Maximum PC

I'm looking to buy this card for an HTPC, but I have some questions about the audio.

I read in the latest issue of the mag that the video card is capable of outputting audio through the HDMI, but where does the Video Card get the audio? Would I still need a sound card?

I'm looking to run Blu-ray/DVD movies and "Tivo'd" TV shows, along with photo viewing, and listening to music.

The audio use to be passed over from the sound card to the video card via a S/PDIF cable. That's been ditched for simplicity and now goes over the PCIe bus. If you have onboard audio it should grab it directly without a hitch.

Will there be any quality difference between going that route and outputting the audio with a dedicated card in the $100 range?

That could be a bad of worms, or just a simple yes or no...but I have no idea. I can only assume audio over the bus has the same drawbacks that onboard audio has in the first place, but magnified. The idea behind audio pass-through on the video card is to merely keep wiring simple IMO, not quality. If you add a sound card then you'd more than likely want to go straight out of it with it's own cables.

The bag of worms gets opened when you factor in what software you're using to play Blu-Ray movies with on the HTPC, what sound card/chip, and what you're porting it out too. I'm using the right hardware on ours ported to a good A/VR, but use an older version of WinDVD that just won't do Dolby TrueHD; just standard DTS. You can make sound, but it may not be what you're looking for.

Well, if I do end up going that route I think I'll start out with just a GT 430, and if I don't like the audio I'm getting out of it, I can pick up a Sound Card and start porting it separately.