Season 6 Audio/Game Stutter

[RegLoiD]

Hey! Since the release of Season 6 I've been having an issue where the game often randomly stutters with 'crackling' audio. I didn't have this issue prior to S6. Does anyone know if it's a known thing or how to fix this? Also I don't have this issue in any other game.

LatencyMon stat: https://imgur.com/a/bKH2zUW

Rig:
7800X3D
4090 / Driver version: 537.58
32GB 6000@CL30

[Z]

Well,the 31k freeze without showing a driver is something weird.
I have only two explanations to this happening :
1. Some kernel process causing it which is not shown in LatencyMon.
2. Some device which operates without driver or by using default windows driver\plugNplay causing it.
Do you use external DAC? I guess you do,because i see no Realtek aka hdaudio processes in the list. There are people which reported Audio issues with external sound devices after S6 update. I also had those,but after re-tweaking my windows and re-installing some drivers i dont have them anymore.
I can suggest you to :
1. Rollback to 536.67 nvidia driver (make sure to enable MSI mode High and bind to core afterwards).
2. In Windows Audio - set 24bit\48000hz audio format. (Dont use 24\192 - its very demanding even on top end CPU's).
3. If your external sound has buffer settings set it to - Mode 5 or (Mid) (increase your buffering).
4. In game use Headphones - 3D Audio setting.
5. In windows set "High" priority for the game exe process. (you can try adding -high to launch options in steam,should work).

[RegLoiD]

Originally posted by Z:

Well,the 31k freeze without showing a driver is something weird.
I have only two explanations to this happening :
1. Some kernel process causing it which is not shown in LatencyMon.
2. Some device which operates without driver or by using default windows driver\plugNplay causing it.
Do you use external DAC? I guess you do,because i see no Realtek aka hdaudio processes in the list. There are people which reported Audio issues with external sound devices after S6 update. I also had those,but after re-tweaking my windows and re-installing some drivers i dont have them anymore.
I can suggest you to :
1. Rollback to 536.67 nvidia driver (make sure to enable MSI mode High and bind to core afterwards).
2. In Windows Audio - set 24bit\48000hz audio format. (Dont use 24\192 - its very demanding even on top end CPU's).
3. If your external sound has buffer settings set it to - Mode 5 or (Mid) (increase your buffering).
4. In game use Headphones - 3D Audio setting.
5. In windows set "High" priority for the game exe process. (you can try adding -high to launch options in steam,should work).

I'm using in-built audio card. The only devices that are connected via USB are: mouse, keyboard, microphone.

1. Will try. What is 'bind to core'?
2. I'm using 32bit/48000, should be fine?
5. -high is already set

[Z]

Originally posted by RegLoiD:

1. Will try. What is 'bind to core'?
2. I'm using 32bit/48000, should be fine?
5. -high is already set

1. Microsoft Interrupt Affinity Tool [www.techpowerup.com] A tool which helps to solve high DPC latency issues by spreading driver interrupts to different CPU cores. Quick Guide [www.xbitlabs.com] My only advice is to not bind GPU to Core 0 since Core 0 usually handles a lot of different Windows processes.
2.Better to set it to 24/48000. You wont hear a difference in games because pretty much every dev'studio records and use 24\48000 sounds in games,sometimes even worse quality. But performance hit and audio delay is different.
5.Good. Also after running the game,make sure that in taskmanager it does apply high priority to game process,just to be sure.

I am also interested did you tweaked your windows? Like disabling unnecessary services,custom power plan,registry tweaks?
I have a self made custom power plan for AMD systems which decrease overall latency and fixes ntoskrnl demote\promote alongside with USB dropouts. My friend with 5800x3D applied it and 0.1% with 1% increased by 30%.
GitHub [github.com]

[RegLoiD]

Originally posted by Z:

Originally posted by RegLoiD:

1. Will try. What is 'bind to core'?
2. I'm using 32bit/48000, should be fine?
5. -high is already set

1. Microsoft Interrupt Affinity Tool [www.techpowerup.com] A tool which helps to solve high DPC latency issues by spreading driver interrupts to different CPU cores. Quick Guide [www.xbitlabs.com] My only advice is to not bind GPU to Core 0 since Core 0 usually handles a lot of different Windows processes.
2.Better to set it to 24/48000. You wont hear a difference in games because pretty much every dev'studio records and use 24\48000 sounds in games,sometimes even worse quality. But performance hit and audio delay is different.
5.Good. Also after running the game,make sure that in taskmanager it does apply high priority to game process,just to be sure.

I am also interested did you tweaked your windows? Like disabling unnecessary services,custom power plan,registry tweaks?
I have a self made custom power plan for AMD systems which decrease overall latency and fixes ntoskrnl demote\promote alongside with USB dropouts. My friend with 5800x3D applied it and 0.1% with 1% increased by 30%.
GitHub [github.com]

1. To which core should I bind it?
2. Will do.
3. For some reason it doesn't apply. When I try to manually set it via Tskmngr - it throws an error.

Not really. I have set high performance power plan in Windows. Maximum perf via NVCP and that's all. Will try to use the custom profile which you linked, thanks.

[Z]

Originally posted by RegLoiD:

1. To which core should I bind it?
2. Will do.
3. For some reason it doesn't apply. When I try to manually set it via Tskmngr - it throws an error.

Not really. I have set high performance power plan in Windows. Maximum perf via NVCP and that's all. Will try to use the custom profile which you linked, thanks.

1. It depends on your system. You should bind it to less busy phisical core,but not on thread.
You have 8 core single CCD CPU - so your phisical cores will be : 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 (ignore 0).
According to your LatencyMon screenshots your less busy phisical core is CPU 12.
If you have time - spread other drivers to different cores. It will decrease amount of freezing in games and decrease overall system latency. Do not use one core for couple devices.
Example[imgur.com]
** I do have two devices on one core because i have only 6 core CPU,anyway i do not use SATA drives for games so its irrelevant. **
In addition i do recommend ticking MSI high mode for your NVME controller in
Msi util v3 [forums.guru3d.com].

3. Then priority assignment blocked by EAanti-cheat,leave it as it is.

[RegLoiD]

Originally posted by Z:

Originally posted by RegLoiD:

1. To which core should I bind it?
2. Will do.
3. For some reason it doesn't apply. When I try to manually set it via Tskmngr - it throws an error.

Not really. I have set high performance power plan in Windows. Maximum perf via NVCP and that's all. Will try to use the custom profile which you linked, thanks.

1. It depends on your system. You should bind it to less busy phisical core,but not on thread.
You have 8 core single CCD CPU - so your phisical cores will be : 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 (ignore 0).
According to your LatencyMon screenshots your less busy phisical core is CPU 12.
If you have time - spread other drivers to different cores. It will decrease amount of freezing in games and decrease overall system latency. Do not use one core for couple devices.
Example[imgur.com]
** I do have two devices on one core because i have only 6 core CPU,anyway i do not use SATA drives for games so its irrelevant. **
In addition i do recommend ticking MSI high mode for your NVME controller in
Msi util v3 [forums.guru3d.com].

3. Then priority assignment blocked by EAanti-cheat,leave it as it is.

1. Not sure I did everything right. Can you please link Melody's Checker? Can't find it online.


MSI is set to high by default on both NVME controllers.

[Z]

Originally posted by RegLoiD:

1. Not sure I did everything right. Can you please link Melody's Checker? Can't find it online.

MSI is set to high by default on both NVME controllers.

1. Here [workupload.com]. I did upload it for you. Hopefully Steam wont flag it as malicious file.

Glad to hear that it set MSI High by default now. Previously AMD users had stuttering in games due storport\storeachy.sys drivers conflicting with other system drivers.

[RegLoiD]

Originally posted by Z:

Originally posted by RegLoiD:

1. Not sure I did everything right. Can you please link Melody's Checker? Can't find it online.

MSI is set to high by default on both NVME controllers.

1. Here [workupload.com]. I did upload it for you. Hopefully Steam wont flag it as malicious file.

Glad to hear that it set MSI High by default now. Previously AMD users had stuttering in games due storport\storeachy.sys drivers conflicting with other system drivers.

https://imgur.com/a/JGQFQEk

I guess it's supposed to be like that, right?

[Z]

Originally posted by RegLoiD:

https://imgur.com/a/JGQFQEk

I guess it's supposed to be like that, right?

Yes. Good.
Now would be great if you spread other devices to different physical cores,such as USB xHCI Compilant Host Controller(usb),High Defenition Audio Controller (Motherboard Audio) and MediaTek Wi-Fi 6E MT7922... LAN card.
Ignore PCI Express Root port's.
You can leave AMD GPIO Controller and L2C Controller untouched or bind it to Core 0 since its chipset system controller its implemented in Windows already.
---
My general advice is to disable devices which you dont use.
For example IF YOU DONT USE SATA 2.5\3.5 drives - go to device manager and disable SATA ACHI Controllers.
Same goes for WIFI\Bluetooth MediTek Wi-Fi 6E...
You can also try disabling AMD PSP 11.0 Device. Its TPM 2.0 protection.
Since theoretically they could be involved in problem. (Not Sure).
To disable TPM 2.0 you should navigate into BIOS and there is no guarantee that you will be able to do so. Some motherboard bios'es disallow users to disable TPM 2.0.
---
Another advice which not related to stuttering problem but affects performance and input lag - is to disable HPET.
In device manager disable "High Precision Even Timer at the bottom of the list.
I believe on Russian Windows its called "Высокоточный таймер событий".
Then open CMD with admin rights and enter :
bcdedit /set disabledynamictick yes
bcdedit /set useplatformtick yes
Reboot PC.

[RegLoiD]

Originally posted by Z:

Originally posted by RegLoiD:

https://imgur.com/a/JGQFQEk

I guess it's supposed to be like that, right?

Yes. Good.
Now would be great if you spread other devices to different physical cores,such as USB xHCI Compilant Host Controller(usb),High Defenition Audio Controller (Motherboard Audio) and MediaTek Wi-Fi 6E MT7922... LAN card.
Ignore PCI Express Root port's.
You can leave AMD GPIO Controller and L2C Controller untouched or bind it to Core 0 since its chipset system controller its implemented in Windows already.
---
My general advice is to disable devices which you dont use.
For example IF YOU DONT USE SATA 2.5\3.5 drives - go to device manager and disable SATA ACHI Controllers.
Same goes for WIFI\Bluetooth MediTek Wi-Fi 6E...
You can also try disabling AMD PSP 11.0 Device. Its TPM 2.0 protection.
Since theoretically they could be involved in problem. (Not Sure).
To disable TPM 2.0 you should navigate into BIOS and there is no guarantee that you will be able to do so. Some motherboard bios'es disallow users to disable TPM 2.0.
---
Another advice which not related to stuttering problem but affects performance and input lag - is to disable HPET.
In device manager disable "High Precision Even Timer at the bottom of the list.
I believe on Russian Windows its called "Высокоточный таймер событий".
Then open CMD with admin rights and enter :
bcdedit /set disabledynamictick yes
bcdedit /set useplatformtick yes
Reboot PC.

I will spread other devices and check tomorrow in game.

I'm using SATA3 SSD and HDD, so I can't disable it.
TPM is disabled in BIOS. Will also disable PSP 11.0.

Not sure about this because I've heard it *might* cause even worse stutters. But I guess I have to try it.

I will go to sleep now and report back tomorrow. Thank you for your help :)

[Z]

Originally posted by RegLoiD:

I will spread other devices and check tomorrow in game.

Hopefully it will help you and others.
If not,then there is not much things to try.
We live in a time when modern game's simply doesn't work as they should even on Tier 1 hardware.

Originally posted by RegLoiD:

Not sure about this because I've heard it *might* cause even worse stutters. But I guess I have to try it.

On my experience disabling HPET had no negative consequences for games.
---
gn,gl.

[Z]

Just browsed some discussion threads. In one of the "black screen" threads someone proposed a possible fix for blackscreen by clearing shader cache.
I remembered that i also did shader cleaning after rolling back to 536.67 driver,but with some additional steps.
Start with :
1 - Open the NVIDIA Control Panel.
2 - Go to Manage 3D Settings.
3 - Find Shader Cache and disable it.
4 - Save and Apply changes.
5 - Reboot your PC.
6 - After the PC boots, open the Run dialog box (or File Explorer).
7 - Type %LOCALAPPDATA% into the Run dialog box (or the File Explorer address bar) and hit Enter.
8 - At the location, find and open the NVIDIA folder.
9 - In the folder, find and open the DXCache folder and delete all the items in the folders (If there is a GLCache folder, delete all files from it as well. Mine was absent).
10 - Now, go back to the NVIDIA Control Panel and turn on Shader Cache. Don't forget to Save and Apply changes.
11 - Reboot your PC.

After that :
Go into explorer / documents/Battlefield 2042/cache and delete all files in that "cache" folder.

I also disabled DX12 render in config file :
1. Go back and now enter "settings" folder.
2. Open PROFSAVE_profile with notepad.
3. Search for Gst.Render.Dx12Enabled and set it to 0.

[RegLoiD]

Originally posted by Z:

Just browsed some discussion threads. In one of the "black screen" threads someone proposed a possible fix for blackscreen by clearing shader cache.
I remembered that i also did shader cleaning after rolling back to 536.67 driver,but with some additional steps.
Start with :
1 - Open the NVIDIA Control Panel.
2 - Go to Manage 3D Settings.
3 - Find Shader Cache and disable it.
4 - Save and Apply changes.
5 - Reboot your PC.
6 - After the PC boots, open the Run dialog box (or File Explorer).
7 - Type %LOCALAPPDATA% into the Run dialog box (or the File Explorer address bar) and hit Enter.
8 - At the location, find and open the NVIDIA folder.
9 - In the folder, find and open the DXCache folder and delete all the items in the folders (If there is a GLCache folder, delete all files from it as well. Mine was absent).
10 - Now, go back to the NVIDIA Control Panel and turn on Shader Cache. Don't forget to Save and Apply changes.
11 - Reboot your PC.

After that :
Go into explorer / documents/Battlefield 2042/cache and delete all files in that "cache" folder.

I also disabled DX12 render in config file :
1. Go back and now enter "settings" folder.
2. Open PROFSAVE_profile with notepad.
3. Search for Gst.Render.Dx12Enabled and set it to 0.

I recently DDU'd my driver so your first step definitely didn't help(Yes, I also delited 2042's cache folder). Regarding DX12 it's already set 0.

[Nick]

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1517290/discussions/0/3875969933568938221/
it helped me

[JerikWyzimski]

Same problem. Nothing helped. Many of the settings mentioned above (MSI Utility, disabling services, power plan settings, registry changes) were applied before the game was updated. And the game worked fine until the latest update.
My specs:
ryzen 5800x3d
32Gb 3600Mhz
rtx 4080