[LAU] AMD Ryzen Processors for Linux audio

Len Ovens len at ovenwerks.net
Thu Apr 16 23:46:48 CEST 2020


> In data giovedì 16 aprile 2020 15:54:34 CEST, Moshe Werner ha scritto:
>> Hi everyone,
>> I am thinking of upgrading my audio PC/Laptop
>> [...] some people in the usual forums tend not recommend
>> AMD, because of latency issues.
>> Are there any Linux users successfully using Ryzen CPUs for low latency
>> work?

I think there are a few things to look at regurding this, Intel has been 
recomended for a lot of people because graphics (at least the built in 
ones) are a non-issue (except the Atom ones which otherwise are quite nice 
Audio CPUs).

The second thing is that people have been tweaking Intel machines for a 
long time. So the tweaks are well known. AMD has had a history of using 
tricks and hacks to at least look like they are out performing an Intel 
equivelent. Different speeds from core to core etc. And while none of 
these things should be a problem so long as they are easy to control, 
maybe not that many people know how. People have just used what is known 
and easy to use. Intel has tended to contribute to the linux kernel to 
make sure everything works. I am not so sure about AMD.

So I don't think the AMD CPUs are bad, there is just less info on 
tweaking. Another thing to remember is that modern Intel mother boards are 
not as easy to get good performance on either. All the "affordable" Audio 
units are now USB which was never really designed to be low latency in the 
first place. So low latency has gone from being able to get solid sub ms 
latency to good 5ms latency so far as I can tell (one way jack latency 
only). Either the world has found out that 5ms is "good enough" or those 
who want more will have to spend more.

Another thing that has changed is how USB is implemented. On a lot of 
mother boards it is impossible to get one's mouse and keyboard on a 
different USB bus from the audio interface. It seems to only sure way is 
to add a PCIe USB card for the audio box. It used to be that one side of 
the computer was one bus and the other side was another... not any more. 
The computer does internal routing to put all of them on one bus except 
may be USB3 stuff (which I have none of).

--
Len Ovens
www.ovenwerks.net


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