3XS Black Widow Exreme - Onboard Realtek HD Sound Issues

[drharvey12]

Hi all,

I've got a 3XS Black Widow Extreme and am currently using the onboard sound (Realtek HD - ALC889) which came with the Asus Rampage 3 Extreme mobo. I've been having issues getting 5.1 surround sound to older games such as Unreal Tournament 2004 and Unreal Tournament 3. Also when watching films or music through media player classic / WMP they only seem to be in stereo.

My setup is currently going from my GTX 480 (SLI) via HDMI to my Sony AV amp (HTSS360) and then also via HDMI to my TV. This setup works fine for DOW2: Retribution and that has 5.1 sound. I have set up the speakers for 5.1 and these go through the test fine in the Windows speaker setup.

I understand there is an issue with these games as Windows 7 does not support Directsound and OpenAL without having it decoded on proper hardware (ie Creative X-fi dedicated sound card).

I've downloaded the latest Realtek HD audio driver (vers 2.60) and also tried using the 3D Soundback Beta 0.1 drivers but these don't seem to make too much difference. They do seem to add EAX support for UT2004 but still no 5.1 sound. I don't know if running through the speaker outputs on the back of the computer would make any difference as opposed to through my amp????? (Not that I have a speaker setup which can plug into the mobo inputs at present).

Has anybody got any ideas as to whether I am able to get 5.1 using the Realtek chip in these games and for music etc ?

I don't really want to have to buy a dedicated card just for these two games (although if Crysis also has this problem I might be forced to)! I'm assuming that 5.1 would be achievable in these games with a dedicated soundcard and running Windows 7? I've heard that sound cards are often more trouble than they are worth with driver issues and sound crackling in games. Obviously I would want to avoid that.

If this is the only option though what would anybody recommend? Ideally between £50-£100 as I don't really need it to do anything more than play games really.

I really hope somebody can help as trying to play a FPS shooter, especially one like UT3 without positional audio leaves you at a bit of a disadvantage!!!

Thanks Guys.

[Ben @ Scan]

Hi drharvey12

If you are using the HDMI audio that is Nvidia Audio and not using the onboard Realtek sound at all (this is updated when you update the Nvidia VGA drivers)

To get true 5.1 from the Onboard sound you would need 3 cables going from the Green,Orange and Black to a 5.1 Speaker setup (or 5.1 Headphones is an option)

Standard music and movie audio is also Stereo and not 5.1 so unless you are playing a 5.1 movie or a DVD Audio Disk you wont get 5.1 out

Ideally a 5.1 Speaker Set and either use the Onboard with the 3 cables connected, or add an Xfi but yes that can have issues in some games especially with Sli

The link below gives a guide on setting up 5.1

http://www.addictivetips.com/windows...your-computer/

I am not sure about the Asus Xonar card though that may not have the same issues but as I dont have Sli anymore I am not sure

Regards

Ben

[drharvey12]

Thanks Ben for the feedback. Didn't even realise at first that the GTX 480 had it's own audio processor as part of the GF100 chip. I just assumed that it was able to pass through the sound from the Realtek chip but looking at the sound config now the GTX 480 seems to be processing the sound and then handing off any decoding to the Sony amp.

Bought Crysis off Steam on Friday as part of the EA sale and, like 100's of others, have only just been able to get it past the DRM activation screen and actually play it. Anyway the long and short of it is that 5.1 works flawlessly in it and sounds amazing. Also been playing Crysis Warhead and that sounds great too. Able to play on Very High and Enthusiast sound settings, the highest attainable on both games.

I'll probably keep the setup as it is then for present as other than the Unreal games I have absolutely no problems with sound. Compared to my last 2 PC's both with X-fi cards and either SLI or XFire setups where there was always the snap, crackle and pop issue this is a major improvement.

Guess I'll have to try a proper speaker setup at some point using the Realtek HD chip and 3D Soundback to see if I can get 5.1 in the Unreal games. Would really like to here from anybody running Windows 7 and using a Realtek HD chip / Nvidia audio as to whether they have been able to get UT3 working in 5.1 with 3D Soundback or any other way.

Cheers Guys.