Systems and methods are provided for use in an IED that perform high resolution waveform capture to generate multi-rate waveform data in real-time. In one embodiment, high-resolution sampled data is dynamically pre-ordered into separate high resolution and low resolution data streams for presentation and storage. This pre-ordering of data is optimized so as to minimize the amount of data manipulation required to prepare the sampled data for eventual presentation and storage in the IED. Pre-ordering of data facilitates minimum performance impact so that continuous real-time data capture can be achieved.