Multi Monitor and AVR Hi-Fi setup

[Khelben]

Hello all.

As the title suggests i m building a new PC on which i want to have a multi monitor setup ( 2 for now) and which i want to connect to an AVR to get my sound from a pair of Dali Spektor 2.

Before i bother you with asking for an AVR reccomendation to drive the Dalis let me give you a few details on the PC and how i want it setup.The pc has one RTX2070 gpu ( 3 DP 1.4 and 1 HDMI 2.0b out) and an Asus Crosshair VII mobo ( one SPDIF out , no HDMI out at all) on windows 10.I want to run the first monitor STRICTLY off the gpu and not the AVR to take advantage of the DP1.4 and the 1440p 144hz Gsync that i paid it for.Second monitor will be used as an extended display and will be @ 1080p or 1920x1200 max (60hz) ,so nothing fancy here.

Now the next logical step in my mind would be to connect the gpu to the avr through the HDMI .And here is where my worries begin.I ve seen multiple instances online of people claiming that they either have trouble getting this config to work or that the PC detects the AVR as a monitor and that impacts the performance of their main monitor but none had the exact same config as me ( most of the ones i found were feeding both the monitor and the avr through HDMI,or they were not on windows 10 etc.).Is it possible to make the HDMI out of my gpu feed just audio and not pass video too and therefore tax the gpu? Should i forget about the gpu and go through the SPDIF from the mobo?

Thanks in advance for reading through all that and for your time and effort.

 

[Radox-0]

Hello all.

As the title suggests i m building a new PC on which i want to have a multi monitor setup ( 2 for now) and which i want to connect to an AVR to get my sound from a pair of Dali Spektor 2.

Before i bother you with asking for an AVR reccomendation to drive the Dalis let me give you a few details on the PC and how i want it setup.The pc has one RTX2070 gpu ( 3 DP 1.4 and 1 HDMI 2.0b out) and an Asus Crosshair VII mobo ( one SPDIF out , no HDMI out at all) on windows 10.I want to run the first monitor STRICTLY off the gpu and not the AVR to take advantage of the DP1.4 and the 1440p 144hz Gsync that i paid it for.Second monitor will be used as an extended display and will be @ 1080p or 1920x1200 max (60hz) ,so nothing fancy here.

Now the next logical step in my mind would be to connect the gpu to the avr through the HDMI .And here is where my worries begin.I ve seen multiple instances online of people claiming that they either have trouble getting this config to work or that the PC detects the AVR as a monitor and that impacts the performance of their main monitor but none had the exact same config as me ( most of the ones i found were feeding both the monitor and the avr through HDMI,or they were not on windows 10 etc.).Is it possible to make the HDMI out of my gpu feed just audio and not pass video too and therefore tax the gpu? Should i forget about the gpu and go through the SPDIF from the mobo?

Thanks in advance for reading through all that and for your time and effort.

I do not have the exact same setup as you (in terms of having a second panel), but do have my AVR hooked up via HDMI so see what is a phantom screen. I do not see any impact in terms of performance, I just make the phantom monitor representing the AVR a tiny resolution as most annoying thing is if you take desktop screenshots you get a extended desktop screen. However in terms of actual performance for gaming and the like, there is no impact for me nor in synthetic benchmarks (Firestrike and the like) on occasions I have tried with just the Panel vs Panel + AVR Everything is fullscreen monitor one when I game or just runs on the primary monitor, so the phantom monitor representing the AVR is just the static desktop which is not at all intensive.

 

[Khelben]

I do not see any impact in terms of performance

I imagine your 3x 1080Ti s play a role there . I ll be on the equivalent of an OCed 1080 (RTX2070).But saying you are not seeing any difference even in synthetic benchmarks is reassuring me a little bit.

I just make the phantom monitor representing the AVR a tiny resolution....so the phantom monitor representing the AVR is just the static desktop which is not at all intensive.

Here is another issue/problem . I 've seen people claiming that this creates issues with the sound quality/codecs.I am quoting this from a thread on Tom's :"I tried this on my GTX 1080 and found that TrueHD & DTS-HD MA bitstreaming does not work below 720p or 1024x768. Only DD, DTS, & PCM works. If I increase the resolution to the above then HD audio bitstreaming works." People on this thread also claim that cloning/mirroring the display causes massive lag/stutter(i was hoping i would somehow be able to just clone the second 1080p display for the AVR phantom one).So my fear here is if i will be able to extend the main display(LG 32GK850G-B) to a second 1080p display and then a 3d time to the AVR phantom display and all that without being gutted whilst gaming nad maintain my 144hz.

 

[Radox-0]

I imagine your 3x 1080Ti s play a role there . I ll be on the equivalent of an OCed 1080 (RTX2070).But saying you are not seeing any difference even in synthetic benchmarks is reassuring me a little bit.




Here is another issue/problem . I 've seen people claiming that this creates issues with the sound quality/codecs.I am quoting this from a thread on Tom's :"I tried this on my GTX 1080 and found that TrueHD & DTS-HD MA bitstreaming does not work below 720p or 1024x768. Only DD, DTS, & PCM works. If I increase the resolution to the above then HD audio bitstreaming works." People on this thread also claim that cloning/mirroring the display causes massive lag/stutter.So my fear here is if i will be able to extend the main display(LG 32GK850G-B) to a second 1080p display and then a 3d time to the AVR phantom display and all that without being gutted whilst gaming.

Heh they do well. With that said, both the GPU and AVR is connected to top GPU, so the other 1080Ti's are usually twiddling thier thumbs when I use the system for gaming and that's when I do not see a difference in performance. I kind of expected that as a static desktop background of low resolution is relatively trivial for the GPU to manage.

Ahhh, do not know about TrueHD and DTS-HD etc. I only use DD, DTS and PCM. My AVR does not even support the other's.

Similarly in regards to cloning and mirroring, yes, I use extended desktop. I seem to get an awful screeching out the speakers if I use mirror / cloning so do not use that period, so will just set the AVR to extended desktop.

 

[Khelben]

Thank you so much man. I ll do some more research both online and live @ some hi-fi stores but from what you are telling me i m good to go. Now all that's left is to find a good AVR to pair the Dali Spektor 2 with and drive them decently. I am all ears if you or anyone else has a suggestion .Thanks again!

 

[Vassilis]

I'm also using an AVR through HDMI together with a 4k 144hz monitor on displayport. True HD audio streams will not work if you have the ghost monitor in a low resolution in extended desktop mode; for that reason my ghost AVR monitor is set at 1080p. It is annoying because if you put your mouse at the corner of the real screen it often "disappears" in the ghost monitor. There is no performance drop, but I am using a 2080Ti oc so there is plenty of GPU power.

 

[Khelben]

I'm also using an AVR through HDMI together with a 4k 144hz monitor on displayport. True HD audio streams will not work if you have the ghost monitor in a low resolution in extended desktop mode; for that reason my ghost AVR monitor is set at 1080p. It is annoying because if you put your mouse at the corner of the real screen it often "disappears" in the ghost monitor. There is no performance drop, but I am using a 2080Ti oc so there is plenty of GPU power.

Thank you for the input mate.When the cursor "disappears" can you simply move it back over or is a monitor restart or anything of the kind necessary? I will have 2 monitors + AVR so i m thinking of putting the ghost monitor to the far left side (main monitor+ browsing monitor on its left + then the ghost monitor).And yeah i d say your 2080ti oc puts you way out of my performance league but still provides a metric i guess cause my monitor will be 1440p not 4k. Again thank you.

Do you have any suggestions for an AVR that could drive a pair of Dali Spektor 2 and doesn't misbehave with Windows 10? ( read somewhere Denon AVRs have troubles sometimes with windows 10 drivers)

 

[Vassilis]

Thank you for the input mate.When the cursor "disappears" can you simply move it back over or is a monitor restart or anything of the kind necessary? I will have 2 monitors + AVR so i m thinking of putting the ghost monitor to the far left side (main monitor+ browsing monitor on its left + then the ghost monitor).And yeah i d say your 2080ti oc puts you way out of my performance league but still provides a metric i guess cause my monitor will be 1440p not 4k. Again thank you.

Do you have any suggestions for an AVR that could drive a pair of Dali Spektor 2 and doesn't misbehave with Windows 10? ( read somewhere Denon AVRs have troubles sometimes with windows 10 drivers)

When the cursor disappears you can move it back, but it sucks because it usually takes a few seconds to realize that it really disappeared - especially if you multi screen - and to move it back depending on how "deep" it went into the ghost screen.

I have two recent Denon AVRs at home from the 2018 Lineup and they both work fine in windows 10. Even the Denon x540BT (future proof with 5.2 sound and available for 200€ - 90W 6ohms stereo & 70W 8ohms stereo) would be fine with the Dali Spektor 2 (max power input 100W, so an amp around 75W-90W would be perfect), I don't see any need to get something more powerful in your case.

 

[Khelben]

When the cursor disappears you can move it back, but it sucks because it usually takes a few seconds to realize that it really disappeared - especially if you multi screen - and to move it back depending on how "deep" it went into the ghost screen.

That sounds annoying but not a dealbreaker tbh.As long as everything works and i dont get a performance hit on my main screen whilst gaming or using CAD i m ok.Plus the ghost monitor will most of the time be two screens away.

I have two recent Denon AVRs at home from the 2018 Lineup and they both work fine in windows 10. Even the Denon x540BT (future proof with 5.2 sound and available for 200€ - 90W 6ohms stereo & 70W 8ohms stereo) would be fine with the Dali Spektor 2 (max power input 100W, so an amp around 75W-90W would be perfect), I don't see any need to get something more powerful in your case.

Ok thank you very much for the suggestion.Will look into it.Although i can't seem to find the x540BT cheaper than 300€.Where do you see it for 200€? Or was that a typo? xD.

Thanks again mate.

 

[Vassilis]

That sounds annoying but not a dealbreaker tbh.As long as everything works and i dont get a performance hit on my main screen whilst gaming or using CAD i m ok.Plus the ghost monitor will most of the time be two screens away.



Ok thank you very much for the suggestion.Will look into it.Although i can't seem to find the x540BT cheaper than 300€.Where do you see it for 200€? Or was that a typo? xD.

Thanks again mate.

You can find it here for 219€: https://www.son-video.com/article/haute-fidelite-amplificateurs-amplis-home-cinema/denon/avr-x540bt

It was available for 199€ for Black Friday a few days ago

 

[Khelben]

Wow that's quite the difference. Wonder what will the shipping costs be though outside of France.Much appreciated man.

ps: Have sent you a pm!