# Realtek HDA versus UAD drivers



## Static~Charge (Jul 27, 2018)

Recently, I spotted Realtek UAD (Universal Audio Driver) 8501 for their sound chips. I can't find much useful information about this driver format. Are there benefits to using UAD audio drivers versus the regular HDA audio drivers?


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## alanfox2000 (Jul 28, 2018)

Diver file size
UAD ~ 53 MB for Win10 x64 only
HDA ~ 280 MB
UAD Control Panel look better that HDA
However, DTSi and DDL patcher not work on UAD


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## erpguy53 (Aug 14, 2018)

also

UAD drivers only work with recent versions of Win10 x64 > need Win10 build 15063 (RS2 / v1703) or higher to install & use
UAD not compatible with RS1 (v1607) & older Win10 versions (aka. LTSB 2015 & LTSB 2016) and older Win versions

HDA drivers are obviously much bigger than UAD drivers but traditional HDA drivers work on Vista, Win7, Win8.x & any Win10 version (even on Win10 RTM or v1507 TH1 release)


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## Diogo Silva (Aug 27, 2018)

If I install the UAD Driver, how can be compatible with Sound BlasterX 720 or Cinema 5 or Dolby Audio or others, like HDA Audio?


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## erpguy53 (Aug 29, 2018)

send alanfox2000 a PM, Diogo Silva.  maybe he will respond to your question.
note: you must uninstall/remove existing Realtek HDA driver first before installing Realtek UAD driver because UAD driver has new structure than traditional/legacy HDA driver


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## Metal-Tom (Feb 23, 2019)

erpguy53 said:


> send alanfox2000 a PM, Diogo Silva.  maybe he will respond to your question.
> note: you must uninstall/remove existing Realtek HDA driver first before installing Realtek UAD driver because UAD driver has new structure than traditional/legacy HDA driver



Great, so far I'm even too. But I wanna get further plz


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## erpguy53 (Mar 19, 2019)

Metal-Tom said:


> Great, so far I'm even too. But I wanna get further plz



perhaps ask in the Ten Forums "Sound & Audio" section, Metal-Tom.


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