Question Audio problems (pops, crackles) and stuttering.

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wizacss

wizacss

Prominent
Jul 27, 2022
41
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Hello there,

I've been noticing some stuttering in my games and even in my system, along with some audio crackling sounds and problems, I tried reinstalling Windows 11 on a fresh SSD and the problem was still there, updated GPU drivers with DDU, changed thermal paste, using my iGPU instead of the GPU, updated BIOS, reinstalled Chipset but the stuttering was still there.
While playing games my system just freezes for half a second and then returns back to normal.

I opened HWinfo64 and noticed some strange spikes on the voltages, I'm not really that familiar with voltages but I thought they were a bit too low sometimes, reaching 0.6V for Core Voltage, I also noticed that it was really spiky even if idle, I'll post a screenshot down here.
I tried so many things for the stuttering at this point that I don't even know what to do anymore, I was thinking it could've been the PSU or the MoBO or CPU but it's really strange.

Things I've tried so far:
- Using the iGPU instead of the GPU;
- Applying new thermal paste;
- Reinstalling GPU drivers with DDU;
- Reinstalling Chipset Drivers;
- Updating BIOS;
- Reinstalling Windows 11 on a completely new Samsung M2 SSD;
- Tried LatencyMon and there's no latency;
- Stress tested GPU on FurMark (temps were fine);
- Enabling/Disabling AMD fTPM, no difference;

(Lowest Core Voltage recorded: 0.577V)
Idle:
uKzTuzs.png


Screenshot while gaming:
0WeAtUi.png


Build:
B450 MSI GAMING PLUS MAX
Ryzen 3200G
RX570
M2 980 Samsung SSD 500GB
2x8 GB Crucial RAM 3200mhz
RIOTORO PSU 500W
 
Last edited:
3200G with a RX 570, not the most modern hardware. I did not see the games name mentioned.
Have you checked over powersaving features? In Windows, try High Performance mode. In the BIOS, enable only Global C-states, disable all other powersaving features.
 
mamasan2000 said:
3200G with a RX 570, not the most modern hardware. I did not see the games name mentioned.
Have you checked over powersaving features? In Windows, try High Performance mode. In the BIOS, enable only Global C-states, disable all other powersaving features.
Click to expand...
Just enabled High Performance instead of Ryzen Balanced and activated Global C - states, I'm going to test that out.
By the way, I know the hardware is kinda old but I usually don't play AAA games, the game was Euro Truck Simulator 2.

The strange thing is that I think the audio "crackling" and popping is related to the stuttering itself. And i do get those audio problems even while not gaming, when audio starts/stops playing I hear this pop and sometimes even while just watching a video.
 
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Update: The system seems to run fine, although the audio bug still remains, when audio starts or stop playing or just randomly some pops appear, still did not test on a heavier game to see if the freezes comes back.

My guess is that the audio problem is directly correlated to the stuttering one, it just feels like so.

My guess is that something in the BIOS is making this strange audio bug and causing that freezing sometimes, although I've flashed my BIOS multiple times.
 
Last edited:
Rapid fluctuations in CPU voltage even when the system is idling are normal.

Your stuttering problems may be due to the CPU (and GPU) being overwhelmed with too many tasks during intensive gaming.

Try an older game released 5 or 6 years ago when the RX 570 first came out. You might find the stuttering problems disappear.

With more modern games, drop to the lowest screen resolution, disable all enhancements and see what happens. I'd expect a slight improvement.

I get drop out when playing back FLAC audio files on a quad core 4670K system overclocked to 4.3GHz when certain processor intensive tasks take place. The 4670K just isn't fast enough to cope with some tasks and provide clean audio. I don't have this audio playback problem on the 3800X and 7950X rigs.
 
Can you post a task manager shot showing the cpu usage, and selecting logical processors view.

Games such as sims tend to be very single thread cpu dependent.
Stuttering is usually the result of a temporary lack of a critical resource. In this case cpu.

To check on how your 3200G is performing, run the cpu-Z bench test and look at the single thread cpu rating.
It should be something like 440:
valid.x86.fr

CPU-Z Benchmark for AMD Ryzen 3 3200G (1T) - CPU-Z VALIDATOR

Best CPU performance - 64-bit - March 2025
valid.x86.fr valid.x86.fr

On the sound issue, have you reinstalled the drivers for your sound adapter?

Is your ssd > 90% full?
If so, you can lose performance and endurance.
 
geofelt said:
Can you post a task manager shot showing the cpu usage, and selecting logical processors view.

Games such as sims tend to be very single thread cpu dependent.
Stuttering is usually the result of a temporary lack of a critical resource. In this case cpu.

To check on how your 3200G is performing, run the cpu-Z bench test and look at the single thread cpu rating.
It should be something like 440:
valid.x86.fr

CPU-Z Benchmark for AMD Ryzen 3 3200G (1T) - CPU-Z VALIDATOR

Best CPU performance - 64-bit - March 2025
valid.x86.fr valid.x86.fr

On the sound issue, have you reinstalled the drivers for your sound adapter?

Is your ssd > 90% full?
If so, you can lose performance and endurance.
Click to expand...
BB9KPgR.png


Idle.
My SSD is around half full, I'm currently downloading Realtek Drivers to see if that's the problem.
 
Misgar said:
Rapid fluctuations in CPU voltage even when the system is idling are normal.

Your stuttering problems may be due to the CPU (and GPU) being overwhelmed with too many tasks during intensive gaming.

Try an older game released 5 or 6 years ago when the RX 570 first came out. You might find the stuttering problems disappear.

With more modern games, drop to the lowest screen resolution, disable all enhancements and see what happens. I'd expect a slight improvement.

I get drop out when playing back FLAC audio files on a quad core 4670K system overclocked to 4.3GHz when certain processor intensive tasks take place. The 4670K just isn't fast enough to cope with some tasks and provide clean audio. I don't have this audio playback problem on the 3800X and 7950X rigs.
Click to expand...
I see, the thing is that these audio pops and crackles appear even when the system is not overwhelmed, even if i'm just watching a video these pops appear, I'm going to try to re-install Realtek drivers.
 
geofelt said:
Can you post the task manager shot when you are gaming and having problems?
Click to expand...
6lJMsp1.png

Sorry if it's in italian, it should still be understandable.

This is while playing Valorant, there's some info on the right that could be useful, some spikes here and there;
Tt4MmY8.png

cZKkYHo.png
 
Last edited:
Just looked up and found that some people had issues with AMD fTPM on, tried disabling it but it didn't change anything.
 
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