USB 3 camera on USB 2 computer frame rates?

[michaelmorris]

I'm considering upgrading my planetary/lunar camera one on the new ZWO ultra high frame rate USB 3 cameras.  Is there any way of gaining the benefit of the high frame rates possible with USB 3 on my Windows 7 pro desktop (which presently has USB 2 inputs)?  Could this system benefit from adding a USB 3 PCI card?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker®-Uspeed-Express-Connector-another/dp/B007SJGGAE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1467636605&sr=8-2&keywords=pci+usb+3

Thanks

 

[rwg]

Hi,

yes, you can use a USB3 PCI card and get higher frame rates, although you won't get all the way to the advertised frame rate of the camera as the PCI express x1 speed becomes the limiting factor first (PCIe x4 USB3 cards are rare and expensive). From memory you'll get to about 90-100fps on the ASI174 instead of 160fps. Note that you will need an SSD to capture for any significant time at these frame rates!

It's worth noting that these USB3 cameras can be a bit choosy about which USB3 chipset you have. I know there are Via and Renesas chipsets and I ended up buying both sorts, but without going home and looking at device manager I can't remember which one worked best!

cheers,

Robin