[SOLVED] Upgrading my cpu/mobo help with a couple things?

[kthomas9685]

I am planning to upgrade my cpu/mobo soon, and hopefully finally get rid of this damn audio stuttering/dpc latency problem (name a solution that's been presented online, i've probably tried it). But regardless of that this was the next upgrade I had in mind anyway, before the next GPU down the road. This is the combo I was looking at on newegg:
ASUS Prime Z390-A Motherboard, Intel Core i9-9900K CPU
Can someone help me out and let me know

1. If it's going to be compatible with everything else in my build (or any more in depth compatibility tips that pcpartpicker might miss, anything glaring that would make the system run significantly better)
2. Any recommendations about a different i9 combo (i don't know much about motherboards)
3. Any arguments for an AMD cpu/mobo combo (I have no AMD experience I've only ever had one decent PC, since 2015, and it's this one)

My machine is mainly for gaming, and secondarily for light audio/video production with some more basic programs, Studio One and Hitfilm Express. Sometimes i'll do some game streaming with OBS, and I pretty often am multitasking with a game on one monitor and netflix on the other or something like that. Unless it's a really demanding game that doesn't play well with other apps open.

I would greatly appreciate the help. Here's what I'm working with:

Operating System

Windows 10 Home 64-bit

CPU

Intel Core i7 6700 @ 3.40GHz 36 °C

Skylake 14nm Technology

RAM

Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 2400MHz
Motherboard

Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. H110M-S2H-CF (U3E1) 37 °C

Graphics

Dell S2716DG (2560x1440@144Hz)

U28E590 (3840x2160@60Hz)

4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (EVGA) 64 °C

Storage

931GB Western Digital WDC WD10EZEX-00BN5A0 (SATA ) 23 °C

465GB Samsung SSD 860 EVO 500GB (SATA (SSD)) 24 °C

223GB KINGSTON SV300S37A240G (SATA-2 (SSD)) 21 °C

Optical Drives

HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH24NSC0

Audio

Realtek High Definition Audio

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

have you tried a dedicated PCIe audio card?

 

[kthomas9685]

have you tried a dedicated PCIe audio card?

i've completely disabled the realtek audio driver and tried usb headphones and also an external audio interface that i use to record music with. So disabling the realtek driver and the issue persisting rules out your solution, right? I'm not entirely clear on how sound works in conjunction with everything else like if it's not the Realtek Audio Driver (soundcard) that's pushing audio to those headphones or the external interface, than would it just be the motherboard itself doing that job, or a different driver?

Anyway, I've wanted this cpu upgrade for a long time, even before the latency issue started so it might be a moot point. If I listed out every solution I've tried you'd be reading a novel lol.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

the current Realtek audio chip is a component of your motherboard.

a dedicated soundcard is a separate component that bypasses the motherboard audio chip and processes the audio on it's own with it's own audio ports/jacks to connect to.

similar to how a dedicated graphics card processes it's own graphical data and bypasses the integrated GPU on your CPU.

 

[Karadjgne]

You have (or are getting) intel cpu, and running a gtx1080. You should be using shadowplay/nvenc not OBS.

Fps limits is a function of the cpu. It starts everything with a set number of pre-rendered frames, which go to the gpu for finishing according to resolution and detail levels. So anything cpu intensive like OBS just detracts from the possible fps output, regardless of whether the gpu can match or exceed the frame count from the cpu.

By using the gpu instead, there's little loss of fps to start with. Especially considering the power of a 1080 vrs what the 6700 is capable of. OBS would be better in 4k gaming, where the cpu isn't challenged, but in 1080p, shadowplay and nvenc are far less intrusive.

 

[kthomas9685]

the current Realtek audio chip is a component of your motherboard.

a dedicated soundcard is a separate component that bypasses the motherboard audio chip and processes the audio on it's own with it's own audio ports/jacks to connect to.

similar to how a dedicated graphics card processes it's own graphical data and bypasses the integrated GPU on your CPU.

Okay, I do understand this better now, thanks. But I guess what I was asking is this... the Realtek Audio driver is the only thing in my device manager under 'Sound, video and game controllers', right, so if I have that completely disabled, and I'm using either usb headphones or an external audio interface, those are getting sound from USB, but it's still resulting in high DPC latency and audio stutters, meaning the realtek audio chip is not the problem, so having a dedicated audio card wouldn't make a difference, right?

LatencyMon points to different culprits, .sys files causing the latency. It'll say the GPU, i'll disable it, then it'll happen again but his time it'll point to the wifi card, disable that, then it'll point to LAN card, disable that, then it'll show apci.sys or wdf010000.sys, tried different power management setting, updating bios, clean install windows, setting drivers to MSI interrupt, trying multiple versions of different drivers, tried using a third party driver updater I could go on for awhile here. But this wasn't the point of my post anyway lol I've pretty much given up on this, it would just be for peace of mind at this point figuring it out.

 

[kthomas9685]

You have (or are getting) intel cpu, and running a gtx1080. You should be using shadowplay/nvenc not OBS.

Fps limits is a function of the cpu. It starts everything with a set number of pre-rendered frames, which go to the gpu for finishing according to resolution and detail levels. So anything cpu intensive like OBS just detracts from the possible fps output, regardless of whether the gpu can match or exceed the frame count from the cpu.

By using the gpu instead, there's little loss of fps to start with. Especially considering the power of a 1080 vrs what the 6700 is capable of. OBS would be better in 4k gaming, where the cpu isn't challenged, but in 1080p, shadowplay and nvenc are far less intrusive.

Ah okay thanks for this info. I literally just started using OBS a week ago. It's pretty low on the priority list of what I use the PC for it's a brand new thing for me, just starting streaming some games and doing stuff with friends during this quarantine time. But that is good know, I appreciate it.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

But I guess what I was asking is this... the Realtek Audio driver is the only thing in my device manager under 'Sound, video and game controllers', right, so if I have that completely disabled, and I'm using either usb headphones or an external audio interface, those are getting sound from USB, but it's still resulting in high DPC latency and audio stutters, meaning the realtek audio chip is not the problem, so having a dedicated audio card wouldn't make a difference, right?

whether a specific Realtek driver is disabled or not, and whichever port you may be using to access the audio; the audio being produced is still coming from your onboard audio chip.
with a dedicated soundcard, it is not. it is coming directly from the card.

so if a "stuttering" issue persisted after switching to a dedicated soundard; it would mean the issue was with your headset, not the device it was attached to.

 

[kthomas9685]

whether a specific Realtek driver is disabled or not, and whichever port you may be using to access the audio; the audio being produced is still coming from your onboard audio chip.
with a dedicated soundcard, it is not. it is coming directly from the card.

so if a "stuttering" issue persisted after switching to a dedicated soundard; it would mean the issue was with your headset, not the device it was attached to.

ahh okay that's exactly what I was trying to figure out, if no matter what device I'm using, it's utilizing the audio chip. I probably just wasn't asking it very clearly.

But yeah the issue is latency spikes, which is causing the stutting/glitching because I can see the spikes happening in real time with the program LatencyMon, which correspond with the audio stutter. It happens with external speakers, headset in the headphone jack, usb headphones, everything. I can also see the issue persisting with all audio muted, because LatencyMon shows me the spikes. With this in mind, could it still be an issue with the audio chip? Even though the latency problem persists with all audio muted? And if so, is using a dedicated sound card the only way to rule that out, as you suggested? Maybe you were indeed giving me the answer with your first reply, I just want to learn as well, I appreciate it.

 

[Karadjgne]

Sound works like this:

Source - cpu - audio chipset - output - speaker (any kind).

With a discrete sound card :

Source - cpu - sound card - output - speaker (any kind)

A discrete sound card totally bypasses the motherboard audio chipset. So disable chipset drivers, disable chipset, delete them, doesn't matter what you do with the on board audio stuff, it's bypassed after the cpu. Same goes for speakers, doesn't make a difference what is plugged in, whether headphones, external DAC, stereo system etc, it's all the same thing. They all use the same pc/line-out/surround jacks on front/rear. With a discrete sound card you don't use either front or rear motherboard connections, you use the rear connections on the sound card, which has its own outputs.

If you still get spikes with a discrete card, the issue is before the sound data even gets there, which is with either the cpu or the source. Source is a strong possibility anyway, if it's from the internet, it's possible it's corrupted, either from interference in the line or your Lan, anything really.

Are you using the LatencyMon to check spikes on stuff that's recorded after, or during playback? Because if it's original playback, it's reading stuff that happens before it even hits the audio chipsets, not the sound outputs. Meaning it's corrupted before it gets out of the pc.

Source - cpu - LatencyMon - audio chipset - output - speakers.

You could test that with a known clean source, non internet related, like an original cd or DVD. If you still get spikes, then it's something added by the cpu, and not the source material, internet or cd.

Antivirus or live monitoring malware software etc would be a prime candidate as they sample the files for virus/malware code.

 

[kthomas9685]

That's very informative thank you. To answer your question, I've the latency spikes and stutters while playing audio from almost any source at all from what I can tell. Netflix, Youtube, Amazon Prime Video (firefox, chrome, or edge), Windows Media Player, and in my audio software as well, Studio One, when I'm listening to playback of something I recorded. So it's seemingly everywhere, except video games strangely. I haven't experienced anything weird while recording audio either.

If you want to take a look at the latencymon results this is one I ran right after a clean windows install, from USB flash drive, after all my hard drives were wiped. LatencyMon was the only program installed and I had internet explorer running and a video on amazon prime. It took 19 minutes for a spike to happen. Sometimes it'll go an hour and be fine. And sometimes the spikes are going off the chart without any audible stutter either. It's all pretty random.

https://textuploader.com/1l70l

At this point I've decided i'm not gonna nuts over trying to figure it out anymore since I'm certainly getting the new cpu/mobo in the next couple months. I'm a big gamer and i'm preparing the system for the next GPU upgrade in the future so that's what comes first. But maybe you'll see something just a glance. Though I'm not sure the .sys files that LatencyMon points to is even a route to a solution, since they very often show different culprits and it seems like a bigger issue that's effecting all these things and causing them to spike. For example it says dxgkrnl.sys caused it to go off the chart, then I disable the gtx1080, run it again, then it's wdf010000.sys or one of ten different ones i've seen. This will probably go unsolved for me and I'll get the cpu/mobo and everything will be fine...I hope.

 

[Karadjgne]

Everything you recorded, all from internet source. Games are not internet sourced, they are seperate file source, on your pc. What happens when you record a game session, then play that back? Spikes still?

 

[kthomas9685]

But playing wav or mp3 files that are on my PC, not streaming, like music I've recorded myself. Playback in Studio One or in Windows Media player. Those aren't from internet source. I've also watched an MP4 video with the LAN and the Wifi drivers completely disabled and it remains.

'll try the recording gameplay thing. During gaming, the major latency spikes still happen in LatencyMon, they just never do the weird audio glitching/stuttering.