower with the 320M on, I'm still digging through all the settings to figure it all out and post if I find anything that helps.

Hope this helps you out 🙂 ... I know how annoying this problem is...

Dean

Two other important things to modify:

1. In the device manager turn off under batteries - Microssoft ACPI Compliant Control Method Battery. This will cause spikes every so often if you have it on.

2. On the Start Menu - Right click on "computer" - select properties - bottom left corner click on "Performance Information and tools" - now click on adjust visual effects - then select adjust for best performance.

3. For the very best performance choose the classic style. Basic windows 7 is ok too (a slight performance hit on latency). But do make sure Aero is off.

With all these setting and the one in the previous message you'll be able to constiantly get 1500 micro second latency (give or take a little). It will reliablely stay under 2000 without ever going into the red. This way you'll still be able to use the second monitor with the 320M enabled.

Dean

Wanted to give this a bump. This is a terrible issue. I was, for once, completely satisfied with a purchase until I attempted to run a USB audio device and ended up at this issue. It's really too bad, it is the only thing I can find wrong with my dual-boot setup. Apple, PLEASE address and let me love my machine again!

MACBOOK WHITE 2.4GHZ NVIDIA 320M

JUST NON USABLE UNDER WINDOWS 7 !!!
DPC LATENCY ALL TIME !!

NON USABLE FOR AUDIO !!! I WANT BURN THIS MACHINE !!!

CAN SOMEBODY FORM APPLE FIX THIS?
IF NO FIX I NEVER BUY AGAIN APPLE PRODUCT !!

THIS IS REALLYA AMAZING !

Most of the musicians and video artists using Macs are also using the Mac OS to run their apps in. Have you considered doing that yourself?

hello,
Do you know if this issue has been solved by Apple?

The problem seems still there with new Boot Camp 3.2 release.

I've tried installing the new 263.09 nvidia driver on my macbook. After turning off the PowerMizer function, the average latency dropped to about 500us. This is pretty satisfying for audio devices. Maybe it's not that hard for Apple to release an official fix-up to solve this issue.

I have around 3000us DPC Latency on a new Macbook Air 11.6 (2010 Model), any idea what can be done ? Still running stock drivers that came with bootcamp 3.2, there's a setting for Power Management Mode in nvidia Control Panel and its set to "adaptive" but changing it to "Prefer max performance" didn't help.

USB Audio with the NI Audio 4 DJ is not usable at all on Win7, USB errors all over the place, sound is stuttering like crazy even at very high latencys. On OSX, everything works with 2ms latency. I hope this gets fixed since its not windows7's fault but most likely some driver issue...

Message was edited by: Antonio34587

is there news about this issue?
i've the same problem of latency...i tested using some drivers and using also the advanced setting of the 320M but the probelm is still present.
If i switch off the 320M and i use like standard vga, the latency is very good.