Realtek AC'97 Audio Driver for Windows Vista supports all ALC series audio chipsets from ALC101 up to ALC861. It is used as onboard sound on many motherboards. Compatible with ALC-101/201/202/203/250/650/655/658/850 chipsets. It is highly recommended to always use the most recent driver version available.
Featuring four 16-bit two-channel DACs and a stereo 16-bit ADC, the ALC850 is an AC'97 Rev 2.3 compatible multi-channel audio CODEC designed for PC multimedia systems. The ALC850 incorporates proprietary converter technology and fully meets performance requirements for PC99/2001 systems. Four pairs of stereo outputs, with 5-bit volume control and multiple stereo and mono inputs, along with flexible mixing, and gain and mute functions, provide a complete integrated audio solution for PCs. The digital interface circuitry of the ALC850 operates from a low-power consumption 3.3V power supply.

Two integrated 50mW/20ohm headphone audio amplifiers provide high-quality personal audio listening. Utilizing Universal Audio Jack® technology, Line-In and Mic-In can also serve as Headphone-Out with an amplifier advantage.

The ALC850 integrates an on-board dual PLL clock generator (14.318MHz and 24.576MHz), saving the cost of a 24.576MHz crystal. A PCBEEP generator is built-in and can be programmed by the BIOS to generate POST beeps without a buzzer. S/PDIF input and output functions are also supported, offering easy connection of PCs to consumer electronic products such as AC3 decoders/speakers, and mini disk devices.

The ALC850 supports host/soft audio from Intel ICHx chipsets, as well as audio controller-based VIA/SiS/ALi/AMD/nVIDIA/ATI chipsets. Bundled Windows series (98/ME/NT/2000/XP) and Linux drivers, EAX/Direct Sound 3D/I3DL2/A3D compatible sound effect utilities (supporting Karaoke, 26 types of environment sound emulation, 10-band equalizer), HRTF 3D positional audio, and Sensaura™ 3D (optional), providing an excellent entertainment package and game experience for PC users. In addition, the ALC850 is embedded with an impedance sensing capability to detect when a device has been connected to input or output jacks.