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A comment on Should I replace my 56k modem with a 28.8K Modem?. Parent comment

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.

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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.

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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.
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