What card with HDMI and sound

Luke284 · 17 Aug 2008 at 00:14

Hi, Im after a graphics card which has HDMI which sends sound down the wire too. The card must also be passive.

was looking at this but im not sure it does sound.

This one looks good, but quite a bit more expensive.

This will be for a HTPC so needs to be able to handle HD stuff.

AS_Platinum · 17 Aug 2008 at 01:13

The sapphire HD3450 is more than capable of playing HD material, and carrying sound via the HDMI dongle.

http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/products/products_overview.php?gpid=239

Luke284 · 17 Aug 2008 at 01:34

after a bit of digging it appear the sapphire cards support sound but dont come with a DVI to HDMI adaptor. Since most aftermarket adaptors dont support the sound part it seams a little pointless!

Big.Wayne · 17 Aug 2008 at 02:08

I bought two Sapphire HD3450's and they both came with DVI-HDMI adaptors?

Luke284 · 17 Aug 2008 at 10:02

Hmm, ok. does anyone know if this comes with an adaptor? id quite like the dual dvi too...

Speed · 17 Aug 2008 at 15:46

According to most reviews the Sapphire cards do seem to come with the adapter, but I'd e-mail OcUK through there website to be certain. They can double check by opening one up for you.

Speed · 17 Aug 2008 at 15:49

This might be helpful as well: http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/productfiles/Catalogue_HDMI_Sound_output.pdf

Gives instructions on enabling sound over HDMI in XP and Vista.

Big.Wayne · 17 Aug 2008 at 16:33

Speed said:
They can double check by opening one up for you.

I'm not sure they will, I emailed in advance and they were unsable to confirm so I just bought the card anyway, had the adapter!

Speed · 17 Aug 2008 at 16:58

Ah right, well that's good news!

Luke284 · 18 Aug 2008 at 14:31

I sent a webnote to OcUK asking and they said it had an adaptor included, so I've ordered one.

Luke284 · 19 Aug 2008 at 12:03

well, i just received the card and I'm not happy. It didn't come with a DVI-HDMI adaptor. Also, its not a dual DVI card. It's only got one DVI port. So, I've requested a RMA number and will order an ASUS 3650 SILENT instead.

J.D · 19 Aug 2008 at 12:14

Unlucky. Hope you get your new card soon and that you are satisfied. Nothing worse than getting a new toy only to find out that it's not the right one.

Speed · 19 Aug 2008 at 12:30

Sorry to hear that, do the model numbers match up to what you ordered?

Luke284 · 19 Aug 2008 at 12:32

yes, I checked that first.

Speed · 19 Aug 2008 at 12:35

Strange!

Big.Wayne · 20 Aug 2008 at 02:06

Luke284 said:
well, i just received the card and I'm not happy. It didn't come with a DVI-HDMI adaptor. Also, its not a dual DVI card. It's only got one DVI port. So, I've requested a RMA number and will order an ASUS 3650 SILENT instead.

Which card did you get? The normal HD3450 is dual-DVI but the low profile HD3450 only has one DVI and comes with a HDMI adapter? at least the two I ordered did?

Part Number# Sapphire 11125-02-20R

AbsenceJam · 20 Aug 2008 at 03:01

Do be aware that all the GFX cards with HDMI sound are limited to 48/16 for the higher resolution trackers on BD/HD-DVD.

Big.Wayne · 20 Aug 2008 at 03:18

What does that mean? :confused:

AbsenceJam · 20 Aug 2008 at 04:36

Big.Wayne said:
What does that mean?

Standard tracks on BD/HD-DVD are 48Khz/16bit, but some are 24bit and up to 192Khz. You can only get that with devices that support the protected audio path, these are the Xonar HDMI, X-Fi Prelude HDMI and, when software supports it, the G45 chipset.

But I'm quite forgetting that on the ATi 3xxx cards the HDMI audio is just S/PDIF over HDMI so you can only output 2 channel LPCM or multichannel DD/DTS anyway. The 4xxx series can carry 7.1 LPCM but it doesn't have the bandwidth for above 48/16 even if it supported the protected path.

Big.Wayne · 20 Aug 2008 at 05:25

What does that mean? :confused: