• Welcome to the General Discussion forum for UAD users!

    Please note that this forum is user-run, although we're thrilled to have so much contribution from Drew, Will, and other UA folks!

    Feel free to discuss both UAD and non-UAD related subjects!

    1) Please do not post technical issues here. Please use our UAD Support Forums instead.

    2) Please do not post complaints here. Use the Unrest Forum instead. They have no place in the the General Discussion forum.

    Threads posted in the wrong forum will be moved, so if you don't see your thread here anymore, please look in the correct forum.

    Lastly, please be respectful.

How do you know if a G5 DP1.8 is Rev. A or Rev. B?

whawha

New Member
Well, the DP 1.8 seems to be the way to go at the moment.
Are all the DP 1.8 currently being sold Rev. B, or is there a possibility to pick up a Rev. A (if thats what theyre called...) ? Now that would be very annoying :( :x
Is there any way to tell?
Many thanks in advance

Andreas
 

UAJames

Universal Audio
UA Official
Probably the most obvious (physical) differences is that the Rev B does not have PCI-X slots and can take up to 4GB of RAM instead of the 8GB that other models can.
 

giles117

Active Member
So with a quick visual (just to piggyback) Less memory slots is the tell tale. 4 instead of 8 slots....
 

Demetrious

Active Member
So even though Rev B has DP's it only takes half as much RAM :? .

I'm asouming Rev B is newer, but in some ways has less power (no PCI-x & less RAM) :? .
 

giles117

Active Member
Yes although the diff are minor (in terms of %'s)

memory and PCI-X is the primary issue
 

giles117

Active Member
Here is an old link detailing some benchmark differences between the Rev A and Rev B DP 1.8 G5.

Using Speedmark the Rev A = 197 and the Rev B = 194 a miniscule Difference in speed. leaving memory and PCI-X the only true Issues.

For music I believe 4GB is more than enuff considering most soft samplers Stream from Disk. an dif Disk speed is an issue create a RAID to hold your samples.

http://www.macworld.com/2004/08/reviews ... /index.php
 

Demetrious

Active Member
The difference in speed is negligible :| cool.
 

Vogel

New Member
Pardon my ignorance,
What is the deal with the PCI vs PCI-X slots? I thought PCI-X was supposed to be an improvement over PCI. Are Apple going back to the good ole PCI, or what?

Does that mean there are no compatibility issues with any older PCI cards in for example a dual 1,8 rev B?

Thanks,
Henrik
 

UAJames

Universal Audio
UA Official
Well first there is the physical difference in the slots. PCI (or rather most PCI) slots are either 5v or 3.3v, PCI-X is 3.3v only. The other difference is that PCI-X is a new *updated* protocol, capable of 133Mhz bus speeds. For the most part, PCI-X is also backwards compatible with 3.3v PCI cards (which is why the UAD-1 will *work* in the G5s). The problem we are having in the G5s is not because of PCI-X, but because of a specific PCI-X controller chip used on the motherboad. I believe on these new Dual 1.8 G5s, they are using PCI slots, but they are physically similar to the PCI-X slot, so that means if you have any 5v cards (like the original 424, M-Audio, etc) they need to be modified, or replaced, so they are 3.3v.

If you want to be confused more ;) PCI-Express (PCI-E) is the emerging standard on the PC these days and is only a matter of time before it shows up on the Mac.
 

UAJames

Universal Audio
UA Official
Yes. My guess though is that audio card companies are just going to be waiting for PCI-Express to come to the mac rather than develop a PCI-X card now, only to have PCI-Express on the Mac platform right around the corner. I would venture to guess the new Macs would have PCI-Express withing 1 years time, and currently the only PCI-X cards out right now are high bandwidth network interface cards.
 

UAJames

Universal Audio
UA Official
Yes it is a faster standard, however, currently the only consumer cards availble on the PC end are graphics cards, although down the line, PCI and PCI-X will eventually \"phase-out\" and you will just have PCI-Express. Currently there are no audio/dsp/etc cards for PCI-Express (or PCI-X actually) and it is just now becoming a wide standard in motherboards on the PC side. Here's a good article comparing PCI-X and PCI-E (Express).

http://www.it-enquirer.com/main/ite/mor ... i_express/
 

Demetrious

Active Member
So roughly how long before UA comes out with a PCI-Express UAD-E or UAD-1 PCI-Express card?
 

UAJames

Universal Audio
UA Official
We are keeping a eye on both of these standards as well as other possible solid protocols, but there are no new products to announce at this point. We want to make sure it's a robust and widely accepted protocol before jumping on board with something.

We still see a lot of life left in the UAD-1 so we are still in full scale development for that platform (as well as ironing out the G5 issues...isn't that were this thread started ;) )
 

arimaka

Member
I agree with you James... UAD-1 is still a powerfull card...

I hope that fixing G5 issues is on the top of the list in UA's priorities... I would love to be able to run a 4 card system with a magma card and have absolutely no issues ... be able to use the juice of my UAD-1's to 100%... that way there is really no need for another version of the card just yet
 
UAD Bundle Month
Top