USB 3 interface?

[YummYDelicious0]

I know USB 3 is insanely fast and what not so are there any good USB 3 interfaces out there?

 

[drmosh]

I know USB 3 is insanely fast and what not so are there any good USB 3 interfaces out there?

Because USB3 provides no latency benefits over USB2 and USB2 has more than enough bandwidth to deal with audio data.

 

[KingAenarion]

Newer RME Interfaces are having Thunderbolt/USB 3 as opposed to USB 2.0 and Firewire.

Some of the UAD stuff has USB 3, as does the new Presonus stuff.

There are stability differences between USB 2 and 3, which mean they need to write different styles of drivers for audio.

 

[steelyad]

Yeah USB3 is a bit of a no-go at the minute for audio. It's good for high data applications like hard drives, but it works much like USB2 in that it stores up a chunk of data before firing it over, causing quite a lot of latency. This is a hardware-level problem that can't really be fixed, and it's a wonder RME can get their USB interfaces to have low latency at all - i've yet to see anyone else with respectable latency over USB2 or 3. Presonus have made a USB3 interface, but it's got dodgy drivers and awful latency so I wouldn't bother. I'd look at thunderbolt as it's actually externalised PCI-E, meaning it's like an injection straight to the brain of the computer and there's almost no latenct involved at the hardware level.

 

[YummYDelicious0]

Yeah USB3 is a bit of a no-go at the minute for audio. It's good for high data applications like hard drives, but it works much like USB2 in that it stores up a chunk of data before firing it over, causing quite a lot of latency. This is a hardware-level problem that can't really be fixed, and it's a wonder RME can get their USB interfaces to have low latency at all - i've yet to see anyone else with respectable latency over USB2 or 3. Presonus have made a USB3 interface, but it's got dodgy drivers and awful latency so I wouldn't bother. I'd look at thunderbolt as it's actually externalised PCI-E, meaning it's like an injection straight to the brain of the computer and there's almost no latenct involved at the hardware level.

Any recommendations for a good Thunderbolt Card?

 

[Tegara]

Do you have actual latency issues with your current card because you might be approaching the problem in a wrong way.

 

[YummYDelicious0]

I have a Saffire Pro 40. It's not bad, just looking to improve when I put my studio back together