Zotac has HDMI written all over it

AMD MADE A BIG splash with native HDMI support leaving the Nvidians from the planet Graphzilla to deal with eventual last-minute patchwork. This patchwork would consist of DVI-HDMI adaptors not carrying any sound.

We have seen several cards with exactly this function, but Zotac is now changing rules of the game. Company developed a line-up of GeForce 8 cards with S/PDIF connectors on the card and pushing the sound through dual-link DVI connector.

Once that audio signal gets through the DVI, it gets connected to a yellow DVI-HDMI adapter that takes care of the rest. Your HDMI enabled telly will receive both audio and video signal through HDMI, and you own an Nvidia based card.

This applies for practically all models company has in pipe, from lowly 8400 to 8500GT Turbo memory and 8600GT. Lads are working on enabling this feature on GeForce 8800 series as well, and with company's plan to support all segments with HDMI, we would not be surprised if upcoming G92 and G98 by Zotac spot “DVI Audio” support from day one.

This is a rather cool feature, especially on lower-end boards we have received - they're all passively cooled, so we can pronounce them Theatre-friendly. Availability of these cards is now - we have received samples of 8500 and 8600 series, and currently are conducting testing.

So far, HDMI provides both sound and audio, so we can conclude that this feature actually works. µ