well I don't have gsync or 144hz monitor but if possible I want to try VRR with a new PC build as I already have a VRR monitor albeit maybe a crappy one (also worth nothing I use nvidia).
what I still don't get from your post is about the cabling thing and the "flowchart", I specifically mentioned that I want to use a display port as the primary cable from the PC to the monitor, so this mean all the audio+video data would go to the monitor first, before the monitor send another audio+video data to the receiver.
does that setup have no effects on everything that you stated? or will it cause even more problem? I'd only use 5.1 setup... can you please explain once again how is the easiest setup one need to do for 5.1 speakers with AV receiver, including the "flowchart" of the cabling solution, and say <75Hz monitor with VRR on (although I'm using 3440x1440 one, so pretty high bandwidth).
oh crap just read your post that VRR can't work with AV receivers, so is this a dead end? but I don't understand about the 2 desktop thing, I mean as far as I'm concerned, the only cable that connect the pc with the monitor would be a single display port cable, so...? I'm hella confused here
my main grudge with using the ancient SPDIF is that I can't get real multi channel when gaming with such setup, unless I'm using some kind of DD Live audio encoding or the DTS equivalent, but that's so old of a solution, other than that on my current old receiver I resorted to the ancient dolby pro logic 2, maybe there's something newer in software tech to do the job today? but then again with such a software solution, I'd waste pc resources just to experience multi channel gaming audio, not to mention the lackluster audio quality and possibly tons other bugs that can happen.
so with this in mind, it's pretty much seem like a very disappointing state of affairs in PC audio today, isn't it? I thought by now such HD multi channel audio would be the standard on PC
I blame all the cheapo pc gamers and enthusiasts that are just satisfied with crappy headphone solutions for this state of affairs, can't be helped from my pov
on the bright side, this can mean a somewhat cheapo logitech multimedia speakers can be enough for my need than getting another full fledged HT audio setup.