Question Strange noise bleed on Gigabyte 3080 Ti when gaming ?

[sycokay]

Hi there,

I have a pretty strange phenomenon:

Whenever I play a game there is noise coming out of my speakers, the kind of noise depends on what's on the screen, and what game engine is used. I'm serious, I can tell by the noise pattern if e.g. the Unreal Engine was used in this game, it sounds different than other engines.

The noise level is constant and not affected by the main volume. It is even present when the speakers are muted. But of course, only until I close the game, then it stops.

What's really weird about it is - the graphics card and the audio equipment are not even in the same room, so technically it should be impossible that there is audio bleed. My PC is in the adjacent room, cables coming through a hole, and on my desk is a professional USB audio interface. I played a bit around with the cables to see if there might be some interference, but no. And...these are USB cables, not audio cables.

Does anybody have an idea what I can do?

 

[dave.rara66]

USB cables CAN have interference, just like audio cables. I would try swapping them out with better-shielded cables and see if it helps. You can always return them.

 

[sycokay]

USB cables CAN have interference, just like audio cables. I would try swapping them out with better-shielded cables and see if it helps. You can always return them.

Thanks for the reply! I will try that, no harm in buying better cables.

It's just...yeah, USB cables can pick up noise, but was thinking they transmit digital signals, meaning either it works, or there is so much noise that it breaks the error correction and no longer works at all.
And if the digitally coded audio signal on the USB cable gets distorted, shouldn't the noise then not get louder when I turn up the volume?

This problem doesn't make sense to me.

 

[dave.rara66]

I would have thought that too, since they are digital signals. But since they use copper, apparently they are still prone to signal noise.

I wouldn't think the noise would increase with volume; it's just invasive on interference with on the cable.

Just try new cables and see! If it doesn't solve the problem we can all dig deeper. As they say, the most likely explanation for any mystery is usually the simplest one!