1 Topic by nero (edited by nero 2011-10-19 05:13:06)

  • nero
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Topic: PCIe 3.0 for audio production?

I do film scoring, mostly virtual instrument production and less recording, so I was looking at an onboard soundcard instead of a preamp.

I'm not very tech savy, so bear with me..

I am building a new PC with windows 7 64x, the new sandy bridge i7 3930k 6 core, and the new gigabyte MB that supports PCIe 3.0.  I haven't chosen a RME card yet.
The processor doesn't support PCIe 3.0, but the mobo does, and I'm not sure if I really need PCI to begin with.

I've done lots of reading but am still confused as to what connects to it.  I have mackie HR824s original additions, and I go from my XLR cables out into my mbox 3 mini, set my audio device to mbox 3 in cubase, and use my mbox's soundcard.
I can also use RCA and go from those outputs into my regular audio jack in the back of my tower.

1.  If I have a PCIe card, how is this going to work?  Will I use regular RCA red/white cables and go directly into my PCIe slot?

2.  Will I still need an interface/preamp?

3.  Will PCIe help with buffer settings and give me less pops and clicks, or is this irrelevant because I'm using the onboard RME card?  I know this is the case with usb 2 interfaces, if my mbox mini was USB 3.0 or firewire 800 I feel things would run better on my current computer, all cpu/ram specs aside.

The only thing I can think of right now for PCI is a Pro Tools HD Rig, graphics cards (which I still don't fully understand), and some plugins such as UAD.

  • nero
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Re: PCIe 3.0 for audio production?

anyoneeee

3 Reply by vinark (edited by vinark 2011-10-19 19:45:24)

  • vinark
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Re: PCIe 3.0 for audio production?

Q3 yes a RME pcie card (or PCI as I have) is great for low latency performance and it is much much better then a Mbox and also better then most other brands. I can run all my heavy projects (all vsti and vst fx) At 64 samples buffer easily= without crackles and glitches! If you buy an RME AIO you don´t need anything more except the cables to your powered speakers from the AIO in you computer. You can use the rme mixer utility to control volume or if you like a passive volume control like the TC level pilot. The AIO is available with a RCA breakout cable or with XLR (as an addon).
Q2 No
Q1 see Q3
Forget about all the PCIe standards (1.0 2.0 3.0) it is not really interesting except for high end graphix (gaming) and multi raid sata 600.
I think you didn´t get any answers cause of the PCIe 3.0 in your title it is very different from your questions.

Vincent, Amsterdam
https://soundcloud.com/thesecretworld
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  • From: Houston, TX
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Re: PCIe 3.0 for audio production?

The RME MADI PCIe card isn't even capable of saturating a single lane of PCIe x1 1.1 (that's 128 channels of audio plus 32 channels of MIDI).  There are rumors that PCIe 3.0 will help micro-stutter in SLI/Crossfire setups (dual video cards working together), but that's about it for now.  The latencies invlolved here are likely magnitudes lower than anything that would reveal itself in audio latencies or other audio system efficiencies (scaling+pops/clicks), etc

RME would need to confirm that enabling PCIe 3.0 on these newer Ivy Bridge compatible MoBo's would not have any ill effects on an RME PCIe 1.1 card (PCIe 3.0 should be 100% backwards compatible to 2.0 and 1.1, but stranger things have happened wink ).

MSI is kind of jumping the gun here IMO as the new CPU's aren't even out yet, and there are ZERO PCIe 3.0 cards in the pipeline ATM (and practically zero 2.0 cards have any type of "bottleneck" using 2.0 lanes at this point - not even dual graphics in SLI/Cross-Fire where each card only gets 8x PCIe 2.0 opposed to the "full" 16x for a single card)...

cool

MADIface-XT+ARC / 3x HDSP MADI / ADI648
2x SSL Alphalink MADI AX
2x Multiface / 2x Digiface /2x ADI8
  • gpo
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Re: PCIe 3.0 for audio production?

Randyman... wrote:

RME would need to confirm that enabling PCIe 3.0 on these newer Ivy Bridge compatible MoBo's would not have any ill effects on an RME PCIe 1.1 card (PCIe 3.0 should be 100% backwards compatible to 2.0 and 1.1, but stranger things have happened wink.

Hello Randyman,
Per your quoted answer above, I was unable to locate confirmational feedback in this forum from RME Tech on the compatability concern you'd raised.  Most Ivy/Sandy Bridge dual-socket xeon workstation MoBos I've reviewed recently (am planning to build when Intel releases Ivy xeon) seem partial to PCIe 3.0 x16 and x8 slots.

PCI-SIG claims:  (1) PCIe 3.0 products will be compatible with existing PCIe 1.x and PCIe 2.x products:  the PCIe 3.0 architecture is fully compatible with prior generations...from software to clocking to mechanical interfaces...PCIe 1.x and 2.x cards will seamlessly plug into PCIe 3.0-capable slots and operate at their highest performance levels; (2) All devices must minimally support single-lane (×1) link. Devices may optionally support wider links composed of 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, or 32 lanes. This allows for very good compatibility...a PCIe card physically fits (and works correctly) in any slot that is at least as large as it is (e.g., an ×1 sized card will work in any sized slot); (3) The lane count is automatically negotiated during device initialization, and can be restricted by either endpoint. For example, a single-lane PCIe (×1) card can be inserted into a multi-lane slot (×4, ×8, etc.), and the initialization cycle auto-negotiates the highest mutually supported lane count. The link can dynamically down-configure the link to use fewer lanes, thus providing some measure of failure tolerance in the presence of bad or unreliable lanes.

Spoke with Jeff Peterson/Synthax who suggested I post here.  I'd appreciate RME Tech's feedback here on this compatibility question, as well as from forum builders who have successfully tested RayDat in a PCIe 3.0 x8 or x16 slot.

Thanks much.

  • From: Germany
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Re: PCIe 3.0 for audio production?

No known issues, this should just work...

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

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