nvidia HDMI audio pass-through - anyone know? (1 Viewer)

[Paul D G]

Unnecessary explaination - I've been using a cheapo ATI graphics card in my HTPC for the last few years. It handled 1080p like a champ, and passed through 5.1 audio to my receiver through the HDMI port (which was the main reason for the ATI card).


I've upgraded the PC to W10 and the card is old enough where it's not working well with W10 (actually it works great but the edges of the deskop are off the screen so I can't see things like the taskbar. the problem is the driver configuration settings aren't supported in W10 so I can't resize properly). So I'm looking to upgrade the video card.


I prefer nvidia. Does anyone know if passing audio through the HDMI port of a video card is now the standard and/or supported by nvidia? Or even if all ATI cards support this?


This isn't exactly something mentioned in the specs on a card and I don't want to drop $200 on a card to find it can't do what I specifically bought it for!


Thanks!

 

[Ken H]

At this point in time, I believe any current graphics card with HDMI has digital multichannel embedded audio. I bought an XFX Radeon R7 240 last year for about $60 and it has it.


On the EVGA web site they say:


The latest Nvidia GeForce drivers allow you to enable or disable HDMI Audio through the Nvidia Control Panel. You may want to use this for several reasons. First, this option will allow you to use headphones or speakers connected to either the onboard audio panel or your front panel, even though you are using the SPDIF pass-through audio connector, by simply turning the HDMI audio to disabled. Likewise, you can switch back to the SPDIF pass-through when finished with your headphones or speakers by switching the HDMI audio to enabled. Second, this option is available for each monitor or TV you have attached, so you can enable or disable the HDMI Audio to each monitor or TV you are using. Third, this will help solve conflicts between using a onboard sound and HDMI pass-through audio. Finally, this option is located in a very convenient location to quickly change settings to suit your audio needs.

 

[mattCR]

Any Nvidia higher than GT210 series will output HD-audio for the most part; there are a few exceptions that have been off the market for quite some time, but in general any Nvidia card, even the cheap ones, correctly pass HD-Audio.