Do video cards with HDMI ports transfer audio as well as video?

MrEgo

Senior member
Jan 17, 2003
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I would like to hook my PC up to my HD television. I was thinking of getting a video card with HDMI out, but I was wondering if audio would be passed on to my TV speakers if I did that?

Or would I still need separate speakers going out of my PC's audio ports?
 

d4a2n0k

Senior member
May 6, 2002
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My previous broken 4870 did and my new 5850 does as well. The 58xx series can bitstream TrueHD and HD MA which the older one cannot.
 

veri745

Golden Member
Oct 11, 2007
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I have my 785G chipset hooked up to my HDTV, and it passes HD video and audio just fine. I don't have it hooked up to some fancy sound system, but yes, HDMI ports pass audio, even on the cheapest of graphics.
 

s44

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 2006
9,427
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Yes. Note that only the 5000 series passes full unadulterated Blu-Ray sound (though you probably wouldn't notice the downsampling from the 4000 series cards and Nvidia 8200/9300/9400 motherboards). Not that it matters if you're just hooking it up to TV speakers. ;)
 

marmasatt

Diamond Member
Jan 30, 2003
6,576
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I'm pretty sure that only ATI cards have audio out via HDMI. Like if you have anything NVIDIA, you have to use this little audio cable that goes from the sound card to the video card to actually get audio to pass through your HDMI. I was thinking this same question a few weeks ago and read up on it a bit. I've got a GTX 260. I won't get any sound as I understand it until I do this little 2 pin audio cable I guess. In't ATI native though and fully capable I believe?
 

cusideabelincoln

Diamond Member
Aug 3, 2008
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It depends on the card, as marmasatt explained. The only Geforce cards which don't need the internal SPDIF connection (2 pin audio cable) are the recently released GT 220 and 210. All Radeon HD 2000, 3000, 4000, and 5000 series cards can pass audio over HDMI. Most newer Geforce cards should at least offer the SPDIF connection, but if they don't then you can't pass audio over HDMI, so be careful.