Latest Realtek HD Audio Driver Version

SandHalp said:

Right.
But what is Nahimic 3? I just checked it but does it come with realtek driver or do we have to download it alone? it sounds great

It's an additional feature set on the pricier MSI boards. however, MSI updated the UAD driver today and they removed that Nahimic part. A bit of detective work done, and it seems it was wrong, it doesn't have Nahimic, so yeah, discard what i said earlier. Don't install the app.

What you should do is have a properly installed UAD driver, with the required services. On top of that you will install the RTK Audio Control from the store.

If in doubt, I would stick with the UAD from MSI, it's quite recent (6.0.1.8581):
http://download.msi.com/dvr_exe/mb/r..._UAD_audio.zip

It will probably take 2 reboots, so allow it to go through that.

After you install the driver, get the Store UWP app:
Get Realtek Audio Control - Microsoft Store

If you're happy about the outcome, you can just continue installing UAD drivers as they get released or stick to MSI's page. It's doubtful it will make any difference whatsoever.

Brink said:

Thank you. First post updated.

sorry to burst your bubble Brink but 6.0.1.8589 on MUC is a UAD/SST combo driver for recent Acer laptops only (96.6Mb)

supported hardware ID listed for 8589 driver

intelaudio\func_01&ven_10ec&dev_0255&subsys_10251330

however, you can post this v6.0.1.8581 (109.7Mb) driver from MUC, which is a generic HDA driver (MS posted this one sometime in mid-December 2018) - sometimes HDA, non-UAD drivers get posted a little later than UAD drivers.

by the way, Nahimic 3 is a UWP app that can be downloaded separately from the MS store. (requires Realtek UAD driver with A-volute Nahimi3 extension & software component installed from MSI's realtek_nahimic_UAD_audio.zip file)

for those using older MSI motherboards & laptops that had Nahimic 1.x or 2.x (and do not qualify for using Realtek UAD drivers + Nahimic 3), MSI already updated their Realtek HDA (nonUAD) + Nahimic drivers to v6.0.1.8581 a few days ago.

t0yz said:

It's an additional feature set on the pricier MSI boards. however, MSI updated the UAD driver today and they removed that Nahimic part. A bit of detective work done, and it seems it was wrong, it doesn't have Nahimic, so yeah, discard what i said earlier. Don't install the app.

Nahimic 3 is still available (at least for my MSI Z390 ACE) on the support site, but aside from that it doesn't solve my problem. I am still stripped of any option to separate back-in and front-in-audio. If I had a divice using the digital output there might be a chance to connect and switch between speakers and headset but this is not the case for me. Once again one of those well thought through disimprovements they came up with ...
I perfectly understand why the app has a one star review in the Windows-Store. Guess I'm gonna be stuck with having to unplug my headset everytime I want to use the speakers instead until they realize their shortcoming ...

Redbergh said:

Nahimic 3 is still available (at least for my MSI Z390 ACE) on the support site, but aside from that it doesn't solve my problem. I am still stripped of any option to separate back-in and front-in-audio. If I had a divice using the digital output there might be a chance to connect and switch between speakers and headset but this is not the case for me. Once again one of those well thought through disimprovements they came up with ...
I perfectly understand why the app has a one star review in the Windows-Store. Guess I'm gonna be stuck with having to unplug my headset everytime I want to use the speakers instead until they realize their shortcoming ...

RTK Audio Control and Nahimic are review-bombed not because they are bad apps, but because there's a lack of proper communication between developers and users about on which PCs these apps can be installed and what they are for. It's typical to see people complaining that the new UWP apps from RTK, Nvidia or Nahimic "do not work", but this pretty much comes from not having the required DCH driver installed, or in Nahimic's case, from MSI false advertising "Z370 MSI Gaming motherboards have Nahimic", which for example is partially untrue. Nahimic also requires a separate chip on the motherboard, and I think it's just for positional audio, so it shouldn't have anything to do with audio in/out.

Other than this, if you actually have specific needs that recording multiple separate sources and the like, you should most definitely not rely on an integrated chip, just buy a proper audio interface.

The 6.0.1.8586 for HDA it'll not publish on MUC?
I'm waiting for this driver...

erpster4 said:

and speaking of Nahimic, the Nahimic 3 UWP app is also available for Gigabyte boards & laptops and using a specialized UAD driver w/ Nahimic 3 integration

check out this pic (example was an 8578 UAD driver):



yup, Realtek had been occasionally making test UAD drivers for certain Gigabyte systems, like this driver that I found several weeks ago that have Nahimic 3 integration.

so Nahimic 3 is not just for MSI based boards & laptops but also for Gigabyte boards & laptops as well

by the way, the Nahimic 3 UWP app requires at least the Windows 10 April 2018 (v1803 - Redstone 4) Update - it will not work with older Windows 10 versions below v1803.

edit - and here's the 6.0.1.8581 UAD + Nahimic 3 driver from MSI recently posted (at least it was available on my end) [for certain MSI boards & laptops only]

Is Nahimic 3 a must-have if we have a recent enough board and Windows version? Is this only useful for gaming?

6.0.1.8591 are now available from MUC

Unfortunately this seems to be UAD (only 8,9 MB) with minimum features

SandHalp said:

Is Nahimic 3 a must-have if we have a recent enough board and Windows version? Is this only useful for gaming?

It seems to have uses for other things as well, like 3D audio in general. A quick glance at the GUI shows tabs for Music and Movies. I personally prefer to listen on relatively big stereo studio monitors, so I am not really sure what it could do for me other than some virtual 3D sound.

But if you have a home theater with a 5.1 or 7.1 setup, do a lot of gaming (some games I think have "banned" the positional audio stuff) it could prove more useful for your case.

If one's buying a new motherboard, I'd definitely look for one with Nahimic. But if you already have a motherboard and it doesn't have, I doubt it's worth purchasing another just for this.