Question about latency - USB vs. PCI - in sonar

I have an old M-audio delta 1010 and run it at 1.5ms latency (24/44k) ... I maybe doing a mobile rig with laptop and wonder if there is any USB sound cards that run that fast. I dont need 10 in and outs...more like 4 at best - cause Im just playing live thru it.
however, I can tell a difference in the 'feel' when you get above 5ms...givin there is already embedded latency.  I have heard for years that USB is just as good...or have heard it has never had the latency even close to PCI ...even the old stuff is still faster. I just dont know, i just dont have expereince in that. Howver, I would like to see as I am also looking at android and stuff slowly coming out for midi support/etc. (its just not at the level pc is...and I like having nice sounds in a compact laptop) and I like recording while we play.  FYI - i did do a search on the forums for latency and didnt pull up much

Hi Ben,
 
The Delta 1010 yields 5ms total round-trip latency at a 64-sample ASIO buffer size 44.1k
The best USB audio interfaces are right on par.

• The RME Fireface UFX yields 4.3ms total round-trip latency at a 48-sample ASIO buffer size 44.1k
• The RME Fireface UFX yields 5.1ms total round-trip latency at a 64-samples ASIO buffer size 44.1k

Many USB audio interfaces use a large hidden safety-buffer.
If that's the case, it'll have high round-trip latency.
 
If you stick with RME or MOTU, you'll have low round-trip latency (at or below that 5ms mark).

i believe it was 64... thats what it says on the Sonar profiler. Now that may have been at 96k for 1.5ms...round trip I just dont know...but did see a jump in cpu however,i do have a fx-9590 running at full throttle so it can handle it... ok, i may go and see if I can look at RME or motu. I hope there is better development for usb 3 and faster-smoother-high resolution,etc. I would like to go as cheap with tascam or alesis or whatever but I know sometimes you pay for what you get...I just need LOW LATENCY round trip...

Jim, I don't mean to question your thorough understanding of these things but IIRC the UC and the UFX have the same converters and the UCX has newer AD/DA leading to slightly better figures.

EDIT:
Actually it's more complicated than that but likely the different AD in the UCX doesn't contribute to lower latency. To be fair, I didn't actually measure this number myself, I got it from an article with a long list of tested interfaces that I can't find now, so no use debating the 1ms difference :)

Latency is the enemy.... -S
 

Hi. I had a 1010lt (which I bought new in 2000, and lasted until I decided to upgrade a couple of years ago. Sold it, and still in use on a Win7 Pc elsewhere), and now own a RME Ucx. The latency difference is in pracsis non existent. At least for me as a guitarist.
The stability between them however, is night and day. RME is rock solid on Win 10 (had it on Win 7 until August last year with the same result) no matter what. The 1010lt had its issues after XP / Vista.
All the best.

shawn@trustmedia.tv
Couldn't we take a load off our processors using cell phone powered vst's over USB? more ineractive also...copyright me.

Indeed we can. And even send the synth it's MIDI via wi-fi or bluetooth, while routing the audio out from the tablet/phone's headphone socket. At least, we can if we have the right compatible hardware and operating systems.