That’s disappointing, as one of the advantages of SPDIF is no ground loops between the PC and the receiver/amp. Maybe that’s not really as much of a problem now, but it solved that for me years ago and I’ve used it ever since.
Then again, I don’t have a surround setup, simple stereo is good enough.
Your mobo doesn’t have optical? I thought that’s pretty standard on everything except basic models.
Surprisingly, it’s not even on some high-end boards.
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/X670-AORUS-ELITE-AX-rev-10-12/
I think SPDIF is being phased out because it needs to use compression to do surround sound.
That’s disappointing, as one of the advantages of SPDIF is no ground loops between the PC and the receiver/amp. Maybe that’s not really as much of a problem now, but it solved that for me years ago and I’ve used it ever since.
Then again, I don’t have a surround setup, simple stereo is good enough.