Any mention of Fermi HDMI audio?

Domingo

Domingo

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I apologize if this has been mentioned here, but I didn't see anything.

Has Nvidia mentioned anything about Fermi cards having HDMI audio like the ATI cards?
I'm not looking for a soundcard pass-through or anything like that, I'm really interested in the ability to handle lossless PCM and bitstream HD-audio like the 5xxx cards can do.

Anyone know?
 
Considering the GTX 260/280 had this feature, I would think it would be DUMB not to include it.....especially with Ati doing so rather freely on the 5000 series. :eek:
 
No, nvidia have not had this feature. They have no audio pass through capabilites.

They can take a signal from a soundcard or mobo and add it to the final output but they have no onboard hardware to do it themselves.

OP: best check the whitepapers and hope it is mentioned there.
 
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Bump, is there any news on this topic regarding the new cards having lossless audio out via hdmi?

I was going to wait until Fermi comes out before deciding on a videocard upgrade, but would like the HD-audio features that the 5XXX series provide since I just purchased a new receiver with DTS-HD master audio etc etc.
 
seeing as how the GT240 has passthrough audio on hdmi.. my guess would be yes.. but no one really knows at this point.. would be a huge mistake from nvidia to not add this to their cards since ATI is slowly taking over the HTPC market with their audio through DVI/HDMI features.. but i think it will come down to nvidia being willing to pay to have an audio chip added to their cards.. since ATI uses the realtek HD chip built into the card.. or nvidia will go the cheap route again and just put the audio header on the card like they have used with all their previous cards..
 
No news but I would think yes, both aXn-phyR and sirmonkey1985 gave the reasoning behind this, they have some pass through cards that work well but if that isn't an option I would really look at the ATI cards. the do this well and have quite a while to work out the bugs. If you like the green team then I would look at some of the pass through cards.
 
I'm still hoping for some onboard Realtek HDMI. The pass-thru stuff works okay, but it's definitely not the same.
I'd think that we'll get some specs whenever the formal announcement is made.
 
I'm looking at this myself. I'm seriously considering purchasing a HDMI sound card to go in my setup, and if the Fermi has it I obviously won't need it. I don't really see how they couldn't include this, if they want the cards to be the center of (as they say) media setups.
 
Wag said:
I'm looking at this myself. I'm seriously considering purchasing a HDMI sound card to go in my setup, and if the Fermi has it I obviously won't need it. I don't really see how they couldn't include this, if they want the cards to be the center of (as they say) media setups.
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NVidia is pitching Fermi at the HPC crowd, not the home theater crowd. Given the rumored size and power draw, I doubt Nvidia will worry about pleasing HTPC users, at least not with the GTX 480 and 470
 
kllrnohj said:
NVidia is pitching Fermi at the HPC crowd, not the home theater crowd. Given the rumored size and power draw, I doubt Nvidia will worry about pleasing HTPC users, at least not with the GTX 480 and 470
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Why not? Do not some folks use an home theater audio system for their gaming rigs? They've got the technology there already--it shouldn't take much of anything to implement the audio functionality.
 
Derfnofred said:
Why not? Do not some folks use an home theater audio system for their gaming rigs? They've got the technology there already--it shouldn't take much of anything to implement the audio functionality.
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Exactly, so I hope they implement it otherwise it's a no brainer for me to go with the HD5870 as I specifically purchased a new AVR just for the HD audio and HDMI features.
 
I did a little digging and did find THIS Tom's Hardware article from a few month's back:

And the issue of high-def audio/video is largely irrelevant at this stage, given the GPU’s known transistor count and anticipated heat. But Nvidia says GF100 has the same A/V suite as the GeForce GT 240. That means you get Blu-ray playback acceleration and eight-channel LPCM output, but no bitstreaming—a feature ATI and Intel both offer.
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So there you go. If accurate, good news and bad news. I would have wished for bitstreaming support at this point, but if it outputs multichannel sound I guess I'll have to live with that.
 
multichannel should be fine; the computer would just be uncompressing the audio before it reaches the receiver, but it should still be digital. I guess it just depends on your receiver being able to handle multichannel PCM (which I'm guessing it probably does if it takes HDMI in for audio)
 
In general, that's not too bad. Bitstreaming is only needed for Blu-Ray movies, and it could always be like the PS3 where it does a fine job of converting DTS-HD or Dolby-HD into PCM.

Certainly better than forcing a pass-thru card, and it's not like the multi-channel PCM functionality on ATI cards isn't buggy with high quality settings anyway.

Who knows, depending on what eventually happens with Fermi I might sell my 5870 and grab one. I'm just having too many little issues with ATI that annoy me.
 
Yes, and I (and I'm sure many) HPC/HTPC owners own a Blu-Ray Rom/Burner, so bitstreaming would have been a nice option. But as I said, I guess if they deliver just on the multichannel PCM audio over HDMI that will have to do.
 
Nobody that is sane is going to purchase a 600 USD card to do the job of a 150 USD Blu Ray player.

The HTPC market is long gone for Nvidia. And putting bitstreaming in would make the cost even higher.
 
bitstreaming isnt that huge of a deal breaker in the HTPC crowd, except for extreme audio freaks
 
Zachstar said:
Nobody that is sane is going to purchase a 600 USD card to do the job of a 150 USD Blu Ray player.

The HTPC market is long gone for Nvidia. And putting bitstreaming in would make the cost even higher.
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No, but why does everyone assume all Fermi cards will cost $600? And certainly if ATI can do bitstreaming in all their 5xxx series (even their low cost ones), Nvidia could.
 
Wag said:
No, but why does everyone assume all Fermi cards will cost $600? And certainly if ATI can do bitstreaming in all their 5xxx series (even their low cost ones), Nvidia could.
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Basically, because they are keeping somewhat informed. Most editorials from various websites, breakdown of part costs, estimation of cost /w respect to the yields, etc all seem to point towards a popular opinion of the cheaper 470 being around $400+ and the 480 around $500+. There have been numerous suggestions/reports that the initial launch volumes will be low which will cause retailers to price gouge for probably another $100.00 on the msrp for each model respectively.

There will eventually be low-cost Fermi cards but nVidia's CEO said less than a week ago "We don't see any need to offer low-end dx11 cards for a while as the GTX series offers 'fantastic' value'". That's not a direct quote but a paraphrase in which he basically said the 200 series is 'good enough' and it'll be a while till we see a low end dx11 card form nVidia. They are having issues already producing sizeable amounts of 480/470 cards. Trying to produce a smaller, secondary line would be hard to do and I think nVidia kind of wants to focus on fixing production issues /w respect to the 470/480 first before embarking on a tangent line of cards.

So yes, following most recent rumors/suggestions/reports/leaked(possibly bogus pricing of e-retailers websites)/looking at what nVidia's CEO has been stating/etc is where people are getting the $600.00 price point rumors from.
 
WBurchnall said:
So yes, following most recent rumors/suggestions/reports/leaked(possibly bogus pricing of e-retailers websites)/looking at what nVidia's CEO has been stating/etc is where people are getting the $600.00 price point rumors from.
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Also, every high end new generation card from Nvidia for the last 5 years has been launched at $600+.
 
WBurchnall said:
Basically, because they are keeping somewhat informed. Most editorials from various websites, breakdown of part costs, estimation of cost /w respect to the yields, etc all seem to point towards a popular opinion of the cheaper 470 being around $400+ and the 480 around $500+. There have been numerous suggestions/reports that the initial launch volumes will be low which will cause retailers to price gouge for probably another $100.00 on the msrp for each model respectively.

There will eventually be low-cost Fermi cards but nVidia's CEO said less than a week ago "We don't see any need to offer low-end dx11 cards for a while as the GTX series offers 'fantastic' value'". That's not a direct quote but a paraphrase in which he basically said the 200 series is 'good enough' and it'll be a while till we see a low end dx11 card form nVidia. They are having issues already producing sizeable amounts of 480/470 cards. Trying to produce a smaller, secondary line would be hard to do and I think nVidia kind of wants to focus on fixing production issues /w respect to the 470/480 first before embarking on a tangent line of cards.

So yes, following most recent rumors/suggestions/reports/leaked(possibly bogus pricing of e-retailers websites)/looking at what nVidia's CEO has been stating/etc is where people are getting the $600.00 price point rumors from.
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he said that? he does know that they EOL the GTX200? but your right on the price, I don't see people not gouging again.
 
Confirmed the GTX 470 and GTX 480 will have 7.1 passthru via HDMI as on the box screenshots have shown
 
jsadie1 said:
Confirmed the GTX 470 and GTX 480 will have 7.1 passthru via HDMI as on the box screenshots have shown
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Cool, only having 2.1 pass through was my biggest complaint about the 2xx series. Spending $150 on a PCI audio card for 7.1 pass through seemed a bit silly since all graphic cards going forward would seemingly include it.
 
Bitstreaming isn't too big of a deal (except for serious audio folks) but I don't see how it would've cost Nvidia all that much more. ATI has it in the lowest of the low-end 5x cards.
The main reason it's good with ATI cards is because PCM with more than 4-channels has a lot of issues when handling audio over a certain fidelity. Random channel swapping, drop outs, and general wackiness ensues.
As long as the Nvidia cards don't have that issue - I bet 99.9% of people would never know the difference between bitstreaming and PCM conversion.
 
the 5870 is working wonderfully for me bitstreaming audio to my onkyo 605 using TotalMediaTheatre 3. i just got the card last week and its the solution ive been waiting for. my girlfriend can watch a blu-ray from my computer on the home theater system with full unmolested lossless sound while i game on my monitor using my headphones plugged into my x-fi. its heaven for me. i had a gigabyte matx board with a 9400 igp and it only did PCM downsampled to 16bit/48khz.

if fermi doesnt have this feature then nvidia is in the wrong boat.
 
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