Can a GPU output Sound and Video through different ports?

[Daiyus]

I'm in the run of making an SFF HTPC for living room gaming. I'm debating what monitor to go for, and I think I'll be jumping at a 4K screen (as nobody makes big enough monitors that aren't these days). I want to stick with an AMD card so I was thinking about going with an R9 Fury.

DisplayPort is pretty much required for 60Hz 4K output as AMD cards don't include HDMI 2.0, however my 5.1 AV receiver is too old to have a DisplayPort, it's got HDMI.

Here's the question; can I run video through the DisplayPort and audio through the HDMI port?

I really don't want to get an NVIDIA card due to both price and morally supporting the little guy, but if I can't separate a decent digital audio output I can use without replacing my sound system as well I may just have to.

 

[tinytomlogan]

Im sure someone on the forums went through hell recently getting their receiver to play nice with their GPU.....

 

[Kilbane]

Depends on the software used for playback. Stuff like VLC will give full control over output of video and audio. But beware it can be a nightmare sometimes.

 

[Daiyus]

Thanks for the warnings. I think I'll see if I can get my current card to do it (if I can find an old VGA cable) just to test the difficulties. I did ask this question on PCPartPicker too and one of the guys there has got it working, so it should be alright. I'll report back how I get on.

 

[jimma47]

Depending on whether you have a specific monitor in mind you may not need to.
What model is your Amp?

Assuming the panel you're looking at has speakers or this wouldn't be an issue:

Some of them have an Audio Return Channel (You'll find a lot on TVs) which is a pass through that can feed the audio back to an external Amp. Basically so your TV signal or USB or MHL playback devices can feed into your amp via the Panel without needing a separate connection to the amplifier for each device.

Failing this then there is the Headphone or digital audio out jacks that you can find on a number of panels as well.

For either of these scenarios you'd connect PC -> Panel -> Amplifier

The pros are you can use the panels speakers without the AMP being switched on but the cons are audio quality (particularly if you go via 3.5mm stereo jack) is not as good and the ARC may or may not be limited to stereo only (you'd need to double check this)

Considering you'd want everything going via the AMP and hopefully into decent quality speakers I'd just let DP drive the display and connect your PC to the Amp directly. Either use a digital connection (optical or coax) or your audio out lines from onboard audio (or soundcard)

The only time I've seen a really clean intergration was via HDMI passthrough but if you're using display port for the 60hz 4K then HDMI is possibly out due to bandwidth. The advantage is of course only one cable to the amp and one to the panel from there.

I'd just run optical from PC to the Amp and save all the headaches.

 

[Kilbane]

Hold on, this is all a little silly. 1st off, of course you can, the 4k display will just be a monitor like any other. Sound output will just be set as your onboard/sound card as normal. Connection to your amp will just have to be through either 3.5 mm or digital coax or optical. To be honest, unless you have a brand new receiver, anything older will not support 4k throughput, let alone anything really out there supporting 4k 60Hz throughput.

So in short.

1/ 4K display connected through DP, as most monitors are nowadays.
2/ Set audio out in windows to use whichever sound output you have connected to amp/receiver.

Exactly the same way as you would set up a PC except your going to an amp rather than speakers.

Sorry dude, got myself all confused due to doing something similar with someone else previously.

 

[Daiyus]

I played around last night and got this set-up working. I ran VGA to my TV and HDMI to my AV Receiver, which in turn outputs to HDMI on the TV.

The Radeon Settings picked up both outputs as separate screens (as expected). I simply set the screens to duplicate in the Windows settings and set my Audio to run to the HDMI "screen" whilst having my TV tuned to the VGA input. I was able to use Dolby Digital Audio and DTS with the AV Receiver on my Blu-Ray movies and DVD's which was the goal.

I don't know what happens if I unplug the HDMI that goes from the AV Receiver to the TV, that might make it easier still as there would be no screen duplication therefore no potential issues with having 30Hz on the HDMI and 60Hz on the DP in the proposed 4K situation. I'll test that tonight and see if the PC still recognises the output without a real screen attached through HDMI.

 

[MrKambo]

I might be missing something, but why are you using VGA?

 

[Daiyus]

I might be missing something, but why are you using VGA?

It was a hypothetical test on my current screen/GPU combo. I have a Radeon HD7870 currently with a Sony Bravia TV. To test two separate outputs I had to use the VGA as a representation of the DisplayPort I would have with a new screen/GPU. I was simply working with what I had.

Once I'd concluded the test I went back to running solely through the HDMI.

 

[shambles1980]

years ago ati were great at producing sound via the gpu. but nvidia needed special connectors.
now its mostly hdmi which does show up as a sound card so if that helps then yes.

 

[QuietOne]

I'm guessing this topic is old now but, I've 'kinda' solved mine but when I mean solved it I set my primary display which is through DP to it's native resolution of 1440P and set the secondary display via HDMI (receiver) at it's native resolution and positioned the secondary display at the bottom right hand corner so my mouse doesn't disappear to the second display.

There's a program you can download too which is called ultramon which you can configure to hide the second display completely but still have audio. It can be unreliable though.

 

[shambles1980]

why not just set it to clone display (same pick on both) should work fine?