Audio problem

[BetteBalterZen]

Hello everyone!

I was hoping someone could help me figure out what is causing my audio problem. 

I get these small tiny pops in the sound generally all the time but only in games. Fx if I'm watching YouTube, there are no pops in the sound or if I'm playing music via a internet based radio, or if I'm watching videos on my PC. 
But in games, some more than others, I get these small pops. And what is weird, is that fx in a shooter game, you have the ambient sounds, the sounds of the guns and the sounds of the voice of your character, here the pops only comes from the ambient sounds. Lets take RDR2 as an example. All audio is fine but when I'm riding my horse and you can hear the footsteps of the horse, those sounds causes pops in my audio. 
I've found out that if I disable my equalizer (flat settings) I have fewer pops but I still have pops. 
Also, this only happens with my speakers. Not in my headphones (Steelseries Arctis Pro + GameDAC, via USB)

It hasn't always been like this. My drivers are up to date also. 
 

So yeah, I was hoping someone could help me figure out what's wrong, or atleast point me in the right direction. I do not have the most knowledge when it comes to audio problems. 

Thanks

Edit: 
Sorry, let me say what motherboard and speaker I have:
Asus ROG Strix Z370 Gaming-F
Corsair SP2500, via 3.5mm Jack

[191x7]

Monitor your DPC latency. Let us know.

[BetteBalterZen]

Just now, 191x7 said:

Monitor your DPC latency. Let us know.

Okay, thank you. 

Latency can cause this? 

[BetteBalterZen]

Hello again

Latency seems okay I guess? I went ingame and got the pops almost right away. LatencyMon was running while I was ingame of course

[BetteBalterZen]

Oh wait, after a while on desktop, LatencyMon says this: 

[191x7]

Are you using the latest audio drivers / soundcard drivers?

Maybe running some doftware that modifies the audio?

Latest bios and chipset drivers?

[BetteBalterZen]

5 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

Are you using the latest audio drivers / soundcard drivers?

Maybe running some doftware that modifies the audio?

Latest bios and chipset drivers?

Pretty sure I am. I will check again.

Also, I tried switching to High Performance in Windows powerplan and it seem the "Current measured interrupt to process latency (us)" is generally lower but I still get audio pops ingame. 

 

[191x7]

1 minute ago, BetteBalterZen said:

Pretty sure I am. I will check again.

Also, I tried switching to High Performance in Windows powerplan and it seem the "Current measured interrupt to process latency (us)" is generally lower but I still get audio pops ingame. 

 

Does it happen with this too:

 

Does the loudness affect the issue?

[BetteBalterZen]

1 minute ago, 191x7 said:

Does it happen with this too:

 

Does the loudness affect the issue?

Nope, plays just fine

[191x7]

Do you have the settings set to 44.1KHz?

[BetteBalterZen]

1 minute ago, 191x7 said:

Do you have the settings set to 44.1KHz?

No, 32bit 192000 Hz

And I've tried different settings (audio standard formats) and it's the same

[BetteBalterZen]

191x7, you my friend, deserve a huge cookie! 

I was so sure that I had all my drivers in check and I did not but I thought I did. I downloaded and installed the Realtek Audio Driver version 6.0.1.8666, restarted, started LatencyMon, went ingame, played a full game, no pops or anything, close my game, LatencyMon says all is good. I believe it's fixed! 

But the tricky thing was, I already had the Realtek Audio Driver version 6.0.1.8746 installed but this version is 686.47mb and the version 6.0.1.8666 is 161.71mb, so I thought that maybe .8666 was something entirely else than .8746 - even though both says it's the Realtek Audio Driver - and yup, I have a new Windows 10 app-type Realtek audio program installed now that I didn't have before. 

I guess if it weren't for you 191x7, I would never have tried this with my drivers again... THANK YOU SO MUCH

[BetteBalterZen]

Been playing for an hour now - no pops or anything. It was certainly missing that driver. Thank again 

[191x7]

40 minutes ago, BetteBalterZen said:

Been playing for an hour now - no pops or anything. It was certainly missing that driver. Thank again 

Great, I like how we found the solution and how you managed to switch from the old driver model to the new DCH driver without having huge issues. 

And I like the fact that you let me know that it's fixed, not that many people do that here.

 

The "new" version drivers operate on a lower level than the old driver model (the one that was introduced with Vista and improved through 7, 8, 8.1 and 10) resulting with a lower latency and fewer issues.

How do you like the new Realtek Control Panel Windows app?

 

Have you considered purchasing a better soundcard or a DAC/AMP unit? 

[BetteBalterZen]

3 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

Great, I like how we found the solution and how you managed to switch from the old driver model to the new DCH driver without having huge issues. 

And I like the fact that you let me know that it's fixed, not that many people do that here.

 

The "new" version drivers operate on a lower level than the old driver model (the one that was introduced with Vista and improved through 7, 8, 8.1 and 10) resulting with a lower latency and fewer issues.

How do you like the new Realtek Control Panel Windows app?

 

Have you considered purchasing a better soundcard or a DAC/AMP unit? 

Honestly, I haven't removed the old/newest driver. I actually got both installed. Huh?  Anyhow, it works so I'll leave it as is. 
And yes of course! We all learn from knowing what fixed whatever we're trying to fix

The new Realtek Windows app is cool. I like it. Does what it needs to, and the UI looks nice. 

Yes, I have thought about getting a good soundcard for my PC but I don't know if it's worth it. 

[BetteBalterZen]

A quick look 

[191x7]

6 minutes ago, BetteBalterZen said:

Yes, I have thought about getting a good soundcard for my PC but I don't know if it's worth it. 

It is worth it. Especially for headphones, if you use headphones. A good DAC/AMP unit makes a huge differece, even with cheap low-end headphones, but it makes the better headphones sound to their full potential (if they aren't some 600Hhm beasts like the AKG K240 old 600Ohm variant that needs the strongest available headphone AMP...).

 

Edit: A small tip - when you play games, it's best having the audio set to 16 or 24 bit and with a sample rate of 44.1 or 48 KHz depending on the game. If a game has 48KHz audio, aliasing it into something higher adds noise and might degrade the audio quality. I've heard it ruining the positional audio in a few games. Also, above 96Khz (two times 48KHz) might cause more issues than adavntages unless you do have sources that are recorded with such an sample rate.

[BetteBalterZen]

3 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

It is worth it. Especially for headphones, if you use headphones. A good DAC/AMP unit makes a huge differece, even with cheap low-end headphones, but it makes the better headphones sound to their full potential (if they aren't some 600Hhm beasts like the AKG K240 old 600Ohm variant that needs the strongest available headphone AMP...).

Right. I have the Artic Pro from Steelseries with the GameDAC. It's 24bit and it sounds amazing. The bass is so clean also. 
So yeah if I'm buying a DAC/AMP/Soundcard or whatever, it will be for my speakers. 

[BetteBalterZen]

Update:

This morning, the pops came back. I've now removed all Realtek drivers and the pops are gone again - also my speakers are louder than before, like it's louder on lower volume. 

Kinda weird... Maybe the drivers are bad? 

[BetteBalterZen]

Update:

After a restart, pops are back again. Now trying to install 1 driver, the .8666 and see how it goes

[BetteBalterZen]

After reinstall of .8666 and restart, pop are gone again. 

Something is not right with the drivers I think... I hope it sticks now