Audio Stuttering

[MasterfulGear117]

Audio Stuttering

So, something weird is happening. After about 10 minutes of playing the audio starts breaking up again and again, depending on how many sounds are going on at once. Then occasionally it breaks completely and I have to restart. Any heads up on what could be causing this? I'm playing with some AKG K702 headphones, so I know that the problem does not lie with the speakers. I've fiddled with my Hz settings and it doesn't appear to be helping.

Anyone had anything similar that they've managed to sort out? I'm somewhat unsure what to do because I'm having a blast but the damn audio keeps breaking my flow as I have to keep restarting the game which is annoying because I just want to play xD.

 

[Sardukhar]

One of our users managed to set his Core affinity for his multi cores to 1 and that fixed it...but made it quite slow.

 

[PrincessMassacre]

issue can be any number of things, but just gonna throw some random stuff out here: in regards to that (core affinity), did he by chance have intel integrated video drivers installed? if so, do a DPC latency check with 'latencymon'. one of the intel drivers should come up with high usage (it can be removed/disabled without operational effect). it'll drastically affect multi-threaded performance. could also be an integrated HD-audio issue? same solution. upgrading drivers may help in both cases, or disabling in bios. but yea, system specs/dxdiag would be handy in these cases.

 

[MasterfulGear117]

One of our users managed to set his Core affinity for his multi cores to 1 and that fixed it...but made it quite slow.

That seems to work, it's still present slightly even on 1 core though. It does however take my lovely 55 - 60 fps down to 25 - 30, so the slowdown is pretty significant xD. Maybe it's a threading issue with the game? Seems unlikely though as people with the exact same CPU ( 3770K ) don't seem to be getting this. Must be something causing it though, maybe even some GPU setting?

---------- Updated at 06:15 AM ----------

issue can be any number of things, but just gonna throw some random stuff out here: in regards to that (core affinity), did he by chance have intel integrated video drivers installed? if so, do a DPC latency check with 'latencymon'. one of the intel drivers should come up with high usage (it can be removed/disabled without operational effect). it'll drastically affect multi-threaded performance. could also be an integrated HD-audio issue? same solution. upgrading drivers may help in both cases, or disabling in bios. but yea, system specs/dxdiag would be handy in these cases.

Interesting suggestions, I'll give have a look and if that doesn't fix it I'll just put up a DxDiag.

 

[PrincessMassacre]

also, amd hd audio driver update (with latest beta drivers), they come packaged with all catalyst tho. and if you have hdmi audio on any device, those needs driver updates usually.

---------- Updated at 05:21 AM ----------

if it's reducing your FPS though, sounds driver-related. may or may not be your primary video card driver. so probably will need dxdiag and dev input/debug.

 

[MasterfulGear117]

also, amd hd audio driver update (with latest beta drivers), they come packaged with all catalyst tho. and if you have hdmi audio on any device, those needs driver updates usually.

---------- Updated at 05:21 AM ----------

if it's reducing your FPS though, sounds driver-related. may or may not be your primary video card driver. so probably will need dxdiag and dev input/debug.

Looks like highest DPC is coming from USBPORT.sys?

 

[PrincessMassacre]

that's 'probably' normal, USB and your NIC, it should be under 0.25 ms or something to that effect.

 

[MasterfulGear117]

that's 'probably' normal, USB and your NIC, it should be under 0.25 ms or something to that effect.

It's way over that. It's at 0.53 ms. I think I know a way to fix it though, it might be to do with something I disabled a long time ago for a certain game.

 

[PrincessMassacre]

that's not 'technically' out of the ordinary, as long as the frequency of those events isn't often. you can check the 'drivers' tab and sort by highest execution time, or check the 'stats' tab and it'll give you something like: DPC count (execution time

---------- Updated at 05:57 AM ----------

DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 273593, DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs): 1.

---------- Updated at 06:02 AM ----------

hot damn, i just got a 4ms hit on the NIC. ;p this is an old PC (workstation). hehe.

 

[MasterfulGear117]

Ah I see now. It's telling me that the HD Audio Bus Driver has the highest execution time. Plus here's a dxdiag anyway

---------- Updated at 07:26 AM ----------

I've been playing for a bit now and it seems like something I've done has managed to fix it. I enabled Link State Power Management and put it to Maximum. However LatencyMon has all sorts of red writing everywhere telling me everything is apparently falling apart xD

---------- Updated at 07:28 AM ----------

@PrincessMassacre Now apparently DirectX Graphics Kernel is taking too long

 

[PrincessMassacre]

it may seem bad/red, but that's not necessarily always an issue. important to interpret the data. seems like a driver/game fault to do with the drivers though from what you reported.

- none of these will probably fix the issue, just throwing stuff out there -

from dxdiag report: "Line 4 (Virtual Audio Cable)" <- that's not digitally signed, or WDDM, whatever that is.

the realtek driver is kinda outdated maybe. i'm using a slightly newer, but still 2012 version.

you're using SSD. not sure if that has anything to do with it. (personally prefer raid0)

what i don't understand is it doesn't look like a laptop, yet is running wacom mouse driver? ;o touch/tablet/digitizer input usually...

also, your NIC is just listed as "Ethernet Controller" ;\

looks like z77a intel chipset m/b, which is what i'm running. no such issue, although prob dif model, asrock. <- questionable.

---------- Updated at 07:26 AM ----------

some things others suggested was to turn nvidia options to 'max performance' using the software panel. different issue. but just a heads up. some 970/980 users were also reporting problems.

 

[MasterfulGear117]

Yeah the Virtual Audio Cable stuff is from a program that software simulates audio loops, so that's why it's not digitally signed (it's a weird one).

I've just gone through a bunch of drivers and reinstalled or grabbed newer ones for the MOBO so hopefully that'll rule out driver problems.

The SSD is really good, so it wouldn't be that as it's worked fine for everything thus far.

Oh the wacom driver is for my graphics tablet. So that'll be why you saw that there.

And you just reminded me of the one driver that I forgot to install xD. Said I'd come back to it but I never ended up needing it as my house internet isn't fast enough for ethernet to mean anything.

Asrock was a third party driver ASUS were allowing for the MOBO so I decided to download it, and it seemed to work just fine.

I'll also try setting Max Performance too. Fingers crossed that it actually works.

---------- Updated at 10:00 AM ----------

IT'S FIXED! Hahaha! Technology trying to get the better of me. Turns out it was a combination of my audio drivers, Link Power Management (for some reason) and not having Maximum Power settings on my Nvidia drivers.

So if anyone gets this issue, those are the three things that I had to fiddle with to get it working properly.

Edit: I can't believe I spent half the night trying to just fix the damn audio. It's 10 in the morning now. Might as well just play Witcher rather than seeking rest.

 

[Nagarack]

Hi guys, MasterulGear117 i'm sorry but i didn't understand what you did exactly, can you re-explain it ?

 

[PrincessMassacre]

Asrock was a third party driver ASUS were allowing for the MOBO so I decided to download it, and it seemed to work just fine.

actually, i thought it was asus at first due to device ids, but then saw the asrock driver ;o

well, good luck. hopefully it doesn't crop up again tomorrow ;p

---------- Updated at 11:18 AM ----------

Hi guys, MasterulGear117 i'm sorry but i didn't understand what you did exactly, can you re-explain it ?

he means he updated some drivers. other than that, enable max performance in nvidia control panel options, and link state power management is a setting on the ethernet card in device manager. although link state probably had nothing to do with it. most likely audio drivers or the nvidia control max performance option others have mentioned for 970s or something, which seems to clear up some issues.

 

[sanman1]

Hi I'm running into the same audio stutter problem everytime I play the game as well, I'm not sure how to fix this. Its fine for a few moments, but then the FPS drop <30 and the audio goes really bad. Any ideas? Happy to try anything.

 

[kingeliran]

One of our users managed to set his Core affinity for his multi cores to 1 and that fixed it...but made it quite slow.

i fixed that with core affinity, this leaves the game unplayable and slow, tried all the tricks i know, and i cant find a way to fix it, it is simply bad programming as much as i love cd projekt red, this is their worst product yet in terms of optimization . with all of the delays they had i thought that at least i will be able to play the game, but it isn't the case, and the worst thing is there is no support and no "we are working on a patch" from them, its so frustrating!

@ MasterfulGear117

please tell me if you found a fix

---------- Updated at 10:55 PM ----------

tired everything you said nothing works

 

[secondchildren]

i fixed that with core affinity, this leaves the game unplayable and slow, tried all the tricks i know, and i cant find a way to fix it, it is simply bad programming as much as i love cd projekt red, this is their worst product yet in terms of optimization . with all of the delays they had i thought that at least i will be able to play the game, but it isn't the case, and the worst thing is there is no support and no "we are working on a patch" from them, its so frustrating!

@ MasterfulGear117

please tell me if you found a fix

---------- Updated at 10:55 PM ----------

tired everything you said nothing works

The game is being released since something like... a few hours ago? Why not just let the devs work? They're gathering information and requests patrolling all the community, bugfixes will be relased later in the case. For now, the best you can do is have a little bit of patience and share your solution when you're able to find one. Thanks for understanding

 

[kingeliran]

Any advice?