How Is Buffer Size Determined?

Input Tasks

If your acquisition is finite (sample mode on the Timing function/VI set to Finite Samples), NI-DAQmx allocates a buffer equal in size to the value of the samples per channel attribute/property. For example, if you specify samples per channel of 1,000 samples and your application uses two channels, the buffer size would be 2,000 samples. Thus, the buffer is exactly big enough to hold all the samples you want to acquire.

If the acquisition is continuous (sample mode on the Timing function/VI set to Continuous Samples), NI-DAQmx allocates a buffer equal in size to the value of the samples per channel attribute/property, unless that value is less than the value listed in the following table. If the value of the samples per channel attribute/property is less than the value in the table, NI-DAQmx uses the value in the table.

Sample Rate	Buffer Size
no rate specified	10 kS
0–100 S/s	1 kS
100–10,000 S/s	10 kS
10,000–1,000,000 S/s	100 kS
>1,000,000 S/s	1 MS

You can override the default buffer size by calling the Input Buffer Config function/VI.

NI-DAQmx does not create a buffer when the sample mode on the Timing function/VI is set to hardware-timed single point.

Note  Using very large buffers may result in diminished system performance due to excessive reading and writing between memory and the hard disk. Reducing the size of the buffer or adding more memory to the system can reduce the severity of these problems.

Output Tasks

For generations, the amount of data you write before starting a generation determines the size of the buffer. The first call to a Multiple Samples version of the Write function/VI creates a buffer and determines its size.

You also can use the Output Buffer Config function/VI to create an output buffer. If you use this function/VI, you must use it before writing any data.

The samples per channel attribute/property on the Timing function/VI does not determine the buffer size for output. Instead it is the total number of samples to generate. If n is your buffer size, setting samples per channel to 3×n generates the data in the buffer exactly three times. To generate the data exactly once, set samples per channel to n.

NI-DAQmx does not create a buffer when the sample mode on the Timing function/VI is set to hardware-timed single point.