Buzzing sound when playing games

[Ian2]

I have a pair of sennheiser hd 598 cs and there is no buzzing when I'm watching youtube or just hanging around. When I launch a game such as Rainbow Six Siege or Overwatch, a fairly loud buzzing noise occurs and does not go away.

 

Please help :C

[AlexTheGreatish]

Sounds like you have some interference happening when your system is under heavy load.  Your best bet is to get an external DAC

[Ian2]

8 minutes ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

Sounds like you have some interference happening when your system is under heavy load.  Your best bet is to get an external DAC

Any recommendations for a DAC?

[anothertom]

The interference is caused by running your audio cable near one or more of the power cables inside your case. Since it is so closely linked with GPU performance in this case, I would assume you simply bunched all the cables together and tied them up. Before spending money, try rerouting the front audio connector away from other cables.

[ShredBird]

I agree with @anothertom, if you're relying on a front audio header, maybe open up your case and reroute that cable away from interference sources such as cables that are carrying large fluctuating currents (like the ones going to your graphics card) and away from any large inductors or the power supply.  If that doesn't work, then I would take @AlexTheGreatish's advice and maybe invest in an external solution.

[Ian2]

10 hours ago, ShredBird said:

I agree with @anothertom, if you're relying on a front audio header, maybe open up your case and reroute that cable away from interference sources such as cables that are carrying large fluctuating currents (like the ones going to your graphics card) and away from any large inductors or the power supply.  If that doesn't work, then I would take @AlexTheGreatish's advice and maybe invest in an external solution.

I have my microphone and headphones plugged in directly to the soundcard. With all the cables I have there is no way to get the headphone cable by itself lol. 

[jasonvp]

21 hours ago, Ian2 said:

I have a pair of sennheiser hd 598 cs and there is no buzzing when I'm watching youtube or just hanging around. When I launch a game such as Rainbow Six Siege or Overwatch, a fairly loud buzzing noise occurs and does not go away.

Before you spend money on unneeded external DACs...

 

What you're hearing is GPU coil whine and it's coming through the DSP and DAC.  I get the exact same thing when I'm playing Siege.  You can reduce this by hard-limiting your game's FPS to whatever refresh rate your monitor is at.  If the game has an in-game rate limiter, use that.  Siege doesn't, so the next best thing is to use an external app such as Afterburner or some such.  Failing that, if you have an NVidia GPU: limit it with NVidia Inspector.

 

Now, that will only reduce it.  It won't eliminate it completely.  To do that: get a ground loop noise isolator for whatever sized headphone jack you're using.  For instance, something like this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019393MV2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Ian2]

1 hour ago, jasonvp said:

Before you spend money on unneeded external DACs...

 

What you're hearing is GPU coil whine and it's coming through the DSP and DAC.  I get the exact same thing when I'm playing Siege.  You can reduce this by hard-limiting your game's FPS to whatever refresh rate your monitor is at.  If the game has an in-game rate limiter, use that.  Siege doesn't, so the next best thing is to use an external app such as Afterburner or some such.  Failing that, if you have an NVidia GPU: limit it with NVidia Inspector.

 

Now, that will only reduce it.  It won't eliminate it completely.  To do that: get a ground loop noise isolator for whatever sized headphone jack you're using.  For instance, something like this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019393MV2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Would I just plug the mpow straight into my sound card like I currently do with my headphones?

[an actual squirrel]

Check to make sure this isn't just the inductors on the graphics card making the sound (coil whine) by seeing if it still happens with the headphones disconnected. Then check with the microphone disconnected, but headphones connected.

[jasonvp]

1 hour ago, Ian2 said:

Would I just plug the mpow straight into my sound card like I currently do with my headphones?

Inline.  Plug phones into the isolator, and the isolator into the sound card.

[Ian2]

55 minutes ago, an actual squirrel said:

Check to make sure this isn't just the inductors on the graphics card making the sound (coil whine) by seeing if it still happens with the headphones disconnected. Then check with the microphone disconnected, but headphones connected.

There is buzzing when I do either

[Ian2]

15 minutes ago, jasonvp said:

Inline.  Plug phones into the isolator, and the isolator into the sound card.

Alright thanks man, going to order one and give it a try. My last question is, will the isolator effect my sound quality at all? (other then removing the buzzing)

[jasonvp]

3 hours ago, Ian2 said:

Alright thanks man, going to order one and give it a try. My last question is, will the isolator effect my sound quality at all? (other then removing the buzzing)

It shouldn't.

[Ian2]

23 minutes ago, jasonvp said:

It shouldn't.

Thanks man c:

[Ian2]

Got my mpow and it got rid of the buzzing noise, however all my sounds are super quiet now even on max volume.

[Adri169]

I had the same problem. Loud humming from speakers, only when playing video games. The static sound was more or less intense depending on the GPU load. Impossible to play anything^^

I fixed it by disconnecting the earth from the speaker to the power socket (using an US to European adapter)