1 Topic by scopus (edited by scopus 2016-07-11 10:19:06)

  • Registered: 2016-07-11
  • Posts: 16

Topic: pci-e card vs usb performance

hello im in the market for my first rme interface and am debating between pci-e card like the aio and a usb interface such as babyface pro. The pro's extra features such as preamp, portability would be nice but not crucial, top priority I am looking for low latency and high performance. Also i must be able to use hook up and use 2 digital devices at the same time- external DAC( spdif or aes )and another soundcard for its synths(spdif or adat)

i work mostly itb on a big pc and my projects are very large with lotsss of vsts. Is there a noticeable increase in performance between the pci express and usb interfaces?

  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 9,690

Re: pci-e card vs usb performance

Neither device directly interacts with plugins. Differences in achievable latency will likely be marginal, if at all noticeable, on a good computer.


Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

RME Support's Website

3 Reply by scopus (edited by scopus 2016-07-11 11:58:45)

  • Registered: 2016-07-11
  • Posts: 16

Re: pci-e card vs usb performance

RME Support wrote:

Neither device directly interacts with plugins. Differences in achievable latency will likely be marginal, if at all noticeable, on a good computer.


Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME


thanks, so if almost no difference, than there are no advantages to having pci-e over usb?
the price is similar or more than some usb devices and need to know why one would opt for the aio over the others.
also how do the aio converters compare with the usb units?

  • ramses
  • DAW Mastermind
  • Offline
  • From: UTC+1
  • Registered: 2012-10-14
  • Posts: 12,861

Re: pci-e card vs usb performance

USB driver require a little bit more CPU time.
In terms of Latency RME USB drivers are near on par of PCIe drivers.
An advantage of i.e. an RME RayDAT is, that you can run very reliably with 32 ASIO buffers which offers very low latency.

The RayDAT also offers for you the advantage, that it is not so expensive compared to extending the AIO to the max, where this AIO then costs near €1000.

The only thing where you need to take care of with the RayDAT is, that it has no analog inputs and outputs.
Only 4x ADAT IN and OUT, AES, SPDIF, MIDI ...

So your preamps which you connect via ASIO shall better have also analog outputs, like i.e. the Behringer ADA8200 if you are looking for nice price solution ..

If you want to have everything from RME, then AIO card is maybe better choice.

You really need to look and check, which channels you require.

Depends also on your budget, which you didnt mention.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13