Popping/Crackling noise at High GPU/CPU usage

[Berke822]

Hello,

I got my brand new PC, and noticed that there's something wrong with the audio after attempting to play a few games. Now, if I get any Rockstar Social Club(in-game overlay) notification while playing GTA V, that disrupts all of my audio devices(both on-motherboard jack inputs and external audio interfaces) by causing a popping/crackling noise for a few seconds. It also happens if I ever interact with the overlay by hitting Home button as well. The same issue happens when I get an in-game notification from Steam or activate Steam overlay by hitting Shift+Tab.

 

Now, this is not where it ends. I also encounter this issue when I start streaming on Discord and Google Meet. If the crackling noise stays constant for some time, all of my USB devices(mouse, keyboard, external HDD, webcam etc.) get disconnected for a few seconds, like a qucik shortcut.

 

Here are my specs:

MSI RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio

AMD Ryzen 9 5900x

Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB

ASUS Rog Strix B550-E Gaming

Asus Rog Strix LC 240mm Liquid CPU Cooler

G.Skill Ripjaws 64 GB (2x32) DDR4 RAM

Asus Rog Strix Helios GX601 Case

Asus Rog Thos 1200W PSU

 

Here's what I've done so far to solve the issue, but failed:

 

-Reinstalled Windows 10 64-bit OS from scratch.
-Updated Windows 10.
-Clean Booted Windows.
-Updated NVidia drivers.
-Tried different Sample Rates and Buffer Sizes for my audio interface. I also tried both 16 and 24 bit output sizes.
-Tried different USB inputs and cables for the audio interface.
-Checked if there was any CPU overclocking. There was none.
-Disabled the Superfetch(SysMain) feature.
-Changed the power plan to maximum performance.
-Disabled the power management mode for USB ports and USB Root Hubs via Device Manager.

-Tested differen audio inputs with different headphones.

-Tested beta drivers for both my audio interface and my graphics card.

 

Has anyone else encountered anything like this before? I'd appreciate your help a lot.

[Bombastinator]

So it’s specifically static in the audio? This could actually be an analog interference from poorly insulated components thing.  Got anything janky in your box?

[Berke822]

22 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

So it’s specifically static in the audio? This could actually be an analog interference from poorly insulated components thing.  Got anything janky in your box?

No it's not a static sound. It feels just like the video in this link: https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/audio-bugs-out-at-high-cpu-usage.3544479/ . Especially somewhere around 0:10

 

If there's a sound or a song that plays in the background, and if I'm utilizing my CPU/GPU higher than approximately 10%, then the audio starts to get cut off with popping sounds.

[Bombastinator]

40 minutes ago, Berke822 said:

No it's not a static sound. It feels just like the video in this link: https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/audio-bugs-out-at-high-cpu-usage.3544479/ . Especially somewhere around 0:10

 

If there's a sound or a song that plays in the background, and if I'm utilizing my CPU/GPU higher than approximately 10%, then the audio starts to get cut off with popping sounds.

The word “feels” while referring to a sound coupled with a link that has no audio gives the impression of extreme subjectivity.  

[Berke822]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

The word “feels” while referring to a sound coupled with a link that has no audio gives the impression of extreme subjectivity.  

The video indeed has an audio, and it sounds like what the video has towards the end.

[Bombastinator]

23 minutes ago, Berke822 said:

The video indeed has an audio, and it sounds like what the video has towards the end.

I didn’t even find a video.  It was a text website. 

[RTX 3071]

3 hours ago, Berke822 said:

No it's not a static sound. It feels just like the video in this link: https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/audio-bugs-out-at-high-cpu-usage.3544479/ . Especially somewhere around 0:10

 

If there's a sound or a song that plays in the background, and if I'm utilizing my CPU/GPU higher than approximately 10%, then the audio starts to get cut off with popping sounds.

Ok I get it with this example.

 

4 hours ago, Berke822 said:

the audio interface.

Are you using a sound mixer or stream deck?

[Berke822]

3 hours ago, RTX 3071 said:

Ok I get it with this example.

 

Are you using a sound mixer or stream deck?

I am using an audio interface. To be precise it's Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 MK II. I contacted the Focusrite Support regarding the issue as well. They did their best to help me out, but the issue persists. What's more interesting is, the issue happens even when I connect my headphones to the jack output of the motherboard on the case...

[Berke822]

4 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

I didn’t even find a video.  It was a text website. 

You might need to use another browser. This is how the website actually looks like:

[RTX 3071]

8 hours ago, Berke822 said:

I am using an audio interface. To be precise it's Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 MK II. I contacted the Focusrite Support regarding the issue as well. They did their best to help me out, but the issue persists. What's more interesting is, the issue happens even when I connect my headphones to the jack output of the motherboard on the case...

Try plugging the PC at another power outlet, this looks like PC is not getting clean power.

[MrXtreme]

Hi.. Did you find out what this problem was? Have the same issue on my system

[Bombastinator]

Just now, MrXtreme said:

Hi.. Did you find out what this problem was? Have the same issue on my system

After changing power outlets?

[MrXtreme]

28 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

After changing power outlets?

I hav try that, several outleds, the el-install in the house is just 3 years old also. Even to be shure, i made a new groundspear outside my office for the testing, to dubble ground. But no change to the situation.

[shockful]

Had the same issue with my DAC on a new Ryzen 5800X and just solved it with two methods.

 

While the symptoms of crackle and pops were rare, they did occur and progressively got worse the longer the computer ran without rebooting.

To reproduce the issue I simply ran Prime95 while playing Spotify, and within a few seconds it was very evident to the point of audio becoming none-distinguishable due to the large amount of crackles/pops.

Method 1: Update Bios
The BIOS should contain the updated AGESA firmware necessary for USB/Infinity Fabric/etc:
Updating from AMD AGESA ComboAm4v2PI 1.0.8.1 to AMD ComboAM4PIV2 1.2.0.3b solved all issues and I am able to run at XMP speeds.

Observation: Audio hiccup as CPU first hits 100%, but no crackles/pops and no hiccups afterwards.

Method 2: Disable XMP
On the old BIOS, instead of running at the XMP profile of 3600MHz (1800*2) at 18/22/22/42/72 @ 1.35V, running at JDEC11's profile of 2666MHz (1333*2) 20/19/19/43/62 @ 1.2V solved issues at the expense of roughly 5-7% performance.

Observation: Perfect Audio playback even when Prime95 starts

Other solutions to try:

* Bump InfinityFabric voltages to the max safe amount (didn't work for me)
* Downgrade PCIE4.0 to PCIE3.0 (massive performance penalty, but did not try)

I want to make it very clear that this system was not overclocked other than what the BIOS does naturally.  MSI's "GAME Mode" did not make a difference.

 

B550 MSI Mini-ITX
AMD 5700XT
AMD Ryzen 5800X

2x 32GB Patriot Viper Steel DDR4 3600MHz

Sabrent 2TB PCI4.0 nvme
M-Audio air 192|6 DAC

[Bombastinator]

On 9/10/2021 at 11:09 AM, MrXtreme said:

I hav try that, several outleds, the el-install in the house is just 3 years old also. Even to be shure, i made a new groundspear outside my office for the testing, to dubble ground. But no change to the situation.

With a new house it’s probably not that big a deal, though parts have gotten a lot lighter on the copper since it got expensive.  Implies it’s not a power issue.  

[shockful]

2 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

With a new house it’s probably not that big a deal, though parts have gotten a lot lighter on the copper since it got expensive.  Implies it’s not a power issue.  

It's firmware issue on the board.  A ground loop sounds different than crackles and pops.  The crackles and pops OP described sounds similar to the pops when the ALSA/WASAPI drivers' buffers are too small, or latencies are too tight; but those are not the issue since OP did try adjusting buffer sizes.  The new BIOS has the updated AGESA firmware and it removed the crackle and pops from my DAC.  I do not think OP has flashed his BIOS.  I bought my board a few weeks ago and it still had the BIOS from 2020.

Interference is very unlikely on an external DAC, especially when using balanced cables.  If it was interference on the analog output of a headphone jack, it would sound like faint dial-up chatter.

[Dr_badwolf]

On 6/25/2021 at 11:38 AM, Berke822 said:

Hello,

I got my brand new PC, and noticed that there's something wrong with the audio after attempting to play a few games. Now, if I get any Rockstar Social Club(in-game overlay) notification while playing GTA V, that disrupts all of my audio devices(both on-motherboard jack inputs and external audio interfaces) by causing a popping/crackling noise for a few seconds. It also happens if I ever interact with the overlay by hitting Home button as well. The same issue happens when I get an in-game notification from Steam or activate Steam overlay by hitting Shift+Tab.

 

Now, this is not where it ends. I also encounter this issue when I start streaming on Discord and Google Meet. If the crackling noise stays constant for some time, all of my USB devices(mouse, keyboard, external HDD, webcam etc.) get disconnected for a few seconds, like a qucik shortcut.

 

Here are my specs:

MSI RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio

AMD Ryzen 9 5900x

Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB

ASUS Rog Strix B550-E Gaming

Asus Rog Strix LC 240mm Liquid CPU Cooler

G.Skill Ripjaws 64 GB (2x32) DDR4 RAM

Asus Rog Strix Helios GX601 Case

Asus Rog Thos 1200W PSU

 

Here's what I've done so far to solve the issue, but failed:

 

-Reinstalled Windows 10 64-bit OS from scratch.
-Updated Windows 10.
-Clean Booted Windows.
-Updated NVidia drivers.
-Tried different Sample Rates and Buffer Sizes for my audio interface. I also tried both 16 and 24 bit output sizes.
-Tried different USB inputs and cables for the audio interface.
-Checked if there was any CPU overclocking. There was none.
-Disabled the Superfetch(SysMain) feature.
-Changed the power plan to maximum performance.
-Disabled the power management mode for USB ports and USB Root Hubs via Device Manager.

-Tested differen audio inputs with different headphones.

-Tested beta drivers for both my audio interface and my graphics card.

 

Has anyone else encountered anything like this before? I'd appreciate your help a lot.

I would bet money this is EMI.
This happens most obviously when the PSU sucks.
Its because the power junction pulses power into the... F* names.
and when youre running something 3D the GPU sucks more power.
Overlays are hardware rendered.

I had a shite power supply back in the day, but I was cheap, lazy (and curious/bored)
So i plugged my CPU, my GPU and Board/drives and shjt into seperate power supplies just to see what would happen.
And it not only solved it, but i also got the most stable OC i ever had on that chip.

Essentially the power is leaking Electromagnetic noise into your sound.
Ever listen to lightning on the radio?

[Dr_badwolf]

Just now, Dr_badwolf said:

I would bet money this is EMI.
This happens most obviously when the PSU sucks.
Its because the power junction pulses power into the... F* names.
and when youre running something 3D the GPU sucks more power.
Overlays are hardware rendered.

I had a shite power supply back in the day, but I was cheap, lazy (and curious/bored)
So i plugged my CPU, my GPU and Board/drives and shjt into seperate power supplies just to see what would happen.
And it not only solved it, but i also got the most stable OC i ever had on that chip.

Essentially the power is leaking Electromagnetic noise into your sound.
Ever listen to lightning on the radio?

Oh and also this can be caused by bad grounding.
(far more boring answer)
Get one of them "Clean Power" Surge protectors.
And make all of your sh* connected to your computer plug into that.
(yes even if you have to plug [another power strip] into that one protector.)

Yes it will be fine.
get a KillaWatt.

[lervpr]

I'm sorry to bump this forum. 

 

A friend of mine has been having the same issue once she installed the MSI Ventus x3 GEFORCE 4070. She was saving up to get it after her previous secondhand GPU died on her, and once she received the GPU these issues began to persist. Initially, we thought it was an audio issue with the buffer rates and turned off exclusive mode, then we thought it was a power issue until ultimately resided on the driver issue, but after Cleaning out the drivers, the problem stopped, it only emerged once the drivers were installed. Curiously, when she had installed her previous motherboard, we told her to update the bios, and for a moment it worked until the drivers crashed and began crackling again briefly. After a time, we started to rule out all of the components EXCEPT for the CPU, to the point that the entire PC was rebuilt, and once the newer GPU was installed, It immediately started to crackle through her sound devices before installing the drivers. At this point, we've ruled out the GPU, Motherboard, Case, Power Supply, and SSD again except for the CPU. This has been a Month-Long ordeal and she stumbled onto this forum after seeing similar symptoms mostly when it starts to crackle when she streams something on Discord each time.