Send Soundcard Audio Via GPU

Kuuwahi

Kuuwahi

Kuuwahi

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25 Sep 2012
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598
Location
England
Hello,

Although knowing a bundle about Audio this is one thing that I have never known or even dabbled in.

I currently have

2 x NVIDIA GTX680 4GB Models (Which I will be upgrading)
Sound Blaster ZxR Soundcard
Yamaha RX-475 Amp (5.1)

My situations is when I move to the new house (in 2 weeks) I get a man cave where all my PC gaming goodness will be.

As HDMI puts out a better sound than Optical AND Component I will be using HDMI to push to my monitor and amp.

The question here is, Am I able to send my Soundcards audio through my GPU to my amp via the HDMI?

Or is the GPU sound better quality ?

Cheers
 
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as far as i can tell.. all sound cards have done for along time is amplify a headphone socket when compared to hdmi out from gpu...

Some gpus do have an audio passthrough..but for typical usage i wouldnt bother..just use the gpu's sound output...the sound quality for digital is the same.
 
no quite gn.

Soundcard converts a signal from digital to Analogue and then passively passes it on or Actively (via headphone amp) passes it on.

A GPU doesn't decode the digital signal it just sends it down the HDMI for the Device at the end to decode.

So If you have a high end 5.1 surround reciever you will probably find the sound quality converting from HDMI is better than converting sound in a soundcard and then sending it to the Receiver Via RCA It all depends on the DAC' (digital to analogue converter) in each device.

My AV receiver for example is only good it is not what i would consider HI FI but my DAC is better so for the best performance over all I find it easier to go PC > DAC > AMP rather than PC > AMP
 
Thanks for that Information,

I was unsure if the Audio was processed on the GPU then sent down the HDMI or not.

This has answered peftectly.

Not entirely sure if this is better than the Soundblaster ZxR's DAC but my A/V Amp has Burr-Brown 192 kHz/24-bit DACs for all channels.
 
TwsT said:
Only you can tell that one DAC's are very subjective
Click to expand...

Oh Really. I know what DAC's are and what they do but thats as far as my knowledge on them goes.

I can only assume my £500 A/V Amp will be better than the £180 Soundcard :confused:

And the fact of the only other way for me to output audio from the PC to the Amp is either Component or Optical from the PC Soundcard. Both of which are inferior compared to that of HDMI.
 
the simplicity of configuration/cabling/having less slots used/less drivers.....just go for hdmi out from gpu..id suggest (you wont tell a difference in audio quality id suggest)

One thing you may want to look out for is does your avi receiver support Multi channel PCM over HDMI (HDMI itself supports 8 uncompressed channels)....this way you can have the best of all worlds....send bitstream if you want or rather (preferred imo) have the os manage all the various sounds from multiple applications concurrently...

This is because With bitstream detected eg. from media player... your AV receiver will switch to eg DTS and windows applications (eg an incoming skype call) wont have sound.....better to send PCM from windows, so all applications media players and all have sound.
 
I meant to reply I wrote a massive thing out and forgot to click post

I'll explain later but yeah it all depends on how you listen to music but you can spend money in better places than the DAC. It's probably the item most affected by the laws of diminishing returns.
 
As far as I'm aware Yes, the receiver does support multi channel PCM.

Well, For listening to music I have studio monitors which do not connect to my amp.

As for the A/V I use purposely for 5.1 Gaming on the master rig.
 
Kuuwahi said:
As far as I'm aware Yes, the receiver does support multi channel PCM.

Well, For listening to music I have studio monitors which do not connect to my amp.

As for the A/V I use purposely for 5.1 Gaming on the master rig.
Click to expand...

well my first port of call would be be hdmi out from gpu then...
 
Right, To further expand on this.

As I have been doing some research as I am looking at a 144Hz monitor I have found that HDMI only pushes out upto 60Hz. So this has given me another thing to think about.

The Idea I had was to send Audio ONLY Via the HDMI connection to the A/V Receiver
And said the Video to the Monitor via Display port.

Is this possible ? otherwise I would would have to basically duplicate the image by sending it down both HDMI and Display Port which will reduce the performance.
 
Kuuwahi said:
The Idea I had was to send Audio ONLY Via the HDMI connection to the A/V Receiver
And said the Video to the Monitor via Display port.

Is this possible ? otherwise I would would have to basically duplicate the image by sending it down both HDMI and Display Port which will reduce the performance.
Click to expand...

HDMI only works if video is present. Audio cannot be sent alone.
 
ginjaninja said:
there are different hdmi revisions...hdmi 1.4b can do 120hz for 1080p i understand...need to check your av receiver hdmi standard (and your monitors)
Click to expand...

my A/V receiver is HDMI 1.4a but this makes no difference as its still not 144Hz nor 1440p

Marsman said:
HDMI only works if video is present. Audio cannot be sent alone.
Click to expand...

Seems so, I discovered this... What a poor piece of technology :D

Option 1)
Duplicate the display from Monitor 1 to the A/V Receiver.
How will duplicating the display effect the performance ?


Option 2)
Extend the desktop to the A/V Receiver to which will only display a wallpaper
How will this effect performance ?
 
Kuuwahi said:
my A/V receiver is HDMI 1.4a but this makes no difference as its still not 144Hz nor 1440p



Seems so, I discovered this... What a poor piece of technology :D

Option 1)
Duplicate the display from Monitor 1 to the A/V Receiver.
How will duplicating the display effect the performance ?


Option 2)
Extend the desktop to the A/V Receiver to which will only display a wallpaper
How will this effect performance ?
Click to expand...


due to the audio issue (audio goes with video), your av receiver would be the primary display/connection i suspect...but in any case multiple displays probably needs careful investigation assuming your av receiver doesnt present its multiple hdmi inputs/multiple outputs as multiple monitors..
 
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