1 Topic by GrabtharsHammer (edited by GrabtharsHammer 2021-05-25 05:22:34)

  • Registered: 2016-10-13
  • Posts: 10

Topic: Apple M1 Thunderbolt & USB performance => potential audio issues?

Hello everybody,

I just pre-ordered an Apple M1 iMac. RME has been very quick with the release of drivers for their audio interfaces and I therefore assume that my Fireface UFX+ should be fully compatible, both via USB and via Thunderbolt.

Now, however, there are increasing numbers of reports on the Internet about poor connection speeds of M1 computers with external SSD drives - USB write and read speeds are approx. 20-30% slower than with Intel machines and via Thunderbolt read speed seems to be fine, but write speed is 30-40% slower than it should be (strangely enough, write speed increases when an external display is connected to the second TB port).

I am now concerned about whether this could also negatively affect the performance of my interface, for example in the form of higher latency, audio dropouts, generally less stability or other nice things.

Have RME employees and users experienced any issues so far? Are my doubts even reasonable or are poor USB/TB data transfer rates not having a negative impact on audio interface performance at all?

  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 9,693

Re: Apple M1 Thunderbolt & USB performance => potential audio issues?

Bandwidth as such shouldn't be an issue, uninterrupted transfer is what matters. I'm afraid I have no personal experience or feedback at hand as of yet.

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

RME Support's Website

3 Reply by berndk (edited by berndk 2021-05-26 13:26:38)

  • Registered: 2019-12-08
  • Posts: 27

Re: Apple M1 Thunderbolt & USB performance => potential audio issues?

Hi,

I am using an M1 MacMini for about 3 Month now with my Babyface Pro FS.

The USB Ports (the usb 3 Ports that is) have a little less performance than usual which is recognizable with fast SSDs. But it does NOT affect Audio performance at all. If you use the TB3 Ports (which habe USB-C in then as well) the performance is normal, even with fast (USB-C) Ssds.

I tried my Interface on every Port, and it is working without problems on all of them. Even on the back of my Pro Display XDR wink

That said, the real Problem is that most Brands are not as fast as RME in porting their software. For Example, all Plugin Alliance Plugins produce nasty spikes in performance, no matter what DAW ist used. Fabfilter and Neural DSP Plugz on the other hand work very well, even with Rosetta2.

If everything went as smoothly as video edition with final cut pro X, the M1 would be really killer... Like it is for audio, it will probably take 6-12 Month until it is really good.

On the other hand, if you just use logic with the internal plugins, it is a KILLER machine and an RME interface will work great even at 32 buffer size wink

Babyface Pro FS +FF 400 used as SPDIF Adat conv. and more inputs.
Waiting for the UCX FS smile