Latest Realtek HD Audio Driver Version [2]

Kbird said:

Why have you not installed the UAD Driver from MSI ?
(it seems this MB can use HDA Drivers too)

Attachment 279406

Thanks, yes I have installed this driver already. But maybe I got confused, I haven't read all of this thread (it is HUGE) but the pages I have read so far appeared to be talking about non-OEM drivers for Realtek chips that might be an improvement over those available from the OEM website. I wondered if this theory might apply to the ALC1220 on the MSI B450 or whether the MSI drivers is the best that is available at present.

I only installed the Realtek driver, I didn't install the Nahimic part as I was just looking for a clear audio signal path and didn't see anything in the Nahimic software that I felt would improve my audio experience. But maybe I have been too hasty, are people having good results with the Nahimic software?

stube40 said:

Thanks, yes I have installed this driver already. But maybe I got confused, I haven't read all of this thread (it is HUGE) but the pages I have read so far appeared to be talking about non-OEM drivers for Realtek chips that might be an improvement over those available from the OEM website. I wondered if this theory might apply to the ALC1220 on the MSI B450 or whether the MSI drivers is the best that is available at present.

I only installed the Realtek driver, I didn't install the Nahimic part as I was just looking for a clear audio signal path and didn't see anything in the Nahimic software that I felt would improve my audio experience. But maybe I have been too hasty, are people having good results with the Nahimic software?

That official Driver was only released 5 days and is pretty new (latest is 8945.1) , though I personally cannot confirm if 8921 was a good driver never used it, I don't have Nahimic either on my ASUS MB so can't advise on it either.

KB.

Actually, I was completely wrong - I didn't actually have the Realtek Universal Driver 6.0.8928.1 driver installed so I went ahead and installed it - sadly it does not work at all in my system and I have had to do a system restore to roll back to the Realtek High Definition Audio Driver 6.0.1.8619 instead.

I couldn't get any sound out of the card at all. Spotify refused to play songs with no error, but at least Foobar gave some output:

Unrecoverable playback error: Unspecified error (0x80004005)

stube40 said:

Actually, I was completely wrong - I didn't actually have the Realtek Universal Driver 6.0.8928.1 driver installed so I went ahead and installed it - sadly it does not work at all in my system and I have had to do a system restore to roll back to the Realtek High Definition Audio Driver 6.0.1.8619 instead.

I couldn't get any sound out of the card at all. Spotify refused to play songs with no error, but at least Foobar gave some output:

Unrecoverable playback error: Unspecified error (0x80004005)

That MSI 8619 is not a UAD Driver ...it is the Full HDA Driver ... *** note it's name and file size .....220+ MB

The Two Drivers are not Compatible , but you should be able to do a complete uninstall of the HDA Driver and then install the Newer UAD Drivers which will then cause the M$ Store to install the newer Realtek APP.

Courtesy of Mokichu

Install/Update Process :

CLEANUP

/!\ If you already had Realtek (HD) Audio Driver, Realtek Audio Control, Sonic Studio III & Sonic Radar III installed /!\
Uninstall them (Start > Settings > Apps) then restart your PC
- Launch Driver Store Explorer > Check the boxes of all versions of drivers which .inf starts with (if you find them) :
a-volute | avolute | dts | hdx | realtek
- Check the box "Force Deletion" then click on the "Delete Package" button then restart your PC

INSTALL UAD Drivers from Manufacturers Website 1st......

Driver Store ExplorerRelease DriverStore Explorer v0.10.58 . lostindark/DriverStoreExplorer . GitHub

KB.

Kbird said:

That MSI 8619 is not a UAD Driver ...it is the Full HDA Driver ... *** note it's name and file size .....220+ MB

The Two Drivers are not Compatible , but you should be able to do a complete uninstall of the HDA Driver and then install the Newer UAD Drivers which will then cause the M$ Store to install the newer Realtek APP.

KB.

Ah, that makes perfect sense now. I will follow this guide and try that. 1000 thanks for this information

- - - Updated - - -

Apologies if this is a completely stupid question that makes me sound like a noob:

What are the benefits of the UAD driver over the HDA driver? I'm guessing possibly a more direct audio path? Or it just better control of the settings of the HW codec?

stube40 said:

Ah, that makes perfect sense now. I will follow this guide and try that. 1000 thanks for this information
Apologies if this is a completely stupid question that makes me sound like a noob:

What are the benefits of the UAD driver over the HDA driver? I'm guessing possibly a more direct audio path? Or it just better control of the settings of the HW codec?

Same Driver , just delivered the new M$ way and with the Control Console/App now a UWP App coming from the M$ Store not a separate Program/Utility delivered with the Driver.

Kbird said:

Same Driver , just delivered the new M$ way and with the Control Console/App now a UWP App coming from the M$ Store not a separate Program/Utility delivered with the Driver.

Ah, OK - so there aren't any obvious benefits to me going to the effort of uninstalling the HDA driver and installing the UAD driver then?

One thing I did notice when I installed the UAD driver (unsuccessfully, hence had to remove it) was that the control panel allowed you to select the different bit-rates for the digital audio output, so 24-bit, 96kHz etc. I don't think this is an option in the HDA driver application and the output bit rate is fixed (unless there is something I have missed which is indeed very possible....)

stube40 said:

Ah, OK - so there aren't any obvious benefits to me going to the effort of uninstalling the HDA driver and installing the UAD driver then?

One thing I did notice when I installed the UAD driver (unsuccessfully, hence had to remove it) was that the control panel allowed you to select the different bit-rates for the digital audio output, so 24-bit, 96kHz etc. I don't think this is an option in the HDA driver application and the output bit rate is fixed (unless there is something I have missed which is indeed very possible....)

This is possible in HD Audio Manager as well. Just click on Default Format (in red below) as shown in this generic version of the HDA Manager and you can choose which bit-rate you prefer.

Attachment 279429

asturias7 said:

This is possible in HD Audio Manager as well. Just click on Default Format (in red below) as shown in this generic version of the HDA Manager and you can choose which bit-rate you prefer.

Attachment 279429

Thanks. I realise now that for some reason the HD Audio Manager had not installed as part of the driver installation. I'm not sure why, i think I used the Motherboard Installation DVD and deselected alot of the MSI Bloatware, so maybe I accidentally deselected HD Audio Manager. Anyway, I have now installed the full 200+MB driver package and it has appeared in the tool tray after reboot - YAY!

So I think I'm all good to go and no need for me to install the latest UAD driver unless it offers something of value that the HDA driver does not (feedback so far is that there is no differences......)