• Registered: 2016-02-04
  • Posts: 8

Topic: what's best ? FF800 to Win10 via TB to FW800 or FW800 PCIe Card ?

Hello,

There's numeros topics and post about issues on the connection of Fireface 800 & 400 to Windows 10 PC via thunderbolt card & thunderbolt to firewire apple adapters ( i have both : FF400 to FF800 via adat ).
This is actually my config... it's working but i have issues.

2 years ago i upgraded to a 3XS worskstation, windows 10 computer 18 cores intel CPU, to replace an 8 cores 3XS Windows 8.1 workstation.
i took the my Asus ThunderboltEX II card and ThunderBolt to FW800 apple adapter from the previous PC and hooked them up in the new one.

i'm working mainly with cubase, and experienced degraded performances compared to my previous computer.
( blue screens - audio driver related, cubase being unstable, Cubase freezing when loading project with a different frequency than the previous one  ( ex : 96KHz to 48KHz )... )
and mainly 1 core ( core 0 ) of the CPU that is constantly overloaded ( 100% ), and that creates a bottleneck for asio performance
( NB there's a workaround, you can prevent cubase from using the core 0, but it's still close to overload)
After testing many things, i finally spotted that the thunderbolt could be the issue.
I found confirmation here.


My question here is :
will using a PCIe Firewire card will improve stability and performance, compared to the thunderbolt to Firewire chain ?
Will it prevent the core 0 on my CPU from being easily overloaded ?

2 Reply by MC

  • MC
  • MC
  • Administrator
  • Offline
  • From: Germany/Thailand
  • Registered: 2007-04-06
  • Posts: 25,565

Re: what's best ? FF800 to Win10 via TB to FW800 or FW800 PCIe Card ?

That is an expected, but not guarateed outcome. As these FW cards are not expensive it is worth a try.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • Registered: 2016-02-04
  • Posts: 8

Re: what's best ? FF800 to Win10 via TB to FW800 or FW800 PCIe Card ?

Thanks for your answer Mathias

I suppose you don't have any user feedback and / or technical insight as which setup will use fewer ressources ?

Money is not a problem for me, but my time is wink
Maybe i should get a digiface USB and move on ?

4 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2022-11-17 12:49:58)

  • ramses
  • DAW Mastermind
  • Online
  • From: UTC+1
  • Registered: 2012-10-14
  • Posts: 13,169

Re: what's best ? FF800 to Win10 via TB to FW800 or FW800 PCIe Card ?

> Maybe i should get a digiface USB and move on?

What do you mean exactly by this? To connect FF800 and FF400 in stand-alone mode?
You mentioned sample rates up to double speed (96 kHz).
Even if you use 2x ADAT I/O per FF400 and FF800, this means only 8ch @double speed for each of the cards.
Isn't that a little too few?

Additionally, you need FireWire anyway to be able to operate the devices using TM FX and driver settings in terms of routing, gain settings and other usual daily tasks.

If you require a FireWire card anyway, then I would use a well-supported FW400 card with a good-working TI chipset.
Then try, whether you can get a stable setup, if yes, then you do not need an additional recording interface.
Don't forget to use one digital I/O port or WC to clock synch both device.

This is a FW400 card with good working TI chip (XIO2213): https://www.heise.de/preisvergleich/exs … 75938.html
EXSYS was recommended by a friend who also designs circuit boards himself.
He said that they would build good and stable boards.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14
  • Registered: 2016-02-04
  • Posts: 8

Re: what's best ? FF800 to Win10 via TB to FW800 or FW800 PCIe Card ?

Thanks for your reply

We got a second workstation at the studio with a Digiface and ferrofish converter.
i know my way around the ADAT & sync stuff ( i also have a MOTU2408 into the FF800 as 8 line IN/OUT via ADAT )
Usually i only need a few inputs / output @ 96K, that just for (usually ) recording / making some sound design,
i'll find my way around that.

I got external preamps, so once the routing is done inside the FF800 & FF400, i don't need to touch them anymore.
i'll use Totalmix of the Digiface.

My questions are still :
Why this TB / FW combo use so many ressources on ONLY 1 CORE, which reduce the ASIO performance, and creates a computing power bottleneck...

I took a few minutes after today's session to check :
Once i load cubase ( or ableton ), once the audio engine is runnig, my core 0 go to 40% ( it's OC @ 4.5GHz ) without a single track in the project or no project loaded.
that doesn't seem right to me

Will using FW card instead will improve this issue ?
Does a USB RME device will avoid this issue ?

Thanks again for your comments

  • Registered: 2016-02-04
  • Posts: 8

Re: what's best ? FF800 to Win10 via TB to FW800 or FW800 PCIe Card ?

Ok, just to inform the people having the same issue :

there is a setting that makes a difference in the thunderbolt software / driver
( i access it from the icon in the taskbar )

Thunderbolt > settings > device connection > "override first device in chain restriction"
i unticked this ( to NOT override ) and my processor 0 went to 30% when cubase is running with NO project loaded instead of 40%.