PC Drivers & Software

[necros2k7]

Have such devices in Device manager:

AMD GPIO driver (2 versions), SMBUS, AMD Virtualized AHCI Controller for StoreMI DEV_7901

As I understand SMBUS gives OS access to read temp chips etc.?

What exactly will I miss if I disable such devices in device manager? What purpose of each above mentioned driver is? Will be glad to hear qualified engineer answer.

P.S. Will my Win11 boot if I disable PSP device in manager?

[Flyfisherman]

Hi,
I'm not a qualified engineer as You requested but I am an engineer from Sweden and I don't know if my answer will satisfy you.

Good question but the answer might not be.
Perhaps others can explain it better.
The purpose of the chipset is not an easy question to answer, since its a complex question.

Basically the electronics on the motherboard that communicate with all the connected components.
Most importantly, the chipset determines compatibility between all of these other components. If any of the processors or memory cards don’t communicate with the chipset, they can’t send or receive information from the motherboard.

The cpiset driver is a small software that is necessary for control and steering between the the different hardware connected to the computer and the operating system (i.e Windows):

For ex. If one want to play a DVD media from the DVD player, one open a program, start this and then the instruction from that program goes via operative system (Windows) and then recognized via its driver hardware ID, the chipset driver is the middleman sort of speak - it tells from and where to go and how to do it.

Now, this is not enough, for the example of the DVD-player above (or any hardware) it needs its own driver to operate and it will be provided by its manufacturer. That driver is the one that has ultimate control over the device.

Every time You do something on Your Windows system, anything at all even moving a mouse; a request is sent to the operative system (Windows) and the corresponding chipset and identified by its driver ID,  back to hardware (motherboard) back to the driver and the mouse pointer moves on the screen.
It all happens very fast but sometimes not fast enough, why its called lagg but only for some extreme game players.

The SM Bus Controller, also known as the SMBus or System Management Bus, is a set of integrated circuits, or chipset.
It provides a two-wire interface that allows system and power-related components to communicate with other parts of the computer. The SMBus monitors voltage and temperature and can send a limited number of error messages when problems occur.

You should Not in any circumstance disable any driver in the Device manager.
Each and every one has its purpose and the operative system (Windows) use these.
If You do so - You will find yourself with an unstable system that eventually will crash.

Best regards from Sweden

[hitbm47]

Hi @necros2k7 

The short answer is do not disable any of those things. I have not read up on what those things specifically do, but as @Flyfisherman said each component is critical to the proper operation of the motherboard and even performance.

As soon as you start disabling things, Windows will in some cases use its' own basic driver to handle things and sometimes with much worse performance.

The gist of the chipset drivers is that Windows needs an API to communicate through between the CPU and Motherboard by calling/accessing general functions that Windows would likely call/access the same names on Intel as well and then the Chipset drivers will handle it properly with the technicalities of the available hardware, much like Graphics/Games require to communicate through DirectX/Vulkan/OpenGL to the graphics card.

So without an OS the BIOS is enough for the Motherboard and CPU to communicate. But to ensure the full capabilities and efficiency of the motherboard, the CPU & RAM will load the Chipset drivers in Windows to properly communicate with all the available components on the motherboard and for proper data transfer between CPU, Northbridge, RAM, GPU, SouthBridge, primary storage devices/peripherals.

One more note, every component is connected through BUSes, which is how data is transferred between components, and which is why those drivers/machine-code is necessary for proper communication and efficiency between all components.

EDIT: disabling such things in device manager will likely worsen performance/compatibility rather than improving it, if it is the case that you are worried about gaining extra performance. In this case, rather disable some 3rd party start-up programs that you do not use all the time, such as printers, outlook, msi afterburner, etc.

Kind regards