Should I replace my 56k modem with a 28.8K Modem?

Re:Should I replace my 56k modem with a 28.8K Modem? by netsharc on Sunday November 19, 2023 @10:21AM (#38333434)

I wonder how it is nowadays, PCI(e) sound cards are no longer a thing and are mostly on the motherboard (ok well the on-board chips are probably more powerful than chips on sound cards from x years ago), AMD's on-CPU GPU are quite powerful too. My network card^W chip has an option to off-load checksum calculations.

Seems like there's enough spare CPU cycles even if some of them have been used for your written-in-Javascript IDE and written-in-Javascript messaging client.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Should I replace my 56k modem with a 28.8K Modem? by giantrobot on Sunday November 19, 2023 @11:32AM (#38334217)

It's less about total cycles and more about scheduling. You don't really want a real-time or low latency thing like sound to get preempted by another process.

One of the problems with WinModems was they were sensitive to CPU load. In the nominal "browsing" case they might be fine, the average webpage wasn't going to load down the system too much. With something like gaming where the system was more stressed the modem could have weird latency issues or the driver could even crash.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Should I replace my 56k modem with a 28.8K Modem? by justsomehnguy on Sunday November 19, 2023 @12:18PM (#38334868)

Or have shitty drivers what would insert garbage in the received data, bad threading and memory management I supposec

I still have mp3s with botched (and very audible) grabled parts, corrupted at downdload.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Should I replace my 56k modem with a 28.8K Modem? by JohnBooty on Monday November 20, 2023 @12:49AM (#38342975)

    It's less about total cycles and more about 
    scheduling. You don't really want a real-time 
    or low latency thing like sound to get preempted 
    by another process.

This is true, but Windows and Mac prioritize this well at the OS level. I've been using mostly USB sound devices for the last ~15 years including gaming and never any skipping or desync issues. Not sure about Linux, I have not used it as a daily driver.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Should I replace my 56k modem with a 28.8K Modem? by premysl on Sunday November 19, 2023 @09:20PM (#38341385)

People just expect things to be integrated. Even Wi-Fi is, although it's probably typically an M.2 card. I have a <2000 computer that had both integrated audio and video, and it's kind-of become a norm.

Integrated sound cards are way more susceptive to interference, though, and the quality suffers a bit. They're merely good enough.

Also, people generally seem to use USB sound cards, as it removes even more room for interference (though my ASUS Xonar Essence STX sounds great already, unlike the integrated solution that transfers power rail and other noise).

[ Parent | on HN ]