Can I use my GTX 470 as a sound card?

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leh18621

[H]ard|Gawd
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Looks like my on board sound doesn't work any more. I was thinking, if I disable the on board sound and then use hdmi to hook up my gtx 470 to my monitor will that work for sound?
 
It should, as long as the monitor can handle HDMI sound. Not sure if all monitors can do that or not. Just select the Nvidia HD Audio as the default audio device.
 
I believe the 470 will not bitstream HD audio, but it should pass PCM with no problem.
 
I have a GTX 560. I removed the Realtek audio drivers, cleaned them with driver sweeper, then disabled the onboard audio in the mobo bios to prevent Windows from reinstalling. Less driver overhead. I run my GPU to my monitor via HDMI and it handles both audio and video. However, there are a few concerns you should watch for when doing this.

-Some monitors that accept HDMI audio only have a headphone out. I didn't know there was a difference between this and a normal audio out until I went through multiple HDMI-capable monitors over the past few months. One of them in particular had a headphone out, which really limited the volume. I had to crank Windows volume to 100, the monitor to 100, and then my Dayton DTA-100a t-amp past the halfway point just to hear it. On the other hand, my Samsung SB550 has a real audio out, and I have the monitor at 50 volume which causes the t-amp to work as intended. So basically, be aware of this.

-Nvidia's drivers completely screw up HDMI color space if it thinks you're plugged in to an HDTV. You'll know it right away because the screen will either appear washed out or overly dark compared to VGA/DVI. If this is the case, there are two workarounds. One is to adjust the monitor's HDMI black level. For RGB, black levels range from 0-255. For low black levels (what NV puts out by default over HDMI), it's 16-235. So, you can either accept this, or you can use a modded driver to force 0-255 output over HDMI (this is what I do). The color space option in the NVCP does not affect this, it only affects video playback when the driver is already outputting 0-255.
 
Medion said:
I have a GTX 560. I removed the Realtek audio drivers, cleaned them with driver sweeper, then disabled the onboard audio in the mobo bios to prevent Windows from reinstalling. Less driver overhead. I run my GPU to my monitor via HDMI and it handles both audio and video. However, there are a few concerns you should watch for when doing this.

-Some monitors that accept HDMI audio only have a headphone out. I didn't know there was a difference between this and a normal audio out until I went through multiple HDMI-capable monitors over the past few months. One of them in particular had a headphone out, which really limited the volume. I had to crank Windows volume to 100, the monitor to 100, and then my Dayton DTA-100a t-amp past the halfway point just to hear it. On the other hand, my Samsung SB550 has a real audio out, and I have the monitor at 50 volume which causes the t-amp to work as intended. So basically, be aware of this.

-Nvidia's drivers completely screw up HDMI color space if it thinks you're plugged in to an HDTV. You'll know it right away because the screen will either appear washed out or overly dark compared to VGA/DVI. If this is the case, there are two workarounds. One is to adjust the monitor's HDMI black level. For RGB, black levels range from 0-255. For low black levels (what NV puts out by default over HDMI), it's 16-235. So, you can either accept this, or you can use a modded driver to force 0-255 output over HDMI (this is what I do). The color space option in the NVCP does not affect this, it only affects video playback when the driver is already outputting 0-255.
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Interesting. What if instead of using Nvidia's drivers for sound you use Microsoft's drivers for sound for the gpu? In the past I normally never installed the Nvidia sound drivers when I installed/updated my gpu drivers and the computer as a result would install Microsoft audio drivers for the card.
 
leh18621 said:
Interesting. What if instead of using Nvidia's drivers for sound you use Microsoft's drivers for sound for the gpu? In the past I normally never installed the Nvidia sound drivers when I installed/updated my gpu drivers and the computer as a result would install Microsoft audio drivers for the card.
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That wouldn't address either issue that I brought up.

1. No audio driver will fix a monitor that has a low-powered audio output. You're just going to have to crank your amp/speaker volume knob.

2. Changing the audio driver won't fix Nvidia's HDMI color space issue. It's a video issue, not audio.
 
I switched to an HDMI cable and everything worked out good. Colors seem slightly brighter on my monitor which is neither good or bad (more so good when I think about it). The sound quality is a lot better than my on board sound, and a lot louder too. Thanks for all the info/advice.
 
No, not really. The GTX 470 isn't really a "sound card" It doesnt do any sound processing or manipulation. It simply has a digital output via HDMI tht outputs the sound mixed by Windows. What people call "sound cards" have digital to analog converters (DACs) and amplifiers and even software to do special sound processing. The GTX 470 has none this so it's not really a "sound card".

If you output sound from the HDMI on the 470 you will still need a DAC and an amplifier. That will be acting as the "sound card", even if it's external.

It's really no different than using USB to output sound to some external device.
 
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SirMaster said:
No, not really. The GTX 470 isn't really a "sound card" It doesnt do any sound processing or manipulation. It simply has a digital output via HDMI tht outputs the sound mixed by Windows. What people call "sound cards" have digital to analog converters (DACs) and amplifiers and even software to do special sound processing. The GTX 470 has none this so it's not really a "sound card".

If you output sound from the HDMI on the 470 you will still need a DAC and an amplifier. That will be acting as the "sound card", even if it's external.

It's really no different than using USB to output sound to some external device.
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All that I did was disable my onboard sound in the bios, and then I unstalled the drivers for it in Windows. I then (with my hdmi connected), I went into the Control Panel and into Sound and selected my GTX 470 as my Playback Device. The hdmi cable plugs into my monitor, and then I have a cheap old set of speakers that plug into the monitor.

I am using a set of $10 speakers that are approximately ten years old. It sounds so good now I am considering buying a decent set of speakers for the first time.
 
leh18621 said:
Looks like my on board sound doesn't work any more. I was thinking, if I disable the on board sound and then use hdmi to hook up my gtx 470 to my monitor will that work for sound?
Click to expand...

Yes, it should work. I built probably a couple of Intel rigs and I never had to disable the onboard sound when I used the GPUs audio. However, one of the AMD rig I built, I was having issues with the audio always switching back to onboard sound which meant that I would always have to go back to the Cpanel to disable and switch back to the GPU. To solve this issue, I had to go into the bios to actually disable the onboard sound.

To answer your question, if your build is with Intel, I wouldn't bother with it, but if your build is with AMD then I would. I had nothing but trouble building with AMD and will never ever build AMD rigs anymore.
 
leh18621 said:
All that I did was disable my onboard sound in the bios, and then I unstalled the drivers for it in Windows. I then (with my hdmi connected), I went into the Control Panel and into Sound and selected my GTX 470 as my Playback Device. The hdmi cable plugs into my monitor, and then I have a cheap old set of speakers that plug into the monitor.

I am using a set of $10 speakers that are approximately ten years old. It sounds so good now I am considering buying a decent set of speakers for the first time.
Click to expand...

So the "sound card" in your case is inside the monitor. Your monitor has a DAC and a small amplifier which is suitable for headphones and very small speakers. Then i'm guessing you have a second amp in your small speakers (if they plug into power).

The GTX 470 isn't whats improving the sound. The GTX 470 isn't a sound card, its not touching the sound. It's just a "dumb" digital output. If you are hearing better sound, it is because the DAC and amplifier in your monitor is performing better then the DAC and amplifier that is on your motherboard that you stopped using.

You would get the same exact sound out a S/PDIF port on your motherboard, or the GTX 470, or even USB.
 
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