HDMI audio - low FPS and audio garbled

[YonathanZ]

Hi,

 

I have a GTX 960 4GB, and I use HDMI for audio (it goes to my receiver).

Anyway, in video games, I get these noises from the tweeter, usually one speaker at a time (left or right, I have a stereo setup). 

Today I had a worse version of this: I was playing Overwatch competiting, and then the audio went completely fubar, there was this constant noise that didn't sound like the game at all, like static, and the FPS went down to what felt like 0.5 fps or so. I couldn't even see what I was typing because of how slow the framerate became.

 

My drivers are updated, all of them. I have also re-installed Windows a week ago in an attempt to fix this problem, and it made no difference at all.

Sometimes I get this noise when browsing the internet, too, or like small hiccups when playing HD videos.

 

Is my GPU FU?

 

This wasn't happening back when I was just using the DVI output, with a dedicated sound card doing the sound stuff, but the GPU did cause electrical interference in the sound card which produced a different kind of noise when the GPU was working hard.

 

 

 

[Enderman]

Try a different cable?

It might be the gpu, try downclocking or increasing voltage.

[YonathanZ]

Just now, Enderman said:

Try a different cable?

It might be the gpu, try downclocking or increasing voltage.

It's a new HDMI cable, but why would it cause a lower framerate?

I'd need to hear some reasoning before I buy another, branded cable.

 

[Enderman]

1 minute ago, YonathanZ said:

It's a new HDMI cable, but why would it cause a lower framerate?

I'd need to hear some reasoning before I buy another, branded cable.

 

Oh then its probably gpu getting old.

[YonathanZ]

2 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Oh then its probably gpu getting old.

It's less than a year old. I have a GTX 560 Ti that works perfectly.

[pwn_intended]

It sounds to me like the GPU might be biting the dust.

As a troubleshooting step though, have you tried removing the audio rece3iver from the picture and using just the speakers built into your tv/monitor?

[Enderman]

1 minute ago, YonathanZ said:

It's less than a year old. I have a GTX 560 Ti that works perfectly.

Did you try increasing voltage or downclocking like I told  you to?

[YonathanZ]

2 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Did you try increasing voltage or downclocking like I told  you to?

No, my GPU is in stock condition, I find it strange that I'd need to mess with OC stuff to fix stuff.

2 minutes ago, pwn_intended said:

It sounds to me like the GPU might be biting the dust.

As a troubleshooting step though, have you tried removing the audio rece3iver from the picture and using just the speakers built into your tv/monitor?

Well crap, I can't find the receipt. Probably threw it away cause I paid cash. Might be older than 1 year anyway, though.

 

I can't remove the receiver as it's powering the speakers. The speakers cannot be connected directly to the TV or motherboard.

[pwn_intended]

Just now, YonathanZ said:

No, my GPU is in stock condition, I find it strange that I'd need to mess with OC stuff to fix stuff.

Well crap, I can't find the receipt. Probably threw it away cause I paid cash. Might be older than 1 year anyway, though.

 

I can't remove the receiver as it's powering the speakers. The speakers cannot be connected directly to the TV or motherboard.

What I'm getting is take the receiver out of the equation completely. Plug the TV directly to the gpu and don't plug in the receiver at all. See if your problems persist without the receiver.

 

Also right now, how are things connected? do you have the TV/monitor plugged directly to the gpu, and the receiver plugged in as well with a second cable, or is the TV plugged into the receiver's HDMI out?

[Enderman]

4 minutes ago, YonathanZ said:

No, my GPU is in stock condition, I find it strange that I'd need to mess with OC stuff to fix stuff.

It's called instability and it causes weird issues like this that cannot be fixed by driver updates or clean installs.

If installing an older driver does not fix it, then you should try downloading or overvolting.

[YonathanZ]

3 minutes ago, pwn_intended said:

What I'm getting is take the receiver out of the equation completely. Plug the TV directly to the gpu and don't plug in the receiver at all. See if your problems persist without the receiver.

 

Also right now, how are things connected? do you have the TV/monitor plugged directly to the gpu, and the receiver plugged in as well with a second cable, or is the TV plugged into the receiver's HDMI out?

OK, but then I won't be able to hear the noises because the TV speakers are not detailed at all. It's not a loud static at all, except for this one case that happened 20 minutes ago in Overwatch. So that won't really show us anything.

 

The TV is connected to the HDMI out on the receiver.

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

It's called instability and it causes weird issues like this that cannot be fixed by driver updates or clean installs.

If installing an older driver does not fix it, then you should try downloading or overvolting.

OK. I'll contact the store to check regarding warranty before I try anything like that, though.

[Enderman]

3 minutes ago, YonathanZ said:

OK. I'll contact the store to check regarding warranty before I try anything like that, though.

Overvolting or underclocking does nothing to the warranty and will not damage the card.

[pwn_intended]

9 minutes ago, YonathanZ said:

OK, but then I won't be able to hear the noises because the TV speakers are not detailed at all. It's not a loud static at all, except for this one case that happened 20 minutes ago in Overwatch. So that won't really show us anything.

 

The TV is connected to the HDMI out on the receiver.

You should still be able to tell whether the audio is garbled and whether you are experiencing frame rate dips. I'm not saying to do this as a permanent solution, but it is just a troubleshooting/testing step. Isolating variables is important when trying to solve weird issues like this.

[YonathanZ]

7 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Overvolting or underclocking does nothing to the warranty and will not damage the card.

OK, where do I start?

I've done OC before, to both the CPU and GPU, but you mentioned two specific things - downclocking and overvolting. Do I need to do both? And what program do I need?

[YonathanZ]

1 minute ago, pwn_intended said:

You should still be able to tell whether the audio is garbled and whether you are experiencing frame rate dips. I'm not saying to do this as a permanent solution, but it is just a troubleshooting/testing step. Isolating variables is important when trying to solve weird issues like this.

It's not practical, though. The framerate drop only happened once in the 4 weeks that I've had this issue, and only then the audio got like a loud static. The rest of the time it's just rather quiet "pops" here and there, they aren't that noticeable, certainly not with TV speakers.

[Enderman]

1 minute ago, YonathanZ said:

OK, where do I start?

I've done OC before, to both the CPU and GPU, but you mentioned two specific things - downclocking and overvolting. Do I need to do both? And what program do I need?

You can do one or the other, and you use MSI afterburner.

[YonathanZ]

6 minutes ago, Enderman said:

You can do one or the other, and you use MSI afterburner.

OK, I've installed it enabled voltage control. How many mV should I add to the core voltage, and by how many Hz should I downclock the core clock and memory clock? The latter will negatively affect performance, right?

[pwn_intended]

17 minutes ago, YonathanZ said:

It's not practical, though. The framerate drop only happened once in the 4 weeks that I've had this issue, and only then the audio got like a loud static. The rest of the time it's just rather quiet "pops" here and there, they aren't that noticeable, certainly not with TV speakers.

Ah, I understood that the lag and garbled audio is persistent. In either case, I recommend testing everything possible before you resort to RMA'ing your GPU.

[YonathanZ]

24 minutes ago, Enderman said:

You can do one or the other, and you use MSI afterburner.

OK, since this card comes OC'd from the factory, I've lowered the core clock by 90hz (the max allowed by MSI Afterburner) to bring it closer to the stock value set by NVIDIA. I'll report back if it doesn't fix it.

[Enderman]

24 minutes ago, YonathanZ said:

OK, I've installed it enabled voltage control. How many mV should I add to the core voltage, and by how many Hz should I downclock the core clock and memory clock? The latter will negatively affect performance, right?

Idk, add like 100mv, the 960 isn't a high power GPU so temps should be fine, just watch them under load the first time to be sure.

Downclock like a  hundred MHz if possible and then run some test to see if the issues are still there.

[YonathanZ]

Downclocking the core clock didn't help, but of course it affected BF1 performance negatively. I'll now try to increase the voltage by 100mv as you said.

 

Edit: that didn't help either. Anything else I could try?

Edited November 8, 2016 by YonathanZ

[YonathanZ]

So my brother gave me his GTX 970, and I get the same problem, but the switching between the cards reminded me of a small thing that I didn't consider before - there's a piece of the case that's "protruding" and touching the HDMI plug, which means that not only the case constantly touches the cable (and probably causing interference), it also prevents the HDMI plug from being fully inserted into the HDMI out on the GPU.

 

I'll try to cut that piece out or get a new case, whichever is easier. I'll report back it this doesn't solve it.

[YonathanZ]

Well, that helped a lot but the problem returns from time to time. In fact, a few times a day I have the noise issue when playing back YouTube videos, or in a game. Something it's a bit of crackling, other times the sound gets completely FU and I have to restart once or twice. I just dunno what to do anymore.

 

Today I had Overwatch stutter like crazy during one game only, I had to Alt-F4 it and got a 30 min ban from Competitive games. This process called WMI Provider Host was eating like 75% CPU until I restarted. I found the related log under Event Viewer, the PID save 7120. I could not find a service with this PID, though. Weird shit is going inside my PC...