Latest Realtek HD Audio Driver Version

Looks like Realtek has dramatically slicked-up the new skin when installing 2.70 driver package on a mobo/chip that is very recent.

I have the 2.70 driver installed on both of my machines:

(a) ASUS P5Q3 - Realtek ALC1200 chip (Intel E8450 Core2 Duo, P45/ICH10R chipset)

(b) ASUS P8Z77-V Pro - Realtek ALC892 (Intel i5-3350p 3rd-generation, Z77 chipset) which includes some type of DTS-related audio enhancement I haven't read about yet

And the look of the HD Audio Manager is completely different on the two systems, although it is the same 2.70 driver installed on both.

Most significantly to me, they have FINALLY modified the GUI for the EQ, so that when you click on a slider it reveals the digital number setting offset for the +/- value of the slider. This allows you to write down (in numerical form, so that you duplicate it if you had to) each custom EQ setting.

As most or all of us probably know, each new driver install erases all prior custom EQ setups you might have created, and you have to re-build them each time (perhaps from a screenshot, or perhaps because you've written down how many "nudges" you tapped each slider up/down to, etc.). Well now you actually CAN TRULY SEE the current digital value of an EQ slider, so that what you write down actually IS ACCURATE AND PRECISE, and makes it 100% reliable that you end up with what you want when you have to rebuild it.

(Of course it would be really ideal if they simply would not erase all prior custom EQ setups each time you uninstall/reinstall a driver, but that's another matter. Or, they could simply implement a "flyover HELP", when you hover the mouse over a slider to present its current value. Or, they could have implemented a small "LED" at the top of each slider's column, to display all 10 slider +/- values all the time.)


Anyway, here's what the two different systems present:


(1) ASUS P5Q3 with ALC1200






(2) ASUS P8Z77-V Pro with ALC892

i have a new board with the same alc889 as the last gen board and I just put 2.70 in the new board GA990FXa UD3, but there seems to be a new Dolby Home Theater version. I have the prior gigabyte 890fxa ud5,. I have a dual monitor set up but only really use sound for the one to a large flat screen and avr, onkyo608. all worked fine with the hdmi i had connected and used 8channel. Now i have issues. Environment, Room correction tabs just do not appear. In the realtek control panel with the icon in task bar, hdmi doesnt show up as it had before. Getting information from realtek about version changes, changelog and that stuff has been elusive , outside of forum information sharing. I have never been able to map my front top speakers in realtek or microsoft for the Dolby PLIIz Height or even PLIIx Wide.
I get sound from the 'side' or 'rear' speakers twice when doing the test.
Now , I dont know what is going on. had done a clean install ,even though the build is brand new, still the built in win7 drivers got put in before i could stop it, so the 'first' install of 2.70 wasnt really first in actuality. so, i did a driver sweep to be sure with lan /internet disconnected. Although dolby claims to be able to do 5.1 and 7.1 , there is no action at all with dolby in the multi channel config and not through hdmi. i have to set up the only other digital output, optical spdif, which is 2 channel and does not support all the formats i can get with hdmi. no matter what i do, i am not able to replicate the same perfectly working config i had with the 890fx with alc889 and same version drivers. i have used them with each update. i keep past installers for a long time, so rolled back to 2.40 and no matter which of the best working drivers i had used in the past, i can not make this new one work. I use the ati and/or amd hdmi drivers. i have a new amd gfx 7950 and was using the ati 5870 through the same onkyo 608 with perfect results for 2yrs, all realtek driver updates up to and including the latest 2.70. Have been to specific forums for the board and graphics card and get no responses to my posts though enough hits. i saw no prior fixes.
so, just trying to get the hdmi output icon/tab to show up and ,even with the other digital output options , there is no 'room correction' or 'environment' tab and instead of having the hdmi tab , it puts a 2nd 'digital audio' tab and my board only has one optical, no co ax , and the hdmi and 2 display ports with the dvi. not sure why realtek is mixed up with the iconic representation, and i am only a step away from novice, have been for 10yrs and it confuses me. I have managed to output multi channel sound , but no Dolby is involved and still no tabs in the realtek control panel.. However, i can , now, use a small option panel pop up from the 'playback' through 'properties' but it says i need to use a microphone to get 'room correction' to show up at all. same with loudness, but no environment and no gui interface for any of them
sorry , but this has been a complex issue, after a number of years smooth sailing with no direction which way to look for a fix, if there is one. this may be some upgrade?
john

I'm wrapping up the install of a new machine based around an ASUS P8Z77-V Pro motherboard, which includes Realtek ALC892 sound.

Initially, I installed the various drivers and utilities from the Support CD provided with the mobo, but now I'm updating to the latest drivers and software versions from the ASUS support site for this board.

Since I thought that 2.70 (6.0.1.6662, 6/19/2012) was the latest Realtek HD Audio Codec, imagine my surprise to find that the ASUS site showed 6.0.1.6699 as the current driver.

So I downloaded it and updated the initially installed 2.70 audio driver (which was not on the Support CD but which I used from the Realtek site). Sure enough, it must be the upcoming 2.71 in my opinion, as it's truly 6.0.1.6699 dated 8/7/2012.

One very interesting variation on the install technique, which I've not seen before. So I don't know when this change was made, or maybe it's brand new, but previously whenever I'd upgraded to a new version of Realtek drivers I had to go throught a manual 2-step process which is automatically controlled by the installer itself. First, run the installer and it discovers that it must uninstall the currently installed drivers, and then push FINISH to re-boot. Second, after re-boot, run the installer again yourself and now it discovers it needs to install the new driver, and then re-boot for a second time.

Well, the new installer doesn't require that you do anything yourself manually after the first re-boot. It apparently schedules an automatic running of the installer immediately after coming up to the Windows desktop after that first re-boot. It just starts by itself! There's still a need for that second re-boot, but at least you don't have to manually run the installer for that second time to actually do the install as it just automatically starts by itself.

Of course there still is the eternally present problem with custom-created EQ's from the old installed driver get deleted when you uninstall that old driver, so that you have to re-create it from scratch after the new criver gets installed. This is obviously due to the fact that that saved EQ is in a Registry key somewhere, and thus it gets lost during the uninstall step.

And the second problem is that the newly added "digital flyout" with the numeric value of the EQ slider setting (which I'd noticed during the install of 2.70 on this new P8Z77 board with the ALC892 chip) doesn't actually present itself unless you click the mouse while on the slider adjuster, which unfortunately also tends to move the slider up one notch unless you are careful or see it happen and pull it back down one notch. It really should simply fly out when you hover the mouse over the slider adjuster. Or, each slider column should simply have a new always-present LED over it showing the numeric slider value in that column.

And finally, there's no select-and-stick function tied to the up/down arrow keys that occurs when you click on an individual EQ slider adjuster with the mouse (as there is, say, on the Windows sliders in the Volume Mixer). In other words, it's very hard to precisely move the slider adjuster up or down by just one notch because it can only be done with the mouse, but it would be trivial to do this if you just could just tap the up/down arrow keys once to do that one-notch adjustment. Unfortunately, the up/down arrow keys are not tied to the sliders and the mouse must be used. It's always been this way, but it also has always needed enhancing.

I found the motheboard changeand driver for realtek audio manager change confusing. Some of the interface skin is the same as the old alc889, though the new board touts the high s/n ratio of 108 as a special feature on the Gigabyte stat page for the board. I am just not seeing the 'HDMI' tab on the interface nor does the Environment or Room Correction tabs appear. I am able to get at those particular functions as well as the Loudness check box. Only, i am no longer to do any manual room correction for individual speakers , just get an error message if i check the box provided next to the 'room correction' test only line in a small dialogue box through properties. i need to have a microphone or no room correction can be done. this is not at all similar to the same alc889 in the last gigabyte 890fx board. it had the whole pictogram with 8speakers and corrections for each one for distance and db. now , there is a new expanded dolby Home Theater interface with a ton of corrections but it doesnt work with the hdmi connection to my onkyo 608. I have not been able to get it to work with anything but the headphone jack or analogue speaker plugs on the back. it has all the standard equalizers and a new Intelligent Equalizer with built in pre sets. i can not set my realtek audio manager equalizer anymore because there is no more tab . I am able to get audio to my onkyo well enough and i can configure it as stereo , quad, 5.1 and 7.1. but it stops there. no other options but the loudness check box or an electronic room correction that i get error messages when i use a standard microsoft mono microphone on a stand. it doesnt like tha mic for some reason though will do a lousy job of running through the beeping speaker test but only comes out with a stereo result despite having sound come from all 8 speakers.
i am pretty sure it isnt functioning properly, though functional, but no idea how it is supposed to work. no new manuals, instructions or change logs, nothing i have found as yet to cover any of the changes from last generation. Nor has my google shown up any other people with the issue, not even on the specific 990 fx ud3/5/7 forum threads. i got no responses on the overclocker threads for the board either.
John.

Thanks for this link, got to use my translator doc page and came across a new tool for a clean uninstal/install of catalyst. The Google translation page i used offers a word for word translation and no idiomatic phrases are covered , so some sentences were a bit tricky