Legit Reviews

I have an older hd2600xt and I don't believe it supports audio. Do any of the newer cards support audio by themselves? I won't go into my long story however, I will provide a little background. I bought an Insipron 530 from Dell specifically to use my HD tv as a monitor and for sound. I don't believe the HD2600XT does also, the fan on the card is so big that it blocks the pcie terminal so I can't install a sound card. I have tried alot of different things but I can't get sound and getting info out of ATI/AMD seems to be impossible. I would appreciate any help I can get before throwing the whole thing out.
Thanks,
Dave

the 2600 I think do fully support sound thru the HDMI, but if you want a newer card then any GPU from ATI from the series 3xxx to the current ones all support sound thru the HDMI. to make sure that your 2600 ATI card has sound out, look at the Control panal under hardware sound devices in that window will list that has sound outputs. Right click in the box which lists your devices window (empty) then show disconnected devices.


Here is a link aout your 2600 card so yes it does support 5.1 through the HDMI LINKY

I appreciate the input. I looked at the disconnected output(downloaded the ATI hdmi driver today) it's there and says not plugged in. The problem may be that I have a DVI to HDMI adator as a adaptor and cable in one. I have read that the adaptor and cable in one may not regognize sound. I am going to return the all in one adaptor for a separate adaptor and HDMI cable to see if it recognizes that. The installation info on these cards is limited and hard to come by so I really do appreciate the input. I'm hoping that a MOnster or similar adaptor will work but I also read you might need ATI's adaptor?. I've put alot of time into this install and have learned the hard way about uninstalls & reinstalls. If you change anything, your back to square one. I hope this works cause i'm about out of paitience.
Thanks again,
Dave

you may need a newer dvi to HDMI adapter. walmart sells em fairly cheap they come as a cable DVI to HDMI those will work. If you want to get rid of the 2600 then any 3xxx or 4xxx 5xxx 6xxx series of video cards support sound through the HDMI. For a HTPC a 4650 or 4670 or 5670, 5650 be a perfect choice.

junkydave wrote:I appreciate the input. I looked at the disconnected output(downloaded the ATI hdmi driver today) it's there and says not plugged in. The problem may be that I have a DVI to HDMI adator as a adaptor and cable in one. I have read that the adaptor and cable in one may not regognize sound. I am going to return the all in one adaptor for a separate adaptor and HDMI cable to see if it recognizes that. The installation info on these cards is limited and hard to come by so I really do appreciate the input. I'm hoping that a MOnster or similar adaptor will work but I also read you might need ATI's adaptor?. I've put alot of time into this install and have learned the hard way about uninstalls & reinstalls. If you change anything, your back to square one. I hope this works cause i'm about out of paitience.
Thanks again,
Dave

From what I've experienced from my own HD2600XT's you'll need the ATI dongle but they're not to hard to find on alot of auction sites like ebay and are relatively cheap..
Also you say your card blocks an PCIe slot does yours have a double slot cooler on it or third party cooler as mine are only single slot jobs