System is in my signature. When running at 32 buffers in Asio with my FireWire interface I get crackles and the occasional dropout. This is with 10 tracks and a few Vstis including BFD3. While this seems pretty good it is annoying trying to drum via midi. Also get crackles moving the mouse around. I believe that a dedicated graphics card would free up some memory which BFD3 would use.
Thus is not a major problem, but if I could improve it with a 40-50 dollar card I would.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

What are you using for the Firewire controller?
If it's not a good TI chipset Firewire controller, that's where you want to start.
Video is most likely not the culprit.
 
Also, check the system's DPC Latency using Latency Mon.
High DPC Latency will cause audible gliches.
Essentially, High DPC Latency equates to hiccups in data flow.
If your audio interface's buffer isn't filled in time, you'll hear audible glitches or (even worse) the transport will drop-out.

Thanks for the reply. I have a Ti based fw to PCIe card and a Via onboard connection. Both are identical performance wise as far as I can tell. LatenceMon is fine, although I do get a number of hard page faults. This I attribute to the 7200 hard drive that has all my samples on it. It would be nice to get an SSD for the same drive but I can't afford that yet.
I just wonder if the HD3000 is too old for Windiws 10 nowadays.

scottfa
Thanks for the reply. I have a Ti based fw to PCIe card and a Via onboard connection. Both are identical performance wise as far as I can tell. LatenceMon is fine, although I do get a number of hard page faults. This I attribute to the 7200 hard drive that has all my samples on it. It would be nice to get an SSD for the same drive but I can't afford that yet.
I just wonder if the HD3000 is too old for Windiws 10 nowadays.

I agree with Jim that video is probably not your culprit.  Likely something else in your setup.
 
But since I am running Win 10 and Intel HD 2500 (3rd gen) I did have a question similar to yours.  Intel published a disclaimer that the drivers for this gen of Intel HD graphics were supplied on an "as-is" basis and would not be certified by Microsoft.  Intel recommends moving to Windows 10 certified hardware.
 
So unless you were having actual graphics issues, or issues with the Intel drivers, I might say it is not worth $30-50 to get updated drivers.

On cell so cannot see sigs, but agree that video is unlikely, but a buffer of 32 samples is. Is there a reason for a 32 sample buffer? Mine will do that but is overkill TBH. 96 samples is where I leave mine most times unless I need to bump it up for mixing. An extremely low buffer with any CPU-intensive (even mildly) VST isn't gonna cut it.

mettelus
On cell so cannot see sigs, but agree that video is unlikely, but a buffer of 32 samples is. Is there a reason for a 32 sample buffer? Mine will do that but is overkill TBH. 96 samples is where I leave mine most times unless I need to bump it up for mixing. An extremely low buffer with any CPU-intensive (even mildly) VST isn't gonna cut it.

+1
 
I run with a buffer of 128. I could go down to 64, but haven't seen the need. I raise it to 1024 or 2048 for mixing.
 
A 32-sample buffer can put you in the CPU hell of "Hey!" "What?" interrupt processing with little time left for real work.

mettelus
On cell so cannot see sigs, but agree that video is unlikely, but a buffer of 32 samples is. Is there a reason for a 32 sample buffer? Mine will do that but is overkill TBH. 96 samples is where I leave mine most times unless I need to bump it up for mixing. An extremely low buffer with any CPU-intensive (even mildly) VST isn't gonna cut it.

That's probably it. I skimmed right over that part in the original post.  My Firewire will only go as low as 64 buffers in ASIO, and that's pushing my luck.  I usually leave it at 128 and get decent latency at that setting.

Well, I agree it is not much if a problem. A 32 sample buffer IS tiny.... I suspect that the hidden buffer is something to be considered. As a drummer of 40+ years I really need my TrapKat to have as low a latency as possible. Midi jitter, my midi interface(Motu) all play a part, but I can only control the buffer. So, as low as I can go. If a graphics card allows me a little more than that is good.
Anyway, I suspect that any graphics card won't help much. So far the comments back up this assumption.

OK. You are running 2nd gen Intel core.  If you really need to run the lowest latency that current hardware can accomplish, maybe you need to consider the latest 7th gen Intel Core i7 
 
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/core/core-i7-processor.html
 

That is quite a step up from a 30-50 dollar card😋. That will be next upgrade which will include a new case, motherboard, memory and CPU. But not for a while yet. Still crisis if the graphics card would help. Might just order one and find out.