Question Onboard Audio Question

[BrainGlue]

I have a question about onboard motherboard audio for a living room gaming PC. I have one of the Asus ROG motherboards with the onboard "ROG Supreme FX" audio solution. As of right now, the audio signal travels from the RTX 4080 Super to the TV (via HDMI) and from TV to the soundbar (via optical audio cable).

My question is, sine the audio signal is coming out of the HDMI port, where is the sound actually being processed? Is it coming from the onboard "ROG Supreme FX" audio solution or is it coming from elsewhere?

Thank you!

 

[Lutfij]

Asus ROG motherboards
Please state the model for the Asus motherboard under the ROG lineup.

sine the audio signal is coming out of the HDMI port, where is the sound actually being processed?
The audio is being processed by your GPU over the HMDI port, not the onboard audio chip. Unless you've set it to something else in Sound Manager.

Moved thread from Components section to Home Audio & Theater section

 

[Eximo]

I have used AMD, Nvidia, and Intel GPUs for HDMI audio. Honestly never noticed a significant difference between it and an onboard audio solution. I also have a sound bar hooked up with optical cable.

Wikipedia:

For digital audio, if an HDMI device has audio, it is required to implement the baseline format: stereo (uncompressed) PCM. Other formats are optional, with HDMI allowing up to 8 channels of uncompressed audio at sample sizes of 16 bits, 20 bits, or 24 bits, with sample rates of 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz, 176.4 kHz, or 192 kHz.[5]: §7  HDMI also carries any IEC 61937-compliant compressed audio stream, such as Dolby Digital and DTS, and up to 8 channels of one-bit DSD audio (used on Super Audio CDs) at rates up to four times that of Super Audio CD.[5]: §7  With version 1.3, HDMI allows lossless compressed audio streams Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.[5]: §7  As with the Y′CBCR video, audio capability is optional. Audio return channel (ARC) is a feature introduced in the HDMI 1.4 standard.[41] "Return" refers to the case where the audio comes from the TV and can be sent "upstream" to the AV receiver using the HDMI cable connected to the AV receiver.[41] An example given on the HDMI website is that a TV that directly receives a terrestrial/satellite broadcast, or has a video source built in, sends the audio "upstream" to the AV receiver.[41]

 

[dwd999]

Since the optical audio cable only transmits digital signals that portion of the process is definitely digital, implying that the sound bar does the final processing of the sound. Normally the TV's hdmi earc output would be routed by hdmi cable to the soundbar. Does your TV not have an earc output or are you using that for something else? Or does your soundbar not have an hdmi input or are you using that for something else? What model of TV do you have and is its sound option set to Pass-Through to ensure it does no sound processing?

 

[Gururu]

The 4080 should be processing HDMI sound. If the speakers are connected to the motherboard directly I believe the motherboard audio is default. HDMI sound is superior and I am wondering if you are reducing the quality from TV to soundbar using optical.

 

[Eximo]

It is already in uncompressed PCM by that point. The optical cable just carries that data. No matter what the soundbar or speakers at the other end has to convert that PCM into audible sound. Then it is up to the quality of the speakers and such.