USB 2.0 device owners, I upgraded to a USB 3.0 adapter, my verdict

briangig · 04-28-2013, 08:17 AM

I had a use for my USB 2 adapter (DL-195 chipset) at work, so I used that as a lame excuse to upgrade to the Pluggable DL-3500 chipset adapter for home use.

My short verdict: No, the upgrade is not worth it (right now) in my opinion.

Long answer: There may be a slight performance increase, or it could be a placebo effect. Moving windows around is still a little iffy, and the mouse isn't exactly smooth. However, with improvements in the driver coming (I hope), the USB 3 device will no doubt improve in its performance over the USB 2 devices.

One thing I did notice, which I never did with the USB 2 adapter (I may have just not noticed), my CPU (i5) will stay pegged at around 85% if I have a Youtube open in Chrome tab on the monitor attached to the USB adapter.

Also, it was a little depressing how well the USB 2 device runs under Windows...talk about seamless.

taocayo · 05-04-2013, 03:10 AM

I'd like to concur on briangig's opinion. I went from using eVGA's UV+ 19 to USB32DPPRO on a mid 2012 Macbook Air.

Things I've noticed so far:

*Fullscreen video is smoother on the new displaylink 3K but not really watchable.
*Fullscreen browsers (chrome, safari and FF) display much better on the old DL-195. The same applies to text applications like Xcode or other text editors.
*The new DL-3K is much more CPU intensive. Around 20-30% is my rough estimate.

It seems that DL-3K performs better than DL-195 when it has available CPU cycles but since it's less efficient it hits the CPU limit more often and the performance is worse overall. I'm guessing this is an issue that could be resolved with better drivers in the future.

04-28-2013, 08:17 AM	#1
briangig Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2012 Posts: 11	USB 2.0 device owners, I upgraded to a USB 3.0 adapter, my verdict I had a use for my USB 2 adapter (DL-195 chipset) at work, so I used that as a lame excuse to upgrade to the Pluggable DL-3500 chipset adapter for home use. My short verdict: No, the upgrade is not worth it (right now) in my opinion. Long answer: There may be a slight performance increase, or it could be a placebo effect. Moving windows around is still a little iffy, and the mouse isn't exactly smooth. However, with improvements in the driver coming (I hope), the USB 3 device will no doubt improve in its performance over the USB 2 devices. One thing I did notice, which I never did with the USB 2 adapter (I may have just not noticed), my CPU (i5) will stay pegged at around 85% if I have a Youtube open in Chrome tab on the monitor attached to the USB adapter. Also, it was a little depressing how well the USB 2 device runs under Windows...talk about seamless.

05-04-2013, 03:10 AM	#2
taocayo Junior Member Join Date: May 2013 Posts: 1	I'd like to concur on briangig's opinion. I went from using eVGA's UV+ 19 to USB32DPPRO on a mid 2012 Macbook Air. Things I've noticed so far: Fullscreen video is smoother on the new displaylink 3K but not really watchable. Fullscreen browsers (chrome, safari and FF) display much better on the old DL-195. The same applies to text applications like Xcode or other text editors. *The new DL-3K is much more CPU intensive. Around 20-30% is my rough estimate. It seems that DL-3K performs better than DL-195 when it has available CPU cycles but since it's less efficient it hits the CPU limit more often and the performance is worse overall. I'm guessing this is an issue that could be resolved with better drivers in the future.