# Message Signal Interrupts - Yes or No?



## QwerkyPengwen (Jul 20, 2021)

Hi there folks, I have seen this option, and with the most basic information being provided via the "help" hyper links, I am asking here to maybe get some more clarification.
Should I enable this option or not.
From what I can tell it is entirely dependent on the all of the main hardware for your system and what that hardware is.

So I'll tell you what hardware I have, and you can tell me if I should enable it or not, and which options to use, while also explaining WHY I should use said options (as in what it pertains to in regards to my hardware config)

GTX 1080 Ti
MSI Z170-A Gaming M5 motherboard
i7-6700K
16GB DDR4 2666MHz (4x4GB)
Using DisplayPort on the Dell S2716DG monitor (1440p / 144Hz / G-Sync)

As far as I can tell, that is the only hardware that would need to be known to determine how to go about messing with this option, if at all.
But if there is anything else you need to know about my system just ask


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## oobymach (Jul 20, 2021)

Yes imo you should use msi mode, the benefit is that your gpu is taken out of the irq queue and given its instructions directly.

Click here to download msi util v3.

Run as admin (you may have to make the window bigger to see everything), find your gpu in the list and check the box under msi to enable msi mode and click apply in top right corner.

Restart and during the restart go into bios, save and exit without making any changes.

After restart re-run the msi utility, your gpu IRQ should now be a negative number to indicate msi mode is active.

You will need to re-do the above if you update your gpu driver.


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## eidairaman1 (Jul 20, 2021)

What is it set to by default?









						Introduction to Message-Signaled Interrupts - Windows drivers
					

Introduction to Message-Signaled Interrupts



					docs.microsoft.com
				




Pci Standard 2.2+ Supports MSI.


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## chrcoluk (Jul 20, 2021)

I would enable unless it causes problems.

I think the default seems to be hardware dependent, there are people who report they dont have MSI enabled by default, and people who have it enabled by default, on my haswell it was off by default, but I could enable it with no problems, on my z370 board, its enabled by default and again no problems.


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## QwerkyPengwen (Jul 20, 2021)

oobymach said:


> Yes imo you should use msi mode, the benefit is that your gpu is taken out of the irq queue and given its instructions directly.
> 
> Click here to download msi util v3.
> 
> ...



This is definitely information, but not good enough information I'm sorry.
I thought my question was pretty clear, but "enabling" it doesn't help me much since I don't know what settings to use.

I guess clarification needs to be made in regards to the first poster in responses:
If using this utility you linked, I assume then I don't need to do anything in regards to the setting in the NVCleanInstall program? (because you didn't say anything in regards to said option in the program)
Otherwise, if I still need to check that option in NVCI, at this point I want to know what drop down menu options to use, or should I leave it at "default"

And if I do have to tick the box and choose an option other than "default" why a specific option over another?

Otherwise, if this utility is just an alternative to using the tick box option, then say so, but that also brings up the initial question still regarding those drop down menu options.



eidairaman1 said:


> What is it set to by default?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Not sure what it is set to by default. The link you provided seems to have some good info, however, it's a lot to read just to find out how to get you the answer you are looking for. Can you just give me the quick and dirty instruction to give you the answer you seek?


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## eidairaman1 (Jul 20, 2021)

QwerkyPengwen said:


> This is definitely information, but not good enough information I'm sorry.
> I thought my question was pretty clear, but "enabling" it doesn't help me much since I don't know what settings to use.
> 
> I guess clarification needs to be made in regards to the first poster in responses:
> ...



Enable it, follow directions on that page and read your motherboard manual, PCIE uses it regardless.


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## QwerkyPengwen (Jul 20, 2021)

I see I will have to look elsewhere to get my questions answered.
Have a nice day folks.


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## W1zzard (Jul 20, 2021)

Let us know if you find out something


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## eidairaman1 (Jul 20, 2021)

W1zzard said:


> Let us know if you find out something


From the info i saw, PCI 2.2+ use it and PCIE is native to it


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## oobymach (Jul 21, 2021)

By default msi is not enabled, it needs to be enabled manually afaik. I'm reasonably sure your hardware supports it otherwise I wouldn't have recommended it.

The utility app I linked to is just a quick and easy way to enable it without reinstalling anything. 

Some games benefit more than others, but most games benefit from it afaik. If you're not gaming with your pc you don't need to worry about msi mode on your gpu.


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## R-T-B (Jul 21, 2021)

It's main benefit is it'll reduce DPC latency if you are sharing IRQ's with anything.

Otherwise it's pretty much the same on as off.

The NVIDIA driver is pretty dumb about turning it on and won't do it except in some strange circumstances, thus the setting in nvcleanstall.  IRQ sharing is actually quite common, so it's probably safer to just toggle it on.


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## Ferrum Master (Jul 21, 2021)

R-T-B said:


> It's main benefit is it'll reduce DPC latency if you are sharing IRQ's with anything.
> 
> Otherwise it's pretty much the same on as off.
> 
> The NVIDIA driver is pretty dumb about turning it on and won't do it except in some strange circumstances, thus the setting in nvcleanstall.  IRQ sharing is actually quite common, so it's probably safer to just toggle it on.



IMHO the culprit is the old nForce 6(?) chipset that didn't support it and it really stems from that time as a habit.  It is a question for nvidia that already goes into mysticism. 

Maybe nobody have ever filled a bug/feature ticket to enable it?


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## R-T-B (Jul 21, 2021)

nForce...  boy, that word takes me down memory lane...


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## Vya Domus (Jul 21, 2021)

Ferrum Master said:


> Maybe nobody have ever filled a bug/feature ticket to enable it?


Or, more likely, it messes up other things that they aren't willing to investigate and fix either.


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## R-T-B (Jul 21, 2021)

Vya Domus said:


> Or, more likely, it messes up other things that they aren't willing to investigate and fix either.


Been using it forever and must've missed that part.

It's also enabled by default on notebooks...


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## Sora (Nov 14, 2022)

Nforce and Gen 1.x controllers had issues with MSI's that could never be fixed via drivers, so this was never enabled on desktop Nvidia GT(X) card drivers for windows or linux

It was usually switched on for supportive Equivalent Quadros though, as these were often platform certified for the workstation in use, as well as for the Mobile parts.

Turing RTX and GTX cannot boot for some reason on these old chipsets so the default could have changed then, but it was not until Ampere that [Section###.HW] was added to infs for the Desktop parts.

At the present time, Lovelace has not included this HW configuration under its relevant section, so users must either use the msi util tool, or enable with nvcleanstall.


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