Severe audio crackling caused by high DPC latency on RTX 5070 Ti
Posted by mmweb0@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 27 comments
Hi everyone,
I’m experiencing severe audio crackling that makes real-time audio unusable ever since I replaced my GTX 1660 Ti with an ASUS TUF RTX 5070 Ti 16 GB.
LatencyMon consistently reports very high DPC latency spikes on which clearly correlate with the audio crackles. (the screenshot is not mine, it's way more red in my case)
This has been extremely frustrating. I’ve been building and using PCs for decades, and I honestly feel like I’m back in the early days of PC hardware, when changing a component could completely break a stable system.
At this point, I can’t even play a simple MP3 file without crackling, while doing nothing more than web browsing or text editing.
What surprises me the most is that this happens despite NVIDIA’s reputation for having “the best drivers”. Seriously ? A piece of crap if you ask me...
My main use case is music production and general PC usage. Gaming is only occasional (triple-monitor sim racing, which is why I invested in this GPU).
I’ve spent roughly 30 hours troubleshooting, and here’s a (non-exhaustive) overview of what I’ve tried :
- BIOS tweaks: forcing PCIe Gen3, disabling ASPM and C-States, BIOS updates and resets, and adjusting every setting even remotely related
- NVIDIA drivers: tried all compatible Studio drivers, clean installs with DDU, NVSlimmer, NVCleanstall, CleanInstall, etc.
- Updated chipset, USB, and audio drivers
- Used tools like MSI_util_v3, Microsoft Interrupt Affinity Policy Tool, ProcMon
- Tweaked Windows power management extensively
- Disabled services, background applications, disconnected USB devices
- Increasing the buffer size on my RME interface helps, but that’s not an acceptable solution since I need low-latency audio for music production.
I’m probably forgetting some things, as this issue has been extremely time-consuming.
My setup:
- Windows 10
- Gigabyte AORUS Gaming 7 WiFi (X470)
- Ryzen 7 2700X
- 16 GB DDR4 G.Skill
- 2 TB WD Black SN770 SSD
- RME Fireface UC (USB — rock-solid for years before this GPU)
At this point, I’m running out of ideas.
Has anyone found any workaround for those DPC spikes ? Direction to investigate further would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks a lot for your time,
Alex
mmweb0@reddit (OP)
I may have found a solution, but I still need some mid-term testing to be sure, given the odd issues I’ve encountered.
All I had to do was enable “Prefer maximum performance” (NVIDIA Control Panel / App > Graphics > Global settings > Power management). Idle GPU power draw is now around 42 W (it was 15 W before), which is totally acceptable to me.
I won’t lie: after trying quite advanced things that were well beyond my actual computer knowledge, I feel a bit stupid right now 😅! I had read about this setting many times for DPC issues, but each time I assumed people were referring to Windows power management.
Audio issues seem to be gone so far, but LatencyMon still reports spikes on nvlddmkm.sys. They are smaller than before (around 3000 µs), harder to trigger, but still present. I’m not sure what to make of that - what do you guys think ?
TheJinKazama@reddit
Has it stay fixed for u now using Prefer max performance in global?
mmweb0@reddit (OP)
Yes, the issue didn’t reoccur even once, and I don’t think I would’ve missed it if it had (I do audio, music, DAW work, etc. all the time). There are probably still some spikes in LatencyMon, but they don’t translate into any audible audio issues.
HornyDurian9999@reddit
Aww doesnt work for me, it sound find for 10-20mins then when there is alot of sound coming through i can hear some crackling distortion , so sad, my mobo doesnt have pcie gen 4 or 5 only gen 3 and 2, already send gen3, i guess gonna give gen 2 a try.
TheJinKazama@reddit
Oh thats good news thanks i gonna try it once i got home. 🙏🙏🙏🙏
hamter10@reddit
I’ve had this issue for months, latency mon points to nvidias and Microsoft’s direct x drivers. All of these fixed have significantly improved the results, but the audio pops still persist. It only happens in game. I’m at a loss and at this point I just accept it. Just wanted to comment on this thread because it’s one of the more recent ones I’ve seen on this issue. I got a 5070 ti .
hamter10@reddit
Also disabling nvidias drivers completely solves the issue but obviously I want to play with the drivers active.
mmweb0@reddit (OP)
Thank you for your answer. Since I selected “Maximum Performance” in the NVIDIA Control Panel, I haven’t been able to reproduce the audio issue. Everything now runs as expected (both in Windows and in resource-demanding games), but I don’t like seeing those spikes in LatencyMon.
Which fixes significantly improved the results for you? In your second post, are you talking about uninstalling the graphics drivers ?
hamter10@reddit
Yes for me disabling the nvidias graphics drivers in device manager , or uninstalling them entirely fixes the issue.
Swagspeare1@reddit
Try this as well - it helped me to reduce it to >500µs
- Go to Windows Settings (not control panel) > Gaming > Game Bar and disable everything except "Game Mode".
- Also try deleting/disabling RGB or sensor monitoring programs - that helped as well
I tried various fixes and the problem returns, but for now my PC is stable for 2 full days. Hopefully it stays that way
TheJinKazama@reddit
Is it fix for u? my rtx5060ti is sounding horrible via hdmi
hamter10@reddit
Sounds promising I’ll give it a try. Weirdly enough what also helped me was tightening one of my motherboards screws, the one in the top left. It wasn’t completely loose but wasn’t fully screwed in. The latency in latency mon isn’t noticeably better but the audio pops are less frequent, I also wonder if this is placebo but I’m pretty sure it did something haha. Also I deleted msi afterburner and riva that also helped. Thank you for all the solutions.
Successful-Cup-8208@reddit
Zmniejszenie mocy karty do 90% pomaga w Gpu tweak III ale aplikacja ta powoduje crash Adobe Bridge :/
Mean_Cress_3085@reddit
Hello guys, i hade the same problem and i fixed it, had also high nvlddmkm latency All i did is i changed the IRQ for gpu to the cpu 10( im on 5700x3d) in GoInterruptPolicy then in bios i turned off SMT( hyperthreading for intel), played 1 mm in cs2 abd then turned on smt in bios and my latencymon is very clean, no more spikes and the game feels crisp again After that dont change nothing in gointerruptpolicy it should be fine I hope it will help to someone Rtx 5070 5700x3d Win10
Glad_Frosting905@reddit
Hi guys, im experiencing the same problem with the same GPU (Asus TUF) on a 4k 120 hz setup... the audio crackling is annoying. Can someone help me please?
Here a list with the things i try but doesnt work:
- Clean with DDU and reinstall Nvidia drivers
- Change the power cfg both on GPU and Windows panel
- Disable all audio enhacements on Windows
- Try on another TV with HDMI and the audio crackling via hdmi port persists (if i use the motherboard 3.5 jack port for audio i dont have the problem)
The only thing that appear to "affect" on problem im experiencing is to downgrade the audio HZ of the system from 16 bits 48000 to 16 bit 36000 and the poppingc/crackling dissapears it considerably but with a very low audio quality.
mmweb0@reddit (OP)
The thing which made the issue disapear was "Prefer maximum performance" in nvidia control panel, but maybe it's the result of different things combined : have you tried to use tools like MSI_util_v3, Microsoft Interrupt Affinity Policy Tool or ProcMon ?
drearyharlequin@reddit
For me the problem is mostly connected to Nvidia HD Audio. Deleting the device along with drivers and rebooting usually helps. Then in a couple of weeks the problem returns. That's when typically see that Nvidia HD Audio is back in Device Manager again.
LatencyMon still points to Audio and TCP/IP drivers together with Nvidia graphics, but at least the sound is not popping.
PanzerKampfwagen--V@reddit
Still unfixable 2026 check my post, this is a 3 year old issue.
Impossible-Turn-5820@reddit
I have a similar issue. I'm trying to solve it without going into power options because I don't want to wear out my headwars prematurely with constant load.
PyroX64@reddit
I have an RTX 5070 with the following specs:
- AMD Ryzen 5 3600
- Asus Prime B550M-A with BIOS 3634
- Win 11 25H2
I had an RTX 4060 before and there was no problem. Ever since I've upgraded to 5070, I experienced this audio crackling with my display audio.
So, using MSI_tool_v3 and setting my GPU's priority to high solved it for me.
I have also configured my BIOS to only use 4 generation of PCI-Express.
But for now, it seems truly gone.
Thanks everyone🙏
Swagspeare1@reddit
Here is what fixed it for me (so far) try to adjust it for your build:
I think the last 3 steps did the trick. So far this completely fixed the stuttering, audio crackling/robotic sound, and ultra high spikes in LatencyMon. Games were also not playable and are now back to normal!
If the problem comes back, I’ll update again, but for now the system is finally stable. I tested it for 2hours with 0 issues and spikes were no bigger than 500 on Latencymon (which is great, earlier the spikes were 5000)
I found 100 of fixes online and different solutions work for different builds, this seems to have fixed mine. Hope it works for you also.
UnderstandingSea2127@reddit
Try uninstalling and disabling nvidia audio driver. Keep only the video driver and OG nvidia control panel not nvidia app.
There's also this VIDEO , that goes in depth on Win11 setup for audio, but it seems like you know this already.
You can also investigate possible USB anomalies with your motherboard.
The fact that nvidia driver has the highest latency does not mean it is the problem.
mmweb0@reddit (OP)
I didn’t install the NVIDIA audio drivers or the NVIDIA App. I’m going to watch the video carefully and see if it mentions anything I haven’t tried yet. Thank you for sharing.
Vesnik@reddit
This may not be your problem but it's worth a shot.
I remember having a similar issue 2-3 years ago. After a ton of research I also found out it was an issue with Nvidia drivers. Turns out my GPU was sharing an IRQ with another device.
type msinfo32.exe in start, click "Hardware Resources" > "conflicts/sharing". Check if your GPU is sharing IRQ with other devices.
mmweb0@reddit (OP)
Thank you. I’ve already tried different settings in MSI_utils_v3, but I didn’t know about msinfo32.exe ; thanks for the tip, it seems like a great tool for troubleshooting.
The GPU is mentionned few times with “PCI Express Root Port” (that’s in French in my system, so I’m not sure about the exact translation) or “PCI Express Root Complex”, and that’s it.
hamfinity@reddit
At this point you might as well just start testing from scratch.
If you have a 64 GB or larger spare SSD, this would be easier:
mmweb0@reddit (OP)
Thank you for your answer. That’s exactly what I was planning to do !
Yesterday, I experienced extreme screen tearing while browsing the web — you know how it looks in games, right? Now imagine the screen split not into two parts, but into about twenty, each shaking left and right. That’s what it looked like.
I rebooted the computer and got a black screen. To recover, I had to cut the PSU power completely and then reboot.
The issues are getting increasingly strange: occasional network problems, Windows is suddenly unactivated after years of use, odd behavior in programs I know well (like MyPocket), non-visual freezes where everything stops except the mouse, etc.
If these problems weren’t time-correlated with the new GPU, I would have immediately suspected a failing motherboard.