WS2801 vs WS2812 in RGB matrix

[teixense]

Hi guys.
So i am going to make a RGB matrix. Somewhere arround 60x30 or 30x20.
So after getting a TLC5940 working i decided to use addresseble led strips.

Now wich one to chose?
I want to be able to send the data the fast as i can, and with the least processor overhead.
I know the ws2812 is the most popular but i just don't see why. It's limited to 800Khz, the signal is hard to make with a MCU.I am using SPI/SSI module and it takes 8 data outputs to make a bit, with it working at 6.4Mhz. Right now i have 34uS send time per led, close to the 30uS maximum of the ws2812.

A ws2801 works up to 25Mhz, it works with internal SSI/SPI peripherals, and it's so much lighter on the MCU processor, with a TLC5940, about the same protocol, i had 0,29% processor busy with 21 of them and with no DMA. And i can chain up so much more with the 25Mhz speed than with the ws2812 800Khz.

Could anyone help me chose?

[pburgess]

Much of the popularity of the WS2812B stems from the low cost; cents trumps megahertz. The data bottleneck can be overcome through parallelism, have a look at the OctoWS2811 or Fadecandy projects.

The WS2801 (and also LPD8806) can be driven faster over SPI, but it isn't all roses. Most of our Arduino code limits these to 1 or 2 megahertz because Weird Things™ happen with high-speed signals. Even though the logic at both the transmitting and receiving ends can handle higher speeds, the wiring may be prone to interference or can corrupt the signal in various ways. I've successfully run them at 4 and occasionally 8 MHz, but that's an exception rather than the rule, hence the in-library throttling.