CPU Upgrade from AMD FX8350 to Ryzen 9 3900X or invest in dsp based premium plugins like uad

Hello Nouts

I have a bit trouble in my mind. Actually a have a win10 pc with amd 8350fx 16 Gb ram ssd for system drive and a rme fireface 400. The system is runnig mid stable. Sometimes it has lags of 30 sec. I am running push 2 with ableto ln 10. The cpu load is often in the range of 20 to 60 at max. With rme i got good driver performance. No dropouts with small buffersizes. But the loading of plugins in ableton and stuff often lags a bit. There is a bottleneck and I dont know where to find. The performance of the push 2 display isnt always that fast I want to. Changes between the menus is a bit with latency.

Now i have a budget of 1000 € and thinking about a pc Upgrade to a Ryzen 9 3900X with a NVME drive as System and Ableton drive.

I dont want to sell my rme fireface so I need to put a pcie firewire controller card with a texas instruments chipset into my system. Amd Mainbaord Chipsets like the x570 arent compatible with firewire controller cards so i have to use the chipset b450. That is what I found out within my research.

So what would you do? Find the bottleneck in my old system and only change a small part and not the whole system and save money for auditional uad dsp system for better and quality plugin power.

Or by an system upgrade with a bit of danger to the compatibletes of the old fireface 400.

How much a new ryzen cpu will push my system in the sky compared to the uad quad pcie dsp system?

I have only 1000 € to invest. Actually I have only Ableton native Plugins for Audio processing.

I hope you understood what I meant? My English skills are limited. Whats your experiences. Would love if you share with me.

Cheers Milan

Hi
I’m also after a desktop pc. I have been looking at this one as it has such great reviews.

https://www.box.co.uk/MSI-Infinite-A-8SC-641UK-Gaming-Desktop-_2578481.html

I would buy the 3700x instead if you want to stay with AMD, some daws may have trouble with so many cores on the 3900X

I would not invest in UAD if your budget is 1000€, specially if you are happy with Ableton library

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I built a new desktop pc with a Ryzen 7 3700 8x3,6GHz and this machine runs like hell. My UAD Apollo (1st gen, Firewire) was the only thing that didn´t work properly, and out of frustration I got a Fireface 802. I use Valhalla DSP and U-HE FX a lot and don´t miss the UAD plugins at all. My system can handle large arrangements with a lot of VST instruments (Reaktor, U-HE stuff) and FX. Invest in fast drives (M2 or SSD) and put at least 16gb of RAM inside and you are good.

The firewire port IS a problem imo. I have a pci card that worked fine on my old system but like I said before I had trouble with the Apollo in my new computer. The new Fireface runs with USB and even if I use all 16 ADAT inputs together with the 12 analog inputs I don´t get dropouts on 128 samples latency. And by the way I livestream with two HD cameras the same time. It´s just a powerhorse and I spent less than the 1000€ that you mentioned before.

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Given that AMD 8350FX only has a published max temp of 61 degrees (celsius) I’d be looking at temperature first since that seems a bit low - could be what’s causing your bottlenecks.

What kind of cpu temperatures are you getting when running ableton with those plugins? (You can measure this with Core Temp). Also, are you using the stock standard CPU cooler that came with it or an aftermarket cooler?

What Chipset is your mainboard running? I found a post in the rme forum someone got his fireface 400 running with B450 Mainboard.

I think i will try the ryzen 7 3700 with a B450 Chipset Mainboard and a PCIe Firewire Controller Card. When it isnt working I will buy a l Fireface UC and sell my Fireface 400.

I’m about to build a new machine with ryzen 3950x. Can’t wait to test it with some of the Acustica plugins :smiley:

Look into second-hand Fireface 802 that can be used on USB connection. I found one priced same as new babyface pro :slight_smile: they show up from time to time on ebay uk

I’d love to go Ryzen but my Apollo 8 (Blackface, Thunderbolt) doesn’t run on AMD builds.

For 1000€ you can’t really enter the world of UAD (more expensive, especially if you want to own a few of their great plugins), and given the high quality of native plugins these days, I’d def recommend going with a powerful build over buying a few UAD cores.

I have a X570. Make sure that the Motherboard doesn´t bottleneck your CPU!
A Fireface UC would work great with an AMD setup, the software and drivers are the same like the 802.

You’re making me thankful I never went the UAD route.

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