Realtek Driver Confusion R2.75 vs 6.0.1.xxxx, what should i install ?

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

Realtek Audio driver on website is R2.75 , but on MSI Driver site of my Mobo it's 6.0.1.7293 , what's the difference ?

 

[QueenDemetria]

I would use the one from MSI's site. The generic driver from Realtek might not work as good as the one tweaked by MSI.

[JefferyD90]

Okay, first off look at the title of the Window. The first picture you posted says "Realtek High Definition Audio Driver Setup (4.06)" the second picture says "Realtek High Definition Audio Driver Setup (3.91)".

Now you tell me which one is most up to date.

Now, considering that, lets take this a step further. Your profile says you have "MSI Z97 GAMING 5 (Intel LGA 1150)" as your motherboard. If you got any driver from anywhere else than: http://www.msi.com/support/mb/Z97-GAMING-5.html#down-biossorry bud, but you're doing it wrong. And here is the reason why:

When a company makes a chip (like Intel, Asmedia, or Realtek) they make the chip and design it to do a certain task, in this case encode and decode audio. But often times they have other capabilities that are either repurposed OR they are disabled all together so another part can fulfil that function. I will give you 2 examples why this is the case.

My first example will be a little bit older, but will demonstrate the point very well. Way back "in the day" when dial-up was still the thing, many PCI modems had audio stuff built right into them. So when you bought a modem, you also got a half decent sound card. The reason why they did this is because they already had to get a audio encoder and decoder, for the modem, and usually you could get this for literally a few dollars and they be very high quality chips. This chips could handle 5.1 audio without spending a fortune. So what the modem company did is repurpose 3 of the channels so they would handle the incoming and outgoing dial up frequencies converting the telephone line tone into a digital output for the computer to receive data. You could have went to (in this case Realtek) and got the generic driver for this PCI audio chip, but then your dialup modem probably wouldn't function correctly.

Another, more modern day example, is just recently when manufactures started putting USB 3.0 chips on motherboards. Many of these were Jmicron chips, and if you know anything about Jmicron is they make pretty okay SATA chips too. So what many manufactures did was used Jmicron SATA chips (that lets say for this demonstration had 4 SATA streams) and they would give you 3 physical headers, and then repurpose one of them for USB 3.0. Also I do know there was one Asmedia chip that had 4 SATA headers AND USB 3.0 ports, Its featured on the ASUS M4A88V-EVO motherboard, that if you installed the generic driver it wouldn't let you use the onboard AMD SATA headers because of how they crossed over or something.

Moral of the story, MSI knows your motherboard better than Realtek knows their chip. Get your drivers from the appropriate source.

[NannerBeans]

Get the most up to date one from MSI. 

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

 If you got any driver from anywhere else than: http://www.msi.com/support/mb/Z97-GAMING-5.html#down-biossorry bud, but you're doing it wrong. And here is the reason why:

 

 take it easy man , i just had quarry, i'm not a newbie , been using it since 8 years and know enough, that doesn't mean i know everything there is, i do download it from MSI website, but i was really confused because there exited a different version on the Realtek website, and i went there to double check if i had the latest. this realtek thing always bothered me but never went deep, hence i asked it here .

[JefferyD90]

take it easy man , i just had quarry, i'm not a newbie , been using it since 8 years and know enough, that doesn't mean i know everything there is, i do download it from MSI website, but i was really confused because there exited a different version on the Realtek website, and i went there to double check if i had the latest. this realtek thing always bothered me but never went deep, hence i asked it here .

The simple fact that you went to Realtek's website tells me that you didn't know what you're doing. That or you're a developer trying to configure your own driver. Either way, even if there is a more up to date version from Realtek, you don't want to use it. Use the version MSI provided for you.

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

The simple fact that you went to Realtek's website tells me that you didn't know what you're doing. That or you're a developer trying to configure your own driver. Either way, even if there is a more up to date version from Realtek, you don't want to use it. Use the version MSI provided for you.

ok assume what you want. 

[mr moose]

The simple fact that you went to Realtek's website tells me that you didn't know what you're doing. That or you're a developer trying to configure your own driver. Either way, even if there is a more up to date version from Realtek, you don't want to use it. Use the version MSI provided for you.

 

not true at all, sometimes OEM drivers clash with other installed software and getting the generic from realtek is the only solution.  It pays to ask why before assuming they don't know what they are doing.

[JefferyD90]

not true at all, sometimes OEM drivers clash with other installed software and getting the generic from realtek is the only solution.  It pays to ask why before assuming they don't know what they are doing.

I would like to know 1 time that a manufacture's driver has caused problems.

[mr moose]

I would like to know 1 time that a manufacture's driver has caused problems.

 

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2040776/realtek-drivers-break-windows-audio.html

 

 

 

[JefferyD90]

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2040776/realtek-drivers-break-windows-audio.html

That is because of a specific version of the driver was bad. If you'd read further, MSI followed that up with a patch. This is what we call a software bug. Rolling back to a generic driver was not the fix here, it was barely a Band-Aid.

[mr moose]

That is because of a specific version of the driver was bad. If you'd read further, MSI followed that up with a patch. This is what we call a software bug. Rolling back to a generic driver was not the fix here, it was barely a Band-Aid.

 

I could link you to many examples the same but your arrogance won't let you accept that there are times when someone is looking for a generic driver for a good reason.

[JefferyD90]

I could link you to many examples the same but your arrogance won't let you accept that there are times when someone is looking for a generic driver for a good reason.

Arrogance or expertise? Generic drivers are bad on so many levels.

[mr moose]

Arrogance or expertise? Generic drivers are bad on so many levels.

 

well, you assumed the OP didn't understand, you didn't exactly answer his question, you then asked for an example of when a manufacturers drive caused issues, you try to write it off as being a non issue because it was only a specific issue that was fixed:    Newsflash an issue is an issue regardless of whether it's temporary or not. 

 

So indeed, at the moment it looks more like arrogance than expertise.

[JefferyD90]

well, you assumed the OP didn't understand, you didn't exactly answer his question, you then asked for an example of when a manufacturers drive caused issues, you try to write it off as being a non issue because it was only a specific issue that was fixed:    Newsflash an issue is an issue regardless of whether it's temporary or not. 

 

So indeed, at the moment it looks more like arrogance than expertise.

The FIX to the problem would have been if someone went into the inf file for the driver and removed the line (or probably several lines{potentially added lines to do something else who knows}) of code that disabled the Windows Sound Service. Anything else is simply a Band-Aid so you can limp around while someone else does the work. There is nothing wrong with that method, but its not a fix.

Now, when you're troubleshooting something with anyone you have to start from ground one. You CAN NOT assume that they know anything about the topic. even guys like me, who have extensive experience in software design/engineering, forget to do the simple things (or feel so confident in ourselves to just pass it up) like plugging in the monitor. (I always forget to connect VGA cables and almost ALWAYS require someone else to remind me)

[mr moose]

The FIX to the problem would have been if someone went into the inf file for the driver and removed the line (or probably several lines{potentially added lines to do something else who knows}) of code that disabled the Windows Sound Service. Anything else is simply a Band-Aid so you can limp around while someone else does the work. There is nothing wrong with that method, but its not a fix.

Now, when you're troubleshooting something with anyone you have to start from ground one. You CAN NOT assume that they know anything about the topic. even guys like me, who have extensive experience in software design/engineering, forget to do the simple things (or feel so confident in ourselves to just pass it up) like plugging in the monitor. (I always forget to connect VGA cables and almost ALWAYS require someone else to remind me)

 

huh?

 

Apart from having nothing to do with the op's question, do you honestly think when someone has an issue with the MSI drivers that they should modify the code themselves.  Do you really think that is a better approach than to download the reference driver from realtek until the msi issue is resolved (assuming it can be)?

 

It's not a complicated question,  you don't have to assume anything to answer it.

 

 

Answer for the OP:

 

The realtek drivers are the reference drivers for the sound chip, Consider them the vanilla drivers that allow windows to make the most of that specific chip.

 

The MSI version is prettied up,  it may have extra software features like 3d enhancements or other software that capitalizes on other motherboard features or it may simply be exactly the same but with little more than the MSI logo stamped over the top.

 

both should work, if you have issues with one then try the other. 

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

 

 

both should work, if you have issues with one then try the other. 

yeah found that they both are the same ,

Yes the confusion came from the naming scheme;

Realtek 6.0.1.6662 = R2.70

Realtek 6.0.1.6728 = ?

Realtek 6.0.1.6873 = R2.71

something like that 

http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4572657&postcount=6

[mr moose]

yeah found that they both are the same ,

Yes the confusion came from the naming scheme;

Realtek 6.0.1.6662 = R2.70

Realtek 6.0.1.6728 = ?

Realtek 6.0.1.6873 = R2.71

something like that 

http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4572657&postcount=6

 

you mean the inferior realtek driver isn't worse because realtek don't know their chips as well as MSI knows their motherboards? :rolleyes:

 

Who'd a thunk it?