Hi all

I'm browsing the interwebs looking to replace my MOTU Ultralite Firewire, I'm seeking for the best processing performance in DAW, in realtime, which means I'm looking for the soundcar that will communicate best with my gear (i7 Win7 with FL/PT/Live) to raise the ceilling of the devil "100% CPU Usage". The MOTU performed so much better than my old M-Audio FW 410, but I need even more realtime processing now.

I think I might go for an RME or TC, but the actual question is :

In the RME line-up for example, is the RME HDSP 96 PCI or HDSP AiO will perform better than a Babyface?

More simple : Which is the fastest/best type of device? PCIE? Firewire? Or maybe USB3? I can't use Thunderbolt... I have a Firewire 800 PCI card.

On the basic math point of view, PCIE have the biggest data transfer rate, but I know it's more complex than this.

 

Additionnal question : If I go for a PCI interface, how do I connect the XLRs of my HS50+HS10 kit?

 

I use a RME UCX, and I've used it with both firewire and USB, the main difference is that with USB it to be wall wart powered and with firewire it can be either wall wart or pc powered via the firewire card........there is a small performance improvement with USB, not much for me, but its there.

RME reckon firewire is best for older pc's and USB for more modern....

I was a bit sceptical of the USB claims, but it seems to do the job well.

I can't help on the relative merits of the various bits of kit as I only have experince of the one bit of RME kit, but like you I did a lorra looking around before I parted with any dosh.

GL with it moosh

 

Different interfaces use different amounts of CPU in this order, from best to worst:
1) PCIe
2) PCI
3) Thunderbolt
4) Firewire
5) USB3
6) USB2

I use RME PCI and TC Firewire. The difference in performance is obvious. I will always go for a PCIe/PCI audio card on a PC for recording and mixing. That's not to say that USB interfaces are not usable! Far from it. Just that PCI, TB, and FW interfaces use less CPU, have lower latency, and generally just perform a little better.

Cheers!

 

Audio cards [generally? I wouldn't buy one without TRS outputs] have TRS balanced outputs, so you can connect your speakers with 2 balanced stereo jack > XLR cables. If you have a separate input for your subwoofer, you will need an audio card with 3 TRS balanced outputs, but I think HS10 sub connects to the HS50 satellites and the crossover is in the satellites, I'm not sure. I've never seen a Yamaha HS setup with a subwoofer.

 

Lots of bs is told here.

All you will notice if you use PCI(e), usb or firewire is a differnece in latency. You wont notice CPU use differnce at all. Cause there is none. Or at least none that makes a difference you could ever notice. If you use an interface with dsp then its another story.
For the cpu it dosent matter which connection you use. For your daw it does. The bus used is what is different.

Really really simplified - Your cpu says to your interface - "the daw wants DATA - sent it". Your cpu has to give that order no matter what connection you use. And all connections run in the same Bus system .But the diffrence is while a pci card can send 250 mb/s your usb card can only send 54MB/s.

So all your connection does is lower/rise your latency and change the ammount of data that can be send/received/s. And with a good driver like rme the latency dosent even matter. I get the same latency performance from my (old) usb babyface as i got from my (old) RME HDSP (PCI) - 32 samples 1,8 ms.

So if you wanna use VSTis and use them in realtime, a fast connection or a good driver will help you a lot. But for your "processing performance in DAW" (cpu use) it wont change anything.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jan 13, 2017

and to ad to TW
Firewire used to be better (still is for most hardware exept rme and metric or prism)
because it doesnt need the cpu much
it used to be a problem early in usb 2 days that if you copy some files, in the
background / services, the audio "must wait" fo a free cpu cycle.
just watch your taskmanger when copying files. there is no spike with fw.
anyways it isnt much of a problem anymore, exept for power limits on usb2 no problems with usb whatsoever.
you could run into problems with the wrong firewire chipset (mostly) not a problem with the aformentioned firms
big problems with motu and tc

look at it like this
pci, pci expres and thunderbolt are basicly the same
usb-c then usb3.1(3)
then Fw800 and usb2 lastly Fw400

 

Like CPU usage mattered these days... wake me up when a session of mine hits 50% CPU

 

it matters with latency (while multitasking) ;)

 

Wouldnt the difference in the type of interface that you choose for your audio device depend on how many sources that you need to record simultaneously? Also something to consider. Wouldnt a band recording setup and or drum recording benefit from the extra bandwith from non usb2 interfaces?

 

Last edited: Jan 14, 2017

Many, many thanks for all your anwsers guys, it helps a lot!

So, If I get it correctly, there WILL be for sure a serious jump in performance translations from my CPU ((that is used up to 40% max in any DAW, still with 100% Daw CPU usage when bloated with realtime plugins, you know why)) If I let go this old FW800 for a PCI/PCI-E card?

Should I really consider USB3? Got 4 USB3 on my rig but I'd buy a new usb3 card anyway to use a new bus, If I choose USB3 solution.

Someone told me that all soundcard have TRS outputs so my question about the XLR of my speakers is not to ask, but where is the TRS on a product like this? https://www.thomann.de/fr/rme_hdspe_aio.htm

I'm a bit lost on the rooting side of the PCI/PCI-E solution

And I'm sure the answer will make me feel dumb

 

Yes I guess it would. Anyway I dont need to record much sources, 4 would be enough!

 

Well good for you but it is a typical problem for most of full ITB producers. Or maybe you are being ironic?

 

no need to start a post in this tone ?!?

Anyway, If You play a Guitar, and want to use Your Amp sims and effects in real time, than PCI and PCIe have the lowest latency (good drivers are a must)
The same goes if You use Your Master Keyboard to play in real time various virtual instruments

If You mix with higher buffer settings, with no regards to latency, than there is not a big difference what controllers Your PC uses.

My choice will always be PCI or PCIe, since Low Latency is the most important factor when it comes to my needs (live performance)
------------------------------------------------------------

Apart from that, if You use Your PC in Live situations, than, choosing a DAW that plays well with Your hardware is also very important.

Here a few reference points:

DAWs that never! crashed on me:
- Cubase
- Reaper

DAWs that are stable but slow:
- Protools

DAWs that are very good, but too complicated for a Live setup
- Samplitude
- Sequoia

DAWs that are unstable with my hardware:
- Studio One

 

Yeah I'm more the "I'm forced to mix at high buffer and need to optimize my CPU/Soundcard relationship/performance translations" case, I have a Mac Book for live performance, this new soundcard is for my processing power monster, a home-built PC with Win7. So I'm looking for the best card on the "If you mix with high buffer settings, no regards to latency, ITB work, need best CPU usage" side of producing...

 

I produce ITB and max out CPU in heavy projects and mastering sessions. I only have 4 cores

 

Well, I try to do the same

 

I'm sorry to have to tell you that, but your statement is not entirely true. The difference in CPU usage between different ASIO drivers and interconnections can be as significant as being able to use [say] 150 plugins instead of 100 at a *low latency* of 64/128/256 samples. The difference is not that big at bigger latencies like 512 or 1024 samples, though and you can say it's insignificant then.

I surely love to use my interfaces with the lowest latency I can, except when it comes to mixing a huge project.

Read up here: http://www.dawbench.com/

 

This is incredibly helpful. Thanks a lot!