• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

GFX Cards With HDMI outputs, and Audio??

lettuce

lettuce

lettuce

Associate
Joined
15 Oct 2007
Posts
2,186
Location
Bedfordshire, UK.
Im looking at building a media center PC to go under my LCD for HD video, i would like a 1 cable solution, so am looking at HDMI, i have noticed some GFX cards with HDMI outputs state, "7.1 Audio Channel Support" does that mean i can get audio as well as video form the HDMI connection on the card itself, if so how i go about this??

The card im looking at is the, Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4670 Ultimate "Passive" 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI/HDMI
 
That 4670 will output sound, what you may want to consider though is that if you aren't going to be playing any games on the HTPC, then you'll be better off getting a cheaper card.

The cheapest 4350 for around £25 will do you very well if you're not interested in playing games with it.
 
Thanks for the replies, so i can basically have 1 HDMI cable connected to the GFX card and ill get video and audio from the 1 cable. Does the GFX card have its own onboard sound then or does it bypass it from the mobo onboard??
 
lettuce said:
Thanks for the replies, so i can basically have 1 HDMI cable connected to the GFX card and ill get video and audio from the 1 cable. Does the GFX card have its own onboard sound then or does it bypass it from the mobo onboard??
Click to expand...

It bypasses the system sound, though it can work as a sound device by itself, as in, can work if you don't have a sound card installed.

All of ATi's HD2,3,4,5 cards can do audio over HDMI, but their later cards are better at it. A 4XXX series will be better than 2 and 3 series by a good amount, HDMI audio support was a bit flaky with the 2 and 3 series.

But yeah, you can just plug the card in to your TV and you'll get sound through it.
 
So i take it the sound on the gfx card is as good as onboard sound on a motherboard, but not as good as a dedicated souncard?
 
Word of warning, if you thinking of outputting onto an AV reciever, none of the graphic cards will remux any of the DTS/DTS-EX,DD-EX,TRUE HD and blah blah.

You need to have a dedicated 1.3HDMI audio card.
 
Minstadave said:
It's a digital output so it's the same output as onboard or dedicated.
Click to expand...

Cool, i think the, Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4670 Ultimate "Passive" 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI/HDMI is my best bet then as its passively cooled, so will be quiet which is what im after and seems compact enough.

On a side note, i cant seem to see a micro atx catogrie for mobos on the site, any ideas what mobos would fit in the, Antec Fusion Remote HTPC Case??
 
Schizophonic said:
Word of warning, if you thinking of outputting onto an AV reciever, none of the graphic cards will remux any of the DTS/DTS-EX,DD-EX,TRUE HD and blah blah.

You need to have a dedicated 1.3HDMI audio card.
Click to expand...

That's where the low-end HD 5 series are going to shine.
 
Schizophonic said:
Word of warning, if you thinking of outputting onto an AV reciever, none of the graphic cards will remux any of the DTS/DTS-EX,DD-EX,TRUE HD and blah blah.

You need to have a dedicated 1.3HDMI audio card.
Click to expand...

Thats what i was going to ask, so none of the ATI HD3,4 or 5 series will out put DD 5.1 etc to my A/V amp, just PLII? Do OC stock said HDMI audio cards?

Minstadave said:
What CPU are you thinking of using?
Click to expand...

prob a E5300 2.60GHz
 
Last edited:
Minstadave said:
All of the cards you mention will output 5.1 DD, just not the fancy 7.1 HD formats.

I thought the 5 series can bitstream the HD audio formats though.
Click to expand...

Ah thats ok then, only have a 6.1 setup anyway, but the 5 series does 7.1 also, does that include DTS?

1 quesion though whats the sound quality like when playing games?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom