Does the GTX 260 output sound via HDMI ?

E

EarthBrain

Limp Gawd
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Sep 5, 2007
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I am using the MSI OC GTX 260 graphic card but I am not getting any sound from my monitor.

My monitor is the BenQ E2200HD and it has speakers.

Well, I enable HDMI input in the sound setting of both Window Vista and my monitor.

Do I have to plug in that SPDIF cable that came with the MSI OC GTX 260 card? Currently the only cable that is connecting the computer to the monitor is the HDMI cable.

On my ATI 4850 card, it was so easy because I can get sound output directly from the card using HDMI cable.
 
i'm pretty sure you have to connect a cable from your motherboard to your graphics card in order to pass sound through hdmi.
 
I know the BFG GTX 260 Maxcore 216 has a plug which you can plug in a 2 pin SPDIF cord from your sound card. Not sure about others but these video cards certainly have that capability.
 
Unlike the ATI cards, Nvidia cards do not have any sort of audio processing built into them. Instead they use a passthrough system wherein you take the SPDIF out from your sound card (or motherboard's built-in audio) and feed it into your video card. On all nVidia cards (that are HDMI audio capable anyway) the SPDIF passthrough is located right next to the PCIE power connectors. On the GTX280 and 260 there is usually a little plastic or rubber cover you have to remove.

Your card may have come with the proper passthrough cable or you might have to purchase one.
 
There is an audio pass through cable which all of these guys are talking about and its connector is located towards the middle of the card under a plastic cover labeled audio.
 
I have the EVGA GTS 260. The card came with the cable. I have the X-fi gamer sound card. I am not sure if it has the spdif gnd 2 pin header that the cable needs to be connected to.

The X-fi has a two pin header but it is not clear but it is for, a 4-pin Aux connector and the possibility to connect to one of those input bezels that you could install into your case.

I suppose you could plug it into some pins designated on the motherboard but the onboard audio is disabled.

Any tips?
 
i thought most 260 only has DVI output?? so how do you pass sound and video through HDMI? since dvi is video only interface?
 
good question. Why would the cared come with the cable and the interfce if the HDMI jack isn't on the card?
 
calikool said:
Why would the cared come with the cable and the interface if the HDMI jack isn't on the card?
Click to expand...

Many cards these days that don't feature HDMI onboard have an adapter for taking one of the DVI ports and converting it to HDMI. Both connection types carry the same video signal, so making an adapter is easy - and if the card manufacturer wants to have audio over the HDMI adapter as well they simply take a couple of the unused pins on the DVI connection and send audio through those.

Since nVidia GPUs don't have audio processing built-in, a pass-through is used from the motherboard's audio. It is usually a two-wire digital connection from a header on the motherboard to a plug on the card, and the cable is generally included with the card if it also includes a HDMI adapter. In the case of cards with two DVI outputs and an HDMI adapter you will sometimes see one of the ports color-coded to match the adapter; in those cases, that DVI port has special wiring to allow the audio signal to pass through (the other port may not).
 
Something you guys might find interesting:
I have the evga gtx 260 216 core ssc on an asus p5nd. I live in the uk, so buying the spdif cable is a nightmare (although i managed to track one down yesterday) - anyway my point is...
ever since I upgraded from my 8800gts, my tv/monitor has been making popping crackling noises ever since i upgraded (been using a dvi-hdmi cable for ages because of blu-ray)
At first I though it was faulty drivers as it was fine until I installed the drivers. Even when I fed a 3.5mm audio jack into the tv to do sound that way, it didn't accept it - as though the hdmi cable over rid everything. It was only until recently that I realized what the problem was when I was at a friends house and his home cinema was turned on when everything else was off - and I heard the same popping noises.
On research I found out that the 260 CAN send out sound over a hdmi cable so long as a 2-pin spdif cable is plugged from the mobo to the gpu.
I guess the only point I'm trying to make is - a good* dvi-hdmi cable WILL send sound, as mine is trying to at the moment but is missing a vital connection.
When this cable arrives I'll post my results.

*By good, I mean it uses ALL the pins
 
Also remember that even though it is over HDMI, it is still SPDIF, so you can't get the same kinds of audio you would over normal HDMI (7.1 LPCM), some people I know surprisingly didn't know this.
 
djc5166 said:
Also remember that even though it is over HDMI, it is still SPDIF, so you can't get the same kinds of audio you would over normal HDMI (7.1 LPCM), some people I know surprisingly didn't know this.
Click to expand...

Man, you saying that is like when I was told Santa isn't real :(
I knew it all along, deep down - but it sucks ass.
 
WilliamMGeorge said:
Many cards these days that don't feature HDMI onboard have an adapter for taking one of the DVI ports and converting it to HDMI. Both connection types carry the same video signal, so making an adapter is easy - and if the card manufacturer wants to have audio over the HDMI adapter as well they simply take a couple of the unused pins on the DVI connection and send audio through those.

Since nVidia GPUs don't have audio processing built-in, a pass-through is used from the motherboard's audio. It is usually a two-wire digital connection from a header on the motherboard to a plug on the card, and the cable is generally included with the card if it also includes a HDMI adapter. In the case of cards with two DVI outputs and an HDMI adapter you will sometimes see one of the ports color-coded to match the adapter; in those cases, that DVI port has special wiring to allow the audio signal to pass through (the other port may not).
Click to expand...

Not quite, DVI and HDMI are electrically compatible. There are no extra audio pins in an HDMI interface. During vertical blanking periods, the source will send audio packets to the device on the same connections that video data is sent through.

djc5166 said:
Also remember that even though it is over HDMI, it is still SPDIF, so you can't get the same kinds of audio you would over normal HDMI (7.1 LPCM), some people I know surprisingly didn't know this.
Click to expand...

What if your sound device has a BIOS setting that changes from S/PDIF to HDMI?
 
Last edited:
spdif is the exact same signal thats in hdmi. its pure digital. the part that determines 7.1 or 5.1 is your decoding Audio/Video Receiver.

Bios probably wont have a setting to change that. In vista, you have to change your default audio output device's connection, be it analog or "speakers" as vista likes to call it OR "Coax/Optical/HDMI/DVI". The latter all depends on your hardware. XP might run all the outputs at the same time, but i dont think your using that are you?
 
As long as you don't get screwed like me. My mobo doesn't have a spdif connector on it. :(
 
Why would u want sound through your HDMI anyways? Monitor speakers suck.
 
XLeezardx said:
Why would u want sound through your HDMI anyways? Monitor speakers suck.
Click to expand...

Maybe they're not using a monitor's speaker and instead are running their PC' through a receiver that has HDMI inputs. Of course the OP stated he's using his monitor, so I'm obviously not talking about him,
 
ryan_975 said:
Maybe they're not using a monitor's speaker and instead are running their PC' through a receiver that has HDMI inputs. Of course the OP stated he's using his monitor, so I'm obviously not talking about him,
Click to expand...

I was referring to the OP. lol
 
So...is the only way to get LPCM 7.1 via analog hook-ups from your sound card or can the HDMI pass-thru do it? I'm doing some planning for my next rig and was curious what I should plan.
Also, what about X-Fi PCIe "Dolby Digital Live" feature? Would the pass-thru be able to handle that?
 
LPCM is only available as pure HDMI, anything that uses SPDIF doesn't have enough bandwidth to make full use of the audio type. So as of right now, Analog won't do it (it's analog obviously), Optical SPDIF will not do it, and Coaxial SPDIF will not do it either. If you wanted to do that I'd advise looking at the Auzentech X-Fi Hometheater HD. It does have the ability to process the new codecs Dolby TRUEHD and DTS-HD so therefore it will allow LPCM streams. Otherwise I believe there are a limited set of cards that will even process LPCM streams.
 
flak-spammer said:
LPCM is only available as pure HDMI, anything that uses SPDIF doesn't have enough bandwidth to make full use of the audio type. So as of right now, Analog won't do it (it's analog obviously), Optical SPDIF will not do it, and Coaxial SPDIF will not do it either. If you wanted to do that I'd advise looking at the Auzentech X-Fi Hometheater HD. It does have the ability to process the new codecs Dolby TRUEHD and DTS-HD so therefore it will allow LPCM streams. Otherwise I believe there are a limited set of cards that will even process LPCM streams.
Click to expand...

What if your motherboard outputs digital that is non edited. I was actually wondering about how this works.
 
Interesting that the analog hook-ups can't do LPCM 7.1. That's been the back-up option (other than HDMI) on Blu-Ray players for a while. Run the 7.1 analog hook-ups into a receiver that can handle LPCM, and you would still be able to get it via the player's conversion. I take it that only a few sound cards can handle this...which sucks a little.
Since this HDMI implimentation on the PC seems a little thrown together at best I might as well just use the DVI to HDMI for video and stick to the analogs (or a toslink on the PCIe X-fi's) for sound I guess.
 
thatsnasty2 said:
What if your motherboard outputs digital that is non edited. I was actually wondering about how this works.
Click to expand...

I think the connections/cables themselves don't have enough bandwidth to carry the signal. The most you can get through spdif(coaxial, optical, hdmi passthrough) is 2.1 LPCM, at least that's what I pieced together from the info I was reading, someone correct me if I'm wrong
 
Just to say it again.

Most Nvidia cards (If not all current ones) do not do HDMI audio the same way ATI or Nvidia mobos do.

Spdif is 2 channel PCM OR Multichannel Dolby Digital or DTS.

Normal Spec HDMI audio (The kind the Nvidia Mobos and ATI 4x series cards can do) is 7.1 LPCM.
 
djc5166 said:
I think the connections/cables themselves don't have enough bandwidth to carry the signal. The most you can get through spdif(coaxial, optical, hdmi passthrough) is 2.1 LPCM, at least that's what I pieced together from the info I was reading, someone correct me if I'm wrong
Click to expand...

Just a small correction its 2 chan LPCM not 2.1 but the bandwith is enough to carry the low frequency effects on both cannels so any modern receiver will just take it and feed that part only to the sub.

Now there is a tech called "Dolby Digital Live" that allows you to send multichannel audio over SPDIF. I have a turtle beach card that can do that but I do believe it can do so only over optical and does not have the connections needed to do a passthrough. Also some newer mobos have this feature.
 
I came across this thread researching a 260 gtx that uses a dvi to hdmi adapter. -- Yeah that kinda stinks about the 7.1 LPCM. Dolby digital and DTS sound great though anyway. My current palit 9600gt has an hdmi output, and also on the back plate of the card is a regular toslink/optical input, so you can use your soundcard's external toslink/optical output with a little cable if you didn't want to use the internal pins. I'd prefer having that option but the bfg 260 gtx I'm looking at probably only has pins from the look of it, unless there is an ext optical in on the hdmi adapter itself.

I'd prefer to buy cards with a physical hdmi output but oh well. For once I'm being impatient and buying a BFG local with some BB reward pts. The palit I'm upgrading from has two dvi, an hdmi, and a display port, as well as the optical in.
 
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