TC Powercore Element vs. TC Powercore Firewire

edIT · 17th October 2004, 06:50 AM

Looking into getting a Powercore. Since the Element is so cheap, I was thinking about picking it up. I'm really only gonna be using the Element to run one instance of Master X and one instance of the Virus. Since the Powercore Firewire is considerably more expensive, I'm wondering if the Element will do the trick for me. Anyone have any results? How many plugins can you run on the Element vs. the Firewire? I realistically only need one instance of both Master X 5 and Virus.

radiospace · 17th October 2004, 08:23 AM

Obviously if you only need one instance of Master X and one Virus, the Element will do the trick.

Additionally, the standard Powercore Virus license is limited to running on a single DSP (both the Element and the Firewire have 4 DSPs). Thus you are limited not by the processing power of the Powercore, but rather by the restrictions of the licensing agreement. In other words with a Powercore Element and a standard Powercore Virus license, you can only use 25% of its resources to drive the Virus.

With the additional cost of the Unlimited License you can use all of the resources of your Powercore to drive the Virus program, but what's interesting here is that even though the Powercore Firewire's DSP's are 50% more powerful than those on the Element, they can each run the same 4 instances of Virus Powercore. In other words, even with an unlimited license, the Powercore Firewire has no advantage over the Powercore Element in terms of running the Virus.

Finally of note: the new Powercore Compact has two of the Powercore Firewire's faster DSPs. This equates to similar processing power to the Element for most purposes, but because of the 4-instances-per-DSP limit of the Virus, the Compact can only run half as many instances of the Virus as the other two Powercore products (with an unlimited license).

matucha · 17th October 2004, 10:25 AM

PoCo FiWi is ~1.5 more powerful as I remember. However the price difference (to element) is too big to justify. Element gets my vote ;-).

ssl_ambition · 2nd March 2008, 08:55 PM

it really depends on what you need. some plugins are very dsp hungry. I had 2 TC Powercore Firewire`s and an also an TC Element.

The Element does the job, but if you have to use some "hungry" plugins in an RnB track (as you know rnb tracks got sooooooo many tracks) you maybe will be limited with only an element. If you don`t want to be or hardly limited I would go for the TC Powercore Firewire. If you just wanna test it and don`t want to use the effects a lot in your stuff it`s okay to go for an Element.

Whatever, for myself I wouldn`t go for an Element but for the new X8.

captain caveman · 2nd March 2008, 09:42 PM

I'd hope that the decision would have been made long before today.

Barbary Ape · 2nd March 2008, 11:45 PM

Just to add, be mindfull of the driver compatibility. Poco Element still isn't capable of running the new 3.0 drivers properly, hence no Vista, no Leopard either. Virus only works for Element in version 2 in Mac 10.4/PC XP.

TC said that they are currently working on drivers to make Poco Element/PCI 1st Gen cards work for the newer OSs but it seems like an update is a couple of months away but it will be there we just don't know when.

If you own a UAD card your probably thinking that it's using a somewhat similar type driver/license system, well it's not, Poco's is far complicated and I'm sad to say quite buggy understandably because they have 7 different unit types with different power capacities in Poco while UAD just has one.

ssl_ambition · 18th March 2008, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by captain caveman

I'd hope that the decision would have been made long before today.

yep..but back then the x8 wasn`t out...

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17th October 2004, 06:50 AM	#1
edIT Gear addict Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 373	TC Powercore Element vs. TC Powercore Firewire Looking into getting a Powercore. Since the Element is so cheap, I was thinking about picking it up. I'm really only gonna be using the Element to run one instance of Master X and one instance of the Virus. Since the Powercore Firewire is considerably more expensive, I'm wondering if the Element will do the trick for me. Anyone have any results? How many plugins can you run on the Element vs. the Firewire? I realistically only need one instance of both Master X 5 and Virus.

17th October 2004, 10:25 AM	#3
matucha Lives for gear Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Prague, Czech Republic Posts: 1,951	PoCo FiWi is ~1.5 more powerful as I remember. However the price difference (to element) is too big to justify. Element gets my vote ;-). __________________ Matous Godik

2nd March 2008, 08:55 PM	#4
ssl_ambition Gear maniac Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 171	your need it really depends on what you need. some plugins are very dsp hungry. I had 2 TC Powercore Firewire`s and an also an TC Element. The Element does the job, but if you have to use some "hungry" plugins in an RnB track (as you know rnb tracks got sooooooo many tracks) you maybe will be limited with only an element. If you don`t want to be or hardly limited I would go for the TC Powercore Firewire. If you just wanna test it and don`t want to use the effects a lot in your stuff it`s okay to go for an Element. Whatever, for myself I wouldn`t go for an Element but for the new X8.

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17th October 2004, 08:23 AM	#2
radiospace Gear addict Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 429	Obviously if you only need one instance of Master X and one Virus, the Element will do the trick. Additionally, the standard Powercore Virus license is limited to running on a single DSP (both the Element and the Firewire have 4 DSPs). Thus you are limited not by the processing power of the Powercore, but rather by the restrictions of the licensing agreement. In other words with a Powercore Element and a standard Powercore Virus license, you can only use 25% of its resources to drive the Virus. With the additional cost of the Unlimited License you can use all of the resources of your Powercore to drive the Virus program, but what's interesting here is that even though the Powercore Firewire's DSP's are 50% more powerful than those on the Element, they can each run the same 4 instances of Virus Powercore. In other words, even with an unlimited license, the Powercore Firewire has no advantage over the Powercore Element in terms of running the Virus. Finally of note: the new Powercore Compact has two of the Powercore Firewire's faster DSPs. This equates to similar processing power to the Element for most purposes, but because of the 4-instances-per-DSP limit of the Virus, the Compact can only run half as many instances of the Virus as the other two Powercore products (with an unlimited license).

2nd March 2008, 09:42 PM	#5
captain caveman Gear maniac Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 286	I'd hope that the decision would have been made long before today.

2nd March 2008, 11:45 PM	#6
Barbary Ape Gear nut Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 135	Just to add, be mindfull of the driver compatibility. Poco Element still isn't capable of running the new 3.0 drivers properly, hence no Vista, no Leopard either. Virus only works for Element in version 2 in Mac 10.4/PC XP. TC said that they are currently working on drivers to make Poco Element/PCI 1st Gen cards work for the newer OSs but it seems like an update is a couple of months away but it will be there we just don't know when. If you own a UAD card your probably thinking that it's using a somewhat similar type driver/license system, well it's not, Poco's is far complicated and I'm sad to say quite buggy understandably because they have 7 different unit types with different power capacities in Poco while UAD just has one.