good question about digital audio.....

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kdfresh09

New Member
i have an nvidia gtx 670 that i use and have hooked up to my sony surround sound system through hdmi, then the sony reciever connects to my tv via another hdmi cable. i get audio then from the gtx 670? and i have a creative x-fi titanium pci-e x1 sound card that i have been thinking about using, and connecting it to my reciever via toslink opticle cable, but i dont know if it would be better than the audio from the hdmi? if someone could let me know, that would be great.
 
kdfresh09 said:
i have an nvidia gtx 670 that i use and have hooked up to my sony surround sound system through hdmi, then the sony reciever connects to my tv via another hdmi cable. i get audio then from the gtx 670? and i have a creative x-fi titanium pci-e x1 sound card that i have been thinking about using, and connecting it to my reciever via toslink opticle cable, but i dont know if it would be better than the audio from the hdmi? if someone could let me know, that would be great.
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Both ways you are describing are outputting a digital signal from the computer. Thus, both ways will sounds exactly the same. All the digital to analog audio processing is happening in your receiving, so that, long with your speakers, are the main determinant of your sound quality.
 
so, basicaly you both are saying that since its a digital signal going to the receiver, that the reciever and speakers are the only determining factor in the quality of the sound. if it was an anologue signal, say the the headphone jack out puts on the titanium card vs the motherboards onboard audio, then i would deffinatly use the dedicated card, but since both audio signals are going to be digital, they are putting out the same character atributes, and the only limiting factor in quality, would be my surround system?
 
kdfresh09 said:
i have an nvidia gtx 670 that i use and have hooked up to my sony surround sound system through hdmi, then the sony reciever connects to my tv via another hdmi cable. i get audio then from the gtx 670? and i have a creative x-fi titanium pci-e x1 sound card that i have been thinking about using, and connecting it to my reciever via toslink opticle cable, but i dont know if it would be better than the audio from the hdmi? if someone could let me know, that would be great.
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Both the HDMI and the optical cable will give the same results but if you are using an existing on board motherboard sound then the creative pci-e sound card will definitely give you more quality sound enhancements/features.
 
kdfresh09 said:
so, basicaly you both are saying that since its a digital signal going to the receiver, that the reciever and speakers are the only determining factor in the quality of the sound. if it was an anologue signal, say the the headphone jack out puts on the titanium card vs the motherboards onboard audio, then i would deffinatly use the dedicated card, but since both audio signals are going to be digital, they are putting out the same character atributes, and the only limiting factor in quality, would be my surround system?
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Correct.
 
Although they're are both digital outputs the creative card will have a much better quality as the video card is doing no processing and is simply pass through. The creative card will have much better snr and other parameters. Use the PCIe card.
 
bigfellla said:
Although they're are both digital outputs the creative card will have a much better quality as the video card is doing no processing and is simply pass through. The creative card will have much better snr and other parameters. Use the PCIe card.
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I thought all digital outputs are the same, and the snr and other things that determine quality only when the digital signal is converted to analog?
 
Sampling rate, lower noise (due to the card not being on the motherboard), processing offload etc all make the PCIe card a better option.
 
then the sound card i shall use then. one other question. if i use this sound card, it will knock my gtx 670 down from x16 lanes, to x8 lanes, but its still running on pci-e 3.0. will this degrade my performance? i ran heaven benchmark, and with it at x16 i get about 100+ point increase over it being on x8. i dont know if that significant, or if thats common from running the benchmark , in that it will give you a fluctuating score each time you run the benchmark
 
kdfresh09 said:
then the sound card i shall use then. one other question. if i use this sound card, it will knock my gtx 670 down from x16 lanes, to x8 lanes, but its still running on pci-e 3.0. will this degrade my performance? i ran heaven benchmark, and with it at x16 i get about 100+ point increase over it being on x8. i dont know if that significant, or if thats common from running the benchmark , in that it will give you a fluctuating score each time you run the benchmark
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PCIe 2 and X8 will not be saturated by a single 670 mate, so in real world conditions I would suggest you have nothing to worry about. In fact the PCIe sound card may actually offload CPU workload and therefore give you better real world results.

Although somewhat isolated on the ROG board, the sound will always be better with a standalone card as acknowledged here by ASUS. Its called a Supreme FXIII but really its just a realtek chip.
 
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i read that article, and i think you missed that im not comparing the supreme fxIII to the titanium. im comparing the digital audio from the gtx 670 hdmi, vs the optical out on the titanium card.
 
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The graphics card simply passes through the mobos onboard sound processor. The card itself does nothing.
 
well, it sounds like its up for some facts. if either one of you can provide any links or info on this topic, then that would be pretty helpful. ive done some searchs, but so far havnt had any luck.
 
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