[chrismeraz]

This was a significant limitation of PT Native for a long time, and I don't believe there is anything Avid could have done about it. A typical HDX system has hundreds of processors dedicated to running your audio in and out as quickly as possible.

Nowadays, depending on the number of tracks and your processor power, (including number of cores, read/write speeds, and transfer bus speeds inside your computer), you can run PT Native sessions at a buffer of 64 or 32 samples. This, in principle would be enough to make PT Native behave like PT HDX, for low track counts and low plug-in counts... or so you would think.

HOWEVER, there are two additional limitations that must be taken into account, and in my limited experience these are going to slow you down even more than the limitations in your PC specs. They are:

1. The round-trip latency through your interface A/D/A conversion, and
2. The latency due to transferring information back and forth between your computer and your interface (this is NOT the same as the hardware buffer - the delay caused by this can be several milliseconds for USB and FireWire devices)

I believe a Thunderbolt 2 or 3 interface such as Focusrite Red or UA Apollo will make PT Native work just the way you would like it to, if everything in your computer is carefully sorted. I'm going to try it in a couple of months myself with a new Apollo 8. The Apollo is only Thunderbolt 2, but I will see if I can afford the new Thunderbolt 3 card. Shame those cards are so expensive... I hope UAD will exchange TB2 card for a TB3 card for a reduced fee.