General Discussions

[amerelium]

Ever since getting my new system, I've experienced audio crackle coming from my secondary audio whenever there is some screen activity; external DAC via USB. Note: Primary audio, internal Realtek, has NOT had this issue.

I finally was able to fix it, but setting the PCI Express from gen 4 to 3 in the Bios (left the Southbridge at 4) - more accurately: I set PCIE_a to 3, PCIE_b to 2, and the PCIs to 1 (not in use anyway)

Now, I don't know if it is a MB issue, GFX card issue, or driver issue, but sound is now clean.

ASUS TUF Gaming X570 Plus

Ryzen 9 3950X
Sapphire Pulse 5700 XT

[hardcoregames_]

what are you using for audio hardware?

[amerelium]

Primary sound, for gaming and the like, is just Bose speakers plugged into the MB analogue output - never any issue there.

Secondary sound, movies, playing music on proper stereo, is USB output to a NAD 1050 external DAC, plugget into my stereo. And that one has been choppy whenever there is a lot of screen activity, until I set the PCIE from 4 to 3.

[hardcoregames_]

PCIe speed has no effect on USB which is handled by a shift registers to convert back and forth. The shift register is set to whatever the bitrate is set for by the negotiation from the root and peripheral device.

Check for a motherboard BIOS update.

[amerelium]

...well, evidently it does, as any software change, including BIOS updates, have no effect on this issue, whilst changing PCIE_a speed fixes it. I am not the only one with this issue, and this fix, by the way - apparently another issue with a lot of 5700 XT setups.

[hardcoregames_]

USB is a different set of logic from the video card.

Most likely a new BIOS will surface to fix known issues but AMD has been slow to fix problems

Windows 2004 is stable as long as the latest BIOS is installed. I have an RX 480 which is all I have to test drivers with.

[amerelium]

...and again, reducing the PCIE speed from 4 to 3 fixes the issue, and is as of now the only fix. Why do you keep objecting to it?
This is a weird issue that should not exist, but it does; take it up with AMD instead. I have offered a solution to anyone else that might experience the same thing. 

[hardcoregames_]

go to the amd home page and in the driver are there is a contact form for support over the apparent BIOS bug

[nordlead26]

Can you try to be a bit more specific and explain step by step about where are those settings in the BIOS? im pissed off of this issues that won't happen with Intel! I tried all, so maybe I can try your solution but I don't understand what are you saying or were is supposed to found such settings in the BIOS..... I have an Asus by the way... 

Thanks in advance. 

[parromtra]

Bro, thank you very much! I've had a similar problem with my USB DAC. Moreover, all of my USB devices acted weirdly while using AE, Photoshop etc. Audio stuttering, mouse twitching, keyboard backlight turning off and on. I've tried everything, but only setting PCIe from Gen 4 to Gen 3 helped me. 

It seems like it's a chipset issue as I have Gigabyte B550 Aorus Pro and RTX 3090, quite different config than yours. 
The only similar component with you is Ryzen 5950X (16 Cores here and there) but I doubt the problem remains since Zen2.

I've sent reports to Gigabyte and AMD, let's see what they'll say.

[shrammer1]

Adding in my 2 cents.

I had a similar issue with a 3950x paired with an X570 AORUS Xtreme where my USB audio was stuttering (it stuttered for a half second frequently when changing between windows and sometimes randomly on its own).

My fix was moving the USB cable to a different input on the motherboard. Specifically I moved it FROM a USB2.0 port to a USB 3.1 port.

[shrammer1]

Adding in my 2 cents.

I had a similar issue with a 3950x paired with an X570 AORUS Xtreme where my USB audio was stuttering (it stuttered for a half second frequently when changing between windows and sometimes randomly on its own).

My fix was moving the USB cable to a different input on the motherboard. Specifically I moved it FROM a USB2.0 port to a USB 3.1 port.