What sound card do i have

In most cases we focus our efforts on giving information about processors, CPUs, graphics cards or motherboards. But what sound card do I have ? This will be the question that a user can ask himself after reading for example an article on motherboards. And it is that many times we ignore this important element of our team, that we do not miss it until we realize that the neighbor's computer sounds better.

Fortunately, the current motherboards have absolutely all of them with an integrated sound card, and in addition to very good benefits if we are in a medium-high range. Does an external sound card really make a difference? Well only if we plan to dedicate ourselves professionally to the world of music or video, since for normal use the integrated ones are more than enough.

Sound card types and their function

We understand by sound card the hardware that is capable of converting the digital signals with which the computer works, into analog signals so that they can be reproduced by speakers. A computer works only with digital signals, be it data, tasks, and also sound signals. All this will go through the CPU or the hardware associated with it, and they will always do it in strings of 0 and 1 (non-current current).

Unlike the other signals with which the user interacts, the sound must always be captured or reproduced in an analog way. Sound travels through waves, so its capture through microphones is done with a membrane that vibrates and generates the signal that will later be converted into digital, we call this encoding. When we think to reproduce it, the signal must return to be analog so that the membrane of a speaker vibrates and produces the sound waves, this is called decoding.

One of the fundamental elements of a sound card is its digital-analog converter or DAC as we always call it. This DAC is inside the device that manages the sound, which we call a codec (encoder - decoder). This will be what I must identify to know what sound card I have. We have two types of cards:

• Dedicated sound cards: These were the first to appear on the market. First-generation computers were not designed to reproduce sound. This is how the prestigious brand Sound Blaster appeared, an expansion card connected to a PCI slot that provided a personal computer with the ability to capture and reproduce sound. Integrated sound cards: Currently, very few people use a dedicated card, since motherboards have a codec built into their PCB, usually in the lower right area.

Important concepts that we should know

It is important to keep in mind that a dedicated sound card will only be worth it if we are dedicating ourselves professionally to sound editing, if we have a super sound system, or we are hardcore gaming. One of the differential characteristics of these cards compared to the on-board cards is that their amplifiers support higher sample rates and support more audio channels.

And we say that it will only be worth it for this use due to the fact that the performance difference will be noticed with very good sound equipment, and professional quality speakers. Let's see some concepts that will appear in the benefits of a sound card:

• Signal Accuracy or Width: Measured in bits, it reflects the quality of sound the card is capable of sampling. For example, a 16-bit card is capable of sampling up to 32, 000 nuances of sound, more or less human capacity. This is the way to convert an analog signal into a digital signal in binary code.

DAC Function

• Sampling frequency: it is measured in kHz, and determines the quality in the definition of the sound signal. The more frequency it admits, the cleaner the sound wave signals. It is directly related to the signal width. 24 bits at 192 kHz would reflect excellent performance, since the human ear only reaches a certain limit in its frequency.

• Voices and Channels - Voices or polyphony is the ability to output multiple voices or independent instruments simultaneously. In the same way, a card has several sound channels, reflecting the number of audio outputs it can have. From here comes the concept of sound 2.0 (two stereo speakers), 1 (2 speakers + subwoofer). We have so-called 3D sound systems with 5.1 (5 speakers + subwoofer) or 7.1 (7 speakers + subwoofer) that place the speakers around the user to simulate a real sound environment.

Sound 7.1

• Sensitivity: it is measured in dB and is the sound pressure level that a card is capable of delivering or capturing. The more dB, the louder the sound will be heard, so high levels would be 120-125 dB. Impedance - This is related to headphone amps as the larger speakers have their own. It is measured in ohms Ω, while an amplifier has an output impedance value, a speaker has an input impedance, basically being the resistance it offers to the current flow. As a general rule, an amplifier should have a resistance 8 or 10 times less than that of a headphone, so that the sound fidelity is good. The amplifiers of plates or cards, usually have an impedance that supports headphones between 16 and 600 Ω

Sound outputs

To know what sound card I have, it is also worth knowing what types of connectors this can offer us and what they are used for.

• 3.5 mm jack: these will be the connectors that transmit the analog signal to the speakers or headphones. They will be differentiated by different colors. Pink, for microphone input, Blue, analog line input, Green, audio output for stereo signal, Orange, output for subwoofer, Black, output for surround or rear speakers. RCA: is the division of the stereo channel into two separate Jack connectors of greater size. It is used to connect sound equipment or power stages. S / PDIF: Sony / Philips digital interface to connect sound equipment with Dolby Digital or surround sound systems. MIDI: it is a digital input or output that we will rarely see on a PC. It is used to pass the digital signal from an instrument to the computer (input), or to play a melody on an instrument (output).

How to know which sound card I have

Well, we already know practically everything basic about a sound card, be it integrated or dedicated. So now we are going to see the main topic of the article, which is none other than knowing what sound card we have.

For this, there are several ways to find out, and everything will depend on whether the operating system of our team has correctly identified it and installed its respective drivers.

We take this opportunity to report that the two best integrated sound cards available on current motherboards are the Realtek ALC 1220 and the ALC 1200.

Through device manager (little information)

The simple and fast way to know what is the hardware of our team, is through the Windows device manager. Of course, the information it will give us will be quite scarce if what we have is an on-board sound card. We can access it by right-clicking on the start button to open a gray drop-down menu like this:

Now we will see an extensive list of devices that our team has. We will go to the " Sound and video controllers and game devices " section. We display the content of the tab and as we already anticipated, we have practically no information about it. At least we know that our codec is from the Realtek brand. Likewise, other devices will appear, such as the graphics card (Nvidia) to which they have their HDMI and DisplayPort connectors that can carry the audio signal, and other devices such as USB headphones with their own internal DAC.

At this point, the sound card will appear with its complete make and model information if it is an external one with their respective drivers installed. Windows automatically installed generic drivers and software for on-board sound cards, especially Realtek.

In fact, if we write "Realtek" in Windows, possibly the " Realtek Audio Console " will appear. Unfortunately this software does not solve our lives too much either, although at least it gives us information about the rear connectors in use.

Through external software (long, but foolproof)

Since we have hardly obtained information with the previous method, we are going to use external software to know this information. But be careful, because we are not going to discover the sound card directly, but we must first know what motherboard we have.

We can use two programs to know this information about our motherboard. The first will be CPU-Z, a free program that gives us a lot of information in just a few tabs. The second is Speccy, a free Piriform software similar to the old Everest that also provides a lot of information perfectly classified in sections. Interestingly, it does not give information about the sound card.

With the first or the second in the sections shown, we will know the make and model of the motherboard. In our case “ASRock X570 Extreme4”

Now what shall we do? Well, go to the Internet and look for this plate on the official website of the brand or directly in our search engine. Quickly access us to your information page, and we will even know the exact name of our sound card by this in the main information. (By the way, ASRock, let's see if you link our medals well)

The case is, if we go to the " specifications " section, we will obtain this much more complete information depending on the case.

Wow, it seems we have a pretty good built-in sound card, the Realtek ALC 1220 being alongside the dedicated NE5532 Premium DAC for speakers. Now is a good time to refer to the concepts previously seen, for example, the number of audio channels it supports, the headphone impedance supported, or its ports appear.

The funniest thing is that if we go to the official Realtek page, we will see absolutely nothing about this codec. Not even a PDF with the Datasheet we have found. (If you find it you describe in the comments)

Install official drivers

I already know what sound card I have, the least I could do is install its official drivers. To do this, we will go to the support section of the motherboard and download these.

Conclusion and links of interest

This is our little article about how to know what sound card I have. The truth is that, on the integrated sound cards, we are not provided with too much information about them, except for the ones that the plate manufacturers themselves want to share. Regarding Asus boards, we must bear in mind that Realtek codecs are personalized by the brand, and instead of calls by their generic name, they usually add the S distinctive, for example, Asus S1220.

On the other hand, for dedicated sound cards it will be much easier, since manufacturers such as Sound Blaster or EVGA have a complete page of specifications for their hardware where we can know everything about it. The procedure will be exactly the same with Device Manager.

In any case we should not be overwhelmed, since the sound quality of a current integrated card is going to be very good to use almost any sound device. It will only be worth a dedicated one for high-cost equipment or for professional edition.

Now we will leave you with other tutorials on interesting motherboards:

What sound card do you have? Tell us what sound experience offers you or about any doubt or problem that has arisen.