How does Radeon 5xxx HDMI Audio work?

MoodyMedic

Hey all just ordered a Sapphire HD5770 Vapor-X 1GB as my 4850 sounds like I'm on an aircraft carrier - not good as my home theatre PC.

Anyway, do I connect my Soundblaster X-Fi through the graphics card with a connector cable or is the Radeon Sound Chip completely seperate? Will I lose my EAX effects if this is the case?

Thanks yawl.

PS - My 4850 fan can't change its speed - it's at one fixed speed (assumed max by the sounds of it). Software controllers like Rivatuner don't work on it either. Could I insert a potentiometer into the power cables to the fan to manually slow it down?

marco_polo

You shouldn't need to connect the graphics card to the sound card. Can only speak for own my audio drivers (Realtek onboard) but they pickup the HDMI output on my HD4870 as just another audio output channel, so I imagine that the XFi driver should do something similar, if it is the same then you won't lose any effects.

lmimmfn

ok guys, a few things here:
1. the 4850 and 5770 should both have their own built in sound cards on the gfx card( i know my 3850 and my 5850 do but you might need to have the HD version of the 4850's ). Some ATI cards have the build in sound card but output the audio over DVI( normally not done ) so that their custom DVI->HDMI adapter that comes with the cards can send the audio to a HD TV. If you dont have this custom adapter regular DVI->HDMI will not work for the audio. Check in Device Manager if an extra sound card is showing for your gfx card. Mine comes up as ATI High Definition Audio Device
2. The only reason the cards have audio on the HDMI is because blu ray encrypts the HDCP audio( without it surround sound wont work through HDMI, only stereo ).
3. You cant use the XFi you have to output through the HDMI, you need to use an XFi with a pass through HDMI connection for the audio, i.e. the Auzentech HD 7.1 card - http://www.guru3d.com/article/auzentech-xfi-home-theater-hd-71-soundcard-review/1

For the fan speed on your 4850, hmm, it could be your drivers, ATI and NVidia are notorious for releasing drinvers that break the fan control. Try the Catalyst 10.3 drivers.

Oh and Msi Afterburner is a handier tool for overclocking your gpu and for fan control than Rivatuner( its written by the same guy, Unwinder over on guru3d ), you can get it here - http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm
It works on non MSI cards and is just a bit flashier especially for a media rig.

Kazuma

As far as I know, catalyst is still only on 10.2...
Just to avoid any confusion! Hope it doesn't take too long to get the sound set up!

TheReverend

For the 4xxx series, all you need to do is connect the hdmi cable from card to TV and away you do

lmimmfn

Kazuma wrote: »

As far as I know, catalyst is still only on 10.2...
Just to avoid any confusion! Hope it doesn't take too long to get the sound set up!

no theres the beta 10.3 ones but now also theres the new preliminary 10.3a drivers