Anybody out there have a gaming rig using HDMI?

Hello ATS,

I am thinking about building a PC to use primarily for gaming and movies. The idea is that the PC would use HDMI to connect to an input channel of a sound bar and a TV would be connect to the output. (Obviously the TV and sound bar would be set to the appropriate HDMI channels).

What I am curious about is this: A lot of mother boards have an HDMI port. The same goes for most video cards. I think you would want to use the port on the video card...but the audio is built into the mother board. Would the audio be routed to the HDMI on the video card? Or would I need separate connections (1 audio and 1 video)?

I am wondering if this is doable with one connection or if my thinking is flawed. Anyway, thanks in advance.

Cheers!

Roma

Video cards have their own audio output for HDMI.

I have an AMD R9 Fury hooked up to my monitor with either HDMI or display port, either way, my speakers plug into my monitor from there.

Just install the latest drivers for whatever card you use and then choose the appropriate output for your HDMI on your video card.

The audio with come out of the audio port of the mother board. So I use the aux jack to my 5.1. I dont know if you can switch it come out of the hdmi like a cable box but I couldnt figure that part out. Are you building a budget gaming pc that perform lile a ps4 or xbox one? Cause if so I can give a few suggestions that can save lots of money.

HDMI

Hmmm not seeing that on the back of my Voodoo 3.

I have a Razer Blade Stealth with a GTX970 in a Core with an HDMI to my Sony receiver and from there an HDMI to my monitor. It works really well. The vid card is a little old, but it works.

JT

Yup, im using a GTX 970 with my 4k monitor via HDMI which has its own sound that comes up as a different sound channel on my mixer settings. I choose to mute and disable the screens not-so-hot speakers and use my motherboards surround sound with a 5.1 speaker and Hi-Fi setup. I had the same worries as you about using HDMI as i had only ever used a desktop with DVI cables, especially with a 4k resolution, pleased to say works great!

My laptop i use when id rather sit on a sofa to watch something on the big TV, with sound built in.

Dont bother spending £20+ on special HDMI fancy pants gold HDMI leads, ive got a bunch from all sorts of places from £2 to £20 and i cant tell the difference between any of em!

You have to install the right drivers that's it imo; with nvidia it's rather easy for amd i don't know.
Personally i got 2 monitors 1st connected with dvi the 2nd with hdmi and i play on the 2nd.With some olders games it can be tricky (won't play on the 2nd) unless i force them (with eventghost "find windows"...automatically indeed).Food 4 thought

a reply to: Biigs

Thanks for the replies. This is why I had thought to put a sound bar in the middle (as not to use the crappy speakers on a TV). If the sound on the video card is a separate channel on the mixer then it's definitely doable.

I'm not really looking to do this on the cheap. In fact, it could be a while before I look into it. My dream setup would be a gaming PC with a high end video card connecting to a Bowers & Wilkins sound bar connecting to a Sony 4k TV.

originally posted by: RomaSempre
a reply to: Biigs

Thanks for the replies. This is why I had thought to put a sound bar in the middle (as not to use the crappy speakers on a TV). If the sound on the video card is a separate channel on the mixer then it's definitely doable.

I'm not really looking to do this on the cheap. In fact, it could be a while before I look into it. My dream setup would be a gaming PC with a high end video card connecting to a Bowers & Wilkins sound bar connecting to a Sony 4k TV.

I dont think you can separate HDMI from sound, so to use the HDMI sound for the sound bar you would have to use a sound output from the TV to the sound bar (you TV may be configured like this anyway). Else you'd have to do what i did and have the sound from the game/movie go through your sound card and send that right to the sound bar (via separate 3.5mm jack to jack cable).

Just some extra info to help u get what you want, i'd hate to say how mine works and something not go right with your setup.

a reply to: RomaSempre

I currently have my tv plugged into my computer's native HDMI port and it doesn't transfer the sound. I have to use the sound jack with extra speakers to get sound.

There are two versions of HDMI.

One with video and sound.

One with just video.

I'm going to say that most video cards just output video.

I don't think you're going to be getting what you are looking for.

Though if you're outputting to a tv. Maybe you should look at a sound card that has optical output.

originally posted by: grey580
There are two versions of HDMI.

One with video and sound.

One with just video.

I'm going to say that most video cards just output video.

I don't think you're going to be getting what you are looking for.

Though if you're outputting to a tv. Maybe you should look at a sound card that has optical output.

Most video cards on the market today have video and sound. As long as you don't go too low-end, which you don't want for gaming anyhow.

If you're using Nvidia graphics cards, you'll most likely have to use an audio cable from the motherboard to card ..... It's a small two pin plug on the side of the card....Otherwise you won't get audio through hdmi

All the amd cards I used have hdmi audio
7870 7950 7970 r9 280 r9 290 I think that's all the ones I own

Never had to do anything buto install drivers
But I think this is per card not chip maker

My htpc doesn't use the hdmi sound but that's due to me needing a new TV but before the amp in my TV went out the hdmi cable gave me far worse audio

But as long as Ur hdmi has audio and Ur sound system had hdmi in and out should work

They also make splitters that will split the video from audio

Pretty much all new video cards do this even low end ones, I have a GT710 on another PC and simply connecting it to my TV through HDMI and it instantly has sound nothing special needed for that.


if you buy a high end card like a GTX 1080 this is as simple as connecting the in/out cables to the sound bar and it should work flawlessly(maybe a little tinkering with settings but nothing major), and you get high quality lossless audio formats.

Behold the beauty of HDMI .

originally posted by: Lysergic
HDMI

Hmmm not seeing that on the back of my Voodoo 3.

There's clearly 4 people who know that you're talking about!

OG