USB 2.0 vs 3.0 Performance gains in OSX using current driver
 

Hello all,

Quick question.

I have a 2012 15" Macbook Pro, running OSX 10.8 and Windows 8 using bootcamp.
I currently have the Plugable UGA-2K-A USB 2.0 to DVI adaptor and it works fine in Windows, but as you know, the performance in OSX is definetly not as good.

I have USB 3.0 ports on this laptop, and now that DisplayLink has an alpha driver for their USB 3.0 display tech, I was wondering if the performance is a lot better?

I was thinking of ordering some sort of USB 3 adaptor using DisplayLink tech, (Probably Plugable?) but was wondering if the performance gains are worth it using the current driver? Or if I should wait a little while for the kinks to be worked out?

Thanks in advance!

I'm afraid it will not do you much good. In this case it's not the displaylink driver or your Macbook's USB capabilities that are the determining factor, but your USB stick's technology. That is limited to USB 2.0. Of course, under OSX it might still improve with better drivers, but no driver update or notebook capabilities are going bring the performance beyond that what you are currently experiencing under Windows.

If you really want higher performance I would recommend for starters that you look around for one of the USB 3.0 alternatives based on the DL 3x00 chipset. I personally would recommend the Lenovo USB 3.0 dock with 2x DVI, 1x Gbit Ethernet and audio/USB 3.0 ports.

Thanks for the reply, but I'm not sure if you understood my question (maybe I was being confusing). I was asking, if I were to buy a USB 3.0 adaptor based on the DL 3x00 chipset right now, would the performance be fast enough (compared to my current USB 2.0 adapter) using the current OSX DL 3x00 alpha drivers to justify spending the money on the 3.0 adaptor?

Your question was clear, he's just suggested that you do what you were asking whether you should do or not.

As for performance, nobody knows, I'd wait for a third party review cause of course displaylink are gonna say the usb3 one is faster than the usb2.

Another thing to consider is drivers: they can be flakey enough when they are at final release, personally I wouldn't even consider using alpha drivers from displaylink.

I have the USB 3.0 adapter and alpha driver and all I can say it feels a little better than then USB 2.0 device but not by much. You have to remember the driver is in alpha stage so this should improve.

I have it running a display at 1920*1080 in protrait mode.