Can i use HDMI on the graphics card for better sound?

neojapsz · 18 Jul 2016 at 22:27

Im looking at a new PC, it has 2 HDMI ports, an optical, and the standard 3.5mm.
The onboard sound is from a realtek Hi-Fi ACL892, now is it possible to bypass this, and just use one of the HDMI ports to a digital AV receiver which ive yet to purchase. The other HDMI port would go to my monitor.

Im guessing this would give better sound quality than using the onboard?
I can't install a seperate sound card into this particular PC as no space, other option is external soundcard.

Im just after the best sound i can get, 2 channel only, dont need anything else.

Martini1991 · 18 Jul 2016 at 22:28

Could you not just use optical?

neojapsz · 18 Jul 2016 at 22:42

never used optical before, thought it would be best to stick to HDMI as that is a newer type of port? Depends on what is most simple to set-up and have no issues, does opitcal bypass the soundcard as well then, and your AV receiver does that job?

Rannoch · 18 Jul 2016 at 22:54

I use HDMI -> Yamaha AV receiver -> Projector.

neojapsz · 18 Jul 2016 at 23:07

im guessing if its just one HDMI cable to the AV receiver and then another one from that to the monitor, then the AV receiver needs to be on, or will it just passthrough

Rannoch · 18 Jul 2016 at 23:27

Yes, one hmdi to AV and another to monitor. In my case the amp needs to be on to output to the projector. I also setup 5.1 in sound, works well and that's on a lowly Nvidia 730 card, had it working through the hmdi on the motherboard before that from the Intel cpu.

neojapsz · 19 Jul 2016 at 01:53

just been looking at new av receivers and the only ones with HDMI inputs are the ones for surround sound home cinema, which isnt something i need. I was looking at just the Hi-Fi receivers so they only have optical and usb. So i guess i could output via USB from the PC? So this would bypass the onboard sound and the new hi-fi receiver would be the DAC?

Rannoch · 19 Jul 2016 at 16:31

Optical to optical make more sense. The motherboard should detect you are using the optical connection and that's it.

hyperseven · 19 Jul 2016 at 16:53

What are you powering, speakers or headphones?

If only 2 channel, USB or optical DAC, about £50.

ExoMale · 19 Jul 2016 at 19:28

Nothing wrong with using optical if both devices have he ports, I used it when I had a home cinema(no all in one job) ages ago, quality was good, but it's down to the speakers too, I use HDMI or just onboard now as I don't own a home cinema anymore and tbh the sound difference is next to none.

I use monitor speaker(if weak really) or a USB with aux headset.

You obviously can buy very good sound cards internally or externally, but are quite expensive more so if you have crappy speakers

imginy · 19 Jul 2016 at 19:58

I use graphics card to panasonic home cinema to tv all with hdmi.

Hdmi will do the best qaulity sound and will do 5.1 in games where as optical can only do 2 channel in games (unless you have dts conect)

If you only want 2 channel it probably easier and just as good to use your optical port.

neojapsz · 20 Jul 2016 at 13:16

thanks for all the replies, as its not a game PC, just music on a 2 channel with very good mission speakers and i will get hi-fi amp, in the region of £300-£400, which isnt going to have HDMI because its not a home cinema one,.

Then from what everyone has said i will go with the optical out as my best option as that bypasses the cheap onboard soundcard and my amp will do the DAC conversion.

harryface · 20 Jul 2016 at 14:53

I have done this in the past.

I used to use a setup of projector and amp, however for gaming video though the amp creates a huge amount of input lag. My solution was hdmi out to projector and hdmi out to amp carrying audio. worked perfectly.

Rannoch · 20 Jul 2016 at 15:15

I game through my amp to the projector, never had any lag.

UltraSBM · 21 Jul 2016 at 09:27

neojapsz said:
Im looking at a new PC, it has 2 HDMI ports, an optical, and the standard 3.5mm.
The onboard sound is from a realtek Hi-Fi ACL892, now is it possible to bypass this, and just use one of the HDMI ports to a digital AV receiver which ive yet to purchase. The other HDMI port would go to my monitor.

Im guessing this would give better sound quality than using the onboard?
I can't install a seperate sound card into this particular PC as no space, other option is external soundcard.

Im just after the best sound i can get, 2 channel only, dont need anything else.

TBH the GPU will most probably have less electrical interference than the onboard sound processor, and as you seem to have relatively relaxed requirements, I'd stick with HDMI.
And before anyone says "Optical doesn't have interference" I don't mean at the connector stage - I mean electrical interference on the chip itself from components around it.