My 5.1 receiver appears as a monitor, does this impact gaming

[FlaxenMoose]

Hi guys, bit of a weird one thats been bugging me for a while. I'm running a 5.1 yamaha 675 receiver to my computer via hdmi to my gpu on my pc to achieve uncompressed 5.1 surround for gaming. It is twin Titan SLI setup on a 60hz 2560x1440 monitor, so i cannot pass-through an hdmi through the receiver as you usually would. I therefore must connect the monitor to the gpu via display port and the receiver separately via hdmi. This is the problem, when the receiver is connected to the gpu via hdmi it shows as a seperate 1080p monitor that is being powered by one of my Titans. The only way this functions is if i 'extend these displays'. I've achieved the audio i want however i'm concerned this false display is draining gaming performance and causing SLI issues. Any advice you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated (I would rather not go down the optical spidf route)

 

[ssddx]

ultimately you do not have much of a choice.

if you want 5.1 sound from a pc to a receiver there are 3 choices:
-hdmi (uncompressed sound!)
-optical (compressed, otherwise stereo)
-coaxial (which i believe can be compressed like optical, otherwise stereo)

(did not list 5.1 from analog 3.5mm/rca connections since this is not on most newer receivers)

since you want uncompressed audio, you really have no choice but to use hdmi.

--

is there a drain on your performance? you could test that quite easily yourself.

run fraps or another fps measuring tool. pick a very repeatable scenario which is easily duplicated with almost identical results.

measure fps without having your receiver as an extended display (just disconnect it temporarily)
measure fps with having your receiver as an extended display

now, there might be a small drop due to processing and outputting an audio signal but i would say the amount of difference should be minimal.

 

[FlaxenMoose]

Many thanks for the quick reply, i'm guessing there's no way to disable the video element of the hdmi feed without disabling the audio?
I also have an hdmi out on my motherboard however i suspect i'd have to install apropriate drivers/firmware for it to function, would using this for the receiver instead of the gpu hdmi out eliminate this false 1080p display or would i just get the exact same thing?

 

[George Mulligan]

I never realized you couldn't pass an SLI'd signal through a receiver. Can you use an HDMI splitter and send one output each to the monitor and receiver?

 

[FlaxenMoose]

Just tested performance with 3d Mark and performance was the same using the receiver as it is using the monitor speakers (i.e. no false display) i also tested passing the SLI signal via hdmi through the receiver, for whatever reason it cannot go above 1080p 60hz, however this did eliminate the false display problem. Either way, you can't argue with the image quality of display port at QHD, unless they ever make a display port capable receiver, i'm just going to have to put up with the false display set up.

Greatly appreciate the advice guys

 

[George Mulligan]

Of course you could also upgrade your receiver

http/www.bestbuy.com/site/yamaha-500w-5-1-ch-4k-ultra-hd-and-3d-pass-through-a-v-home-theater-receiver/4183019.p?id=1219096894548&

 

[ssddx]

i looked up his receiver and supposedly it supports 4k so i dont see why passing 2560x through it would be a problem honestly.

since that is the case i would think there should be some way of getting the signal to pass through and perhaps just a setting is stopping you. not sure what but i'd double check that you dont have any kind of post processing or similar effects turned on.

it looks like he answered his question about it being a drain and its like i thought originally (that its a non-issue and more of an anoyance)

 

[George Mulligan]

When I tried to look up his receiver ("Yamaha 675"), I only found a 7.2 system, and yes with 4K support. Because he stated his was a 5.1 system, I figured I was looking at a different variant. It would be good to confirm that.