If using 970/980 HDMI 2.0 for 4k what are you using for audio?

[Attic]

I'm trying to get a look at how others are setup for audio. Mostly interested in 5.1 or 7.1 with 4k gaming (bluraay or other can go optical for DTSstream) I'm also interested in just L/R audio with 4k gaming as well. What's going to deliver your audio stream and to what device?

For audio are you running or plan to run from the video card or using on board/audio or other? In the past optical did not work for anything other than 2.0 from games, HDMI allowed for 5.1 or 7.1 discreet sound as opposed to having to go analog for multi channel surround discreet sound in games.

I've got an older HT receiver and I don't think I could run HDMI 2.0 to it and pass 4k to a new set while letting the receiver pull and handle 5.1 sound. For 1080p I just run HDMI from GPU to deliver video/audio to the receiver.

 

[alcoholbob]

If you are keeping an old receiver for its amps (i have a pretty hefty 40lb hdmi 1.4 receiver) then you will need a pre/pro or receiver with pre-outs that can split the audio from hdmi 2.0 and pass it to your receiver.

For my pc though since I dont run surround I plan on running hdmi/displayport from gpu to display and then get a usb dac to drive my receiver.

 

[Attic]

If you are keeping an old receiver for its amps (i have a pretty hefty 40lb hdmi 1.4 receiver) then you will need a pre/pro or receiver with pre-outs that can split the audio from hdmi 2.0 and pass it to your receiver.

For my pc though since I dont run surround I plan on running hdmi/displayport from gpu to display and then get a usb dac to drive my receiver.

Yea, I've got a nice 1.4 HDMI receiver as the brains right now. I may just settle for something like nvidias DSR solution or upgrade the receiver. Maybe a prepro in place of my cable box. That's probably best option, but not room for it as is.


One thing I came across is running HDMI to 1.4 receiver and DP to 4kHDTV (via adapter to HDMI 2.0 if needed). HDMI needs a video feed iirc so may have to set HDMI to duplicate display or tinker on that side of things, it'd be a video dead end but could still carry audio signal as possible work around for getting audio to 1.4 receiver and delivering 4k to a display direct from cards other video ports.

 

[alcoholbob]

Assuming it works (running 4K off one output and 1080p off another output and somehow getting sound out of both outputs), running a duplicate display will keep GPU(s) at low 3d clocks, which will increase heat quite a bit. That could be difference between 35C and 60C idle temps. If you are willing to deal with that...

Personally I think the solution is the next-gen Emotiva HDMI 2.0 UMC whenever it comes out (if you need surround and are willing to drop $599 on a pre/pro). Used to be you could get cheap receivers with multichannel preouts in the $400 range, but these days the cheapest receivers IIRC with full pre-outs are in the $800-1000 range, so a cheap pre/pro might be a better bet.

 

[JDG1980]

Once HDMI 2.0 becomes more widespread there will probably be compatible splitters, which you could then use to connect one output to the display device and another output to the receiver. For now, most splitters only claim compatibility with HDMI 1.4 and below.

 

[JDG1980]

Assuming it works (running 4K off one output and 1080p off another output and somehow getting sound out of both outputs), running a duplicate display will keep GPU(s) at low 3d clocks, which will increase heat quite a bit.

That doesn't seem to be true on Maxwell. TechPowerUp's analysis showed an idle power draw of 8W on a single display, compared to 9W on a dual display - a negligible difference.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Yep. Looking on the graph its clearly just an AMD issue.

 

[Attic]

For framework with this type of solution.

So the run would be:
HDMI 2.0 GPU (Via HDMI) ----> Emotiva HDMI 2.0 UMC (Or Similar)


Video: Emotiva HDMI 2.0 UMC (Or Similar) Passthrough ----> 4K HDTV

Audio: Emotiva HDMI 2.0 UMC (Or Similar) (Via Preouts) ----> (Via Multi Chanel InPut) Existing Reciever


Wondering if I could send audio from PrePro to Existing Reciver via HDMI.


Though at over $500 it's over my budget unless I were to overhaul and do the Emotiva ProPro with their XPA-5 or Possibly UPA-500 and then start upgrading speakers.



With dual display (one faked) solution into existing hardware, I'd want to just send sound out through HDMI (if possible) via sound properties. But overall as im looking at it, with inclusion of high end 4k HDTV the $$$ scope is going to put this upgrade out for longer than I anticipated. Might just fit when a single card can adequately drive 4k.

 

[BrightCandle]

Obviously not having a 970/980 I can't say if they suffer the same problem as my 680s but my second display doesn't have as good as performance as the main one. For whatever reason NVidia's drivers/hardware seems to accelerate the gaming screens in Windows better than secondary/auxilary screens. The contrast compared to AMD where all of them in Windows is accelerated is quite striking (although initially those 7970's in windows were terrible, but they did finally fix it).

They might be doing the same thing with the Maxwell cards as well, but since most people struggle to spot the stuttering we aren't seeing many reports about it (in the same way we didn't with the 7000 series in Crossfire to begin with). I strongly suspect however this is helping Nvidia save power and keep the clocks lower, but it also isn't very nice from a Windows perspective. Until someone does an objective test who knows if its still the case (everyone is focussed on games not the desktop experience, no one will even look into the desktop issue that Karl from HardOCP and I have raised about Windows performance on Nvidia).

 

[Attic]

Once HDMI 2.0 becomes more widespread there will probably be compatible splitters, which you could then use to connect one output to the display device and another output to the receiver. For now, most splitters only claim compatibility with HDMI 1.4 and below.

Oh, wow, yea that would be the ideal solution to keep costs down. Wodner if the splitter would have the one input and then a 2.0 output and a 1.4 output.

Does HDMI 2.0 change the cable requiremets or only the nature of what's transmitted over the cable? Unclear on how comparability of what's being transmitted would fit into a 1.4 compatible device. Even if an active splitter is needed that does something to the 1.4 stream, that'd still be worthwhile. I'm sure there are lots of folks with 1.4 PrePro's or recievers who will be in same boat when 4k content takes off.

 

[Subyman]

It's a hard spot to be in. I've settled on using 2.1 for PC gaming and have been fine. I use optical. When I game on my 1080p TV in my main room then I'll use HDMI for surround sound. I'm sure newer receivers will pass 4K no problem since the 4K TVs are becoming more popular.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Obviously not having a 970/980 I can't say if they suffer the same problem as my 680s but my second display doesn't have as good as performance as the main one. For whatever reason NVidia's drivers/hardware seems to accelerate the gaming screens in Windows better than secondary/auxilary screens. The contrast compared to AMD where all of them in Windows is accelerated is quite striking (although initially those 7970's in windows were terrible, but they did finally fix it).

I've noticed this on other cards as well. Starting with my Matrox Millenium cards. Primary display would accelerate video playback, secondary display would display video pixelated and slow.

 

[alcoholbob]

I found the solution to this. Just run an HDMI cable from your onboard graphics card and go to the BIOS and enable "IGP multimonitor". The downside is that you will have to have extended desktop so during normal browsing you will lose the mouse (since you can't do duplicate displays under this mode). But you can run sound from games through IGP graphics and video through your graphics card.

 

[Jurge92]

Just wondering, is HDMI 2.0 only necessary if you have a 4K display/monitor?

 

[alcoholbob]

Just wondering, is HDMI 2.0 only necessary if you have a 4K display/monitor?

Pre-HDMI 2.0 monitors would only support up to 1920x1200@60Hz through HDMI, so I imagine this opens up powering 2560x1440 and 2560x1600 via HDMI as well.

 

[Attic]

I found the solution to this. Just run an HDMI cable from your onboard graphics card and go to the BIOS and enable "IGP multimonitor". The downside is that you will have to have extended desktop so during normal browsing you will lose the mouse (since you can't do duplicate displays under this mode). But you can run sound from games through IGP graphics and video through your graphics card.

Excellent. Unclear on losing mouse though, couldn't the extended desktop be effectively set to monitor #2 and then user ignore monitor #2? 4k HDTV being monitor #1 in use and visible.

So IGP to Reciever at 1080P in multimonitor mode which will carry audio during gaming. The 1080p video dead ends at reciever. 4k video via dedicated GPU to the 4k monitor. The 4k video can go through DP or HDMI 2.0 to the 4k HDTV depending on adapters avialble and/or 4k HDTV available inputs.


I wonder if ARC (Audio Return Channel) may offer a solution.

 

[alcoholbob]

Excellent. Unclear on losing mouse though, couldn't the extended desktop be effectively set to monitor #2 and then user ignore monitor #2? 4k HDTV being monitor #1 in use and visible.

So IGP to Reciever at 1080P in multimonitor mode which will carry audio during gaming. The 1080p video dead ends at reciever. 4k video via dedicated GPU to the 4k monitor. The 4k video can go through DP or HDMI 2.0 to the 4k HDTV depending on adapters avialble and/or 4k HDTV available inputs.


I wonder if ARC (Audio Return Channel) may offer a solution.

I mean during gaming full screen the mouse is locked to the main monitor application. But if you are browsing the web and move the mouse too far to the right it goes into the next "monitor".

 

[alcoholbob]

I noticed this no longer works in Windows 8.1. In both vanilla Windows 8 and Windows 7 you can run IGP & GPU seperately but for some reason my IGP no longer outputs any video or audio once I upgraded to Windows 8.1 even with IGP multimonitor enabled.

Pretty disappointing, now my GPU is idling at 8 degrees higher (used to be 41C now idling at 49C. I will have to buy a USB DAC after all to get audio it seems.

 

[kasakka]

Couldn't you just use HDMI for audio and Displayport for video? While Nvidia's HDMI audio is flaky as hell (to the point where I made a batch file to reset the HDMI audio device) you should be able to do this even with no display connected to the receiver.

 

[alcoholbob]

Couldn't you just use HDMI for audio and Displayport for video? While Nvidia's HDMI audio is flaky as hell (to the point where I made a batch file to reset the HDMI audio device) you should be able to do this even with no display connected to the receiver.

The whole purpose of running audio off of HDMI from IGPU is to reduce the load on the GPU so it runs cooler and has more resources for gaming. You can certainly have the GPU do both (and that's what I'm doing now, running 2 cables from GPU), but I would prefer not to as my GPU now runs 8C hotter on idle.