Audio popping issue

[Breezelyn]

I'd like to point out that even NEWER machines are having this audio popping/stutter shit going on. You know, 2020/2021 made hardware? I saw a conversation in novice network on a newer alt (I mean still going through arr, older alt I haven't touched for awhile) of mine about it. Like, for real?

It's not on the users' end; IT'S SE'S HARDWARE AND ON THEIR END. STOP. BLAMING. THE. USERS. WHEN. IT. IS. ON. YOUR. END. SE.

I can't imagine trying to raid with this shitty audio stutter when Savage drops. I'm betting there won't be any fixes until well into next month. I'm starting to get migraines from the radio static. I hate playing without sound--it's hard to do dungeons with certain boss mechanics having audio triggers (easy for me to get into position when I hear the cue). I'm not paying extra for some crappy "Immerse Gamepack", when the basic game sound is broken beyond belief.

I'm beyond insulted saying it's "our problem" when it clearly isn't.

[RenneTheCatte]

I've been having this issue since day one of Endwalker release, but had no issues from 1.0 until now. It was fixed during the emergency maintenance on all worlds, then after this recent patch, the audio must have gone back to the new system.

It's not us; it's Square-Enix. In most cases, "The customer is always right" is incorrect, but in this case, SE, it's your fault, not ours.

Please fix this. The game is unbearable without sound.

[Lagunow]

I see, so the official answer is "just buy a new PC".

Even though there's an ongoing semiconductor shortage and hardware prices are through the roof and we couldn't plan for it in advance because we got NO warning the new audio engine might break on older CPU, and the benchmark ran smoothly with no audio issues at all.

Honestly, I'm not even mad because it's a hardware problem, I think if they were going to do an update to the audio engine that could potentially cause problems with older hardware we should have been warned of this possibility months ago so we could plan for it.

Edit: Also adding that my setup is perfectly capable at running on high(desktop) with 60 fps with no graphic issues at all. It's just the audio that's lagging. There is no way my hardware is below "minimum recommendations". It's just error 2002 all over again, when we were basically told to get better internet.

[Nommers]

This is exactly why I feel so incredibly insulted by the replies we got in this thread. I've worked in software testing for a major company before. This was a continuous delivery app as well - like FFXIV. Any company who does anything software has people to JUST collect customer feedback and relay it to QA and Development. There's also people specifically doing "Validation", who do nothing but constantly check in with customers to see whether the product they are making is the right product for their consumers, and help inform decisions on features to come. Their observations also get relayed to QA, Development and testing and inform decisions about future patches etc.

The fact that they decided to actually implement the whole spatial audio thing is a testament to how bad their QA/Validation pipeline really is. Even if Square has the best of intentions, even if the producers and devs bring about their finest work... It doesnt make their product better, if QA/Validation/testing doesnt do their job.

This has been an ongoing issue in the AAA industry that has only gotten worse with releases in the last 2-3 years... And FF XIV has finally shown itself to suffer from the same negligent patterns. Just for clarities sake - the company I worked at had around 230k people employed and makes around 50billion dollars a year. It's not just a problem with videogames companies.

Devs may not have time to read through these threads. But there sure as hell are people who get specifically paid do do just that. And so far I have not spotted a reply from any such person. On the contrary, the reply infers that they are completely uninformed and will remain so. Because they cant bear sitting a guy down and actually "investigate".

Instead they give you the good ol "lel just buy a new iphone"

Fair point. In the interest of diplomacy, and in my own personal ongoing effort to not be angry on the internet, I didn't want to say it immediately in responding to Zhexos, but the tonedeafness of continuing to blame users' hardware for the game's problems after the 2002 debacle is particularly ironic. If any other company whose games I didn't play tried to pull that one on their fans, I'd be cackling at them, but instead I'm here huffing industrial-grade copium hoping a dev notices our cries. It does feel increasingly like screaming into the void. But they HAVE asked us to post bug reports, they've said they check there (even Soken's tweeted that people with problems should be submitting bug reports) and yeah it's a pain in the ass and we shouldn't have to do it at this point but it doesn't take THAT long to write one up and it seems like the most constructive option available to us for now. It's legitimately the best way to prove to them that the problems aren't on our end, whether they SHOULD get the point from this thread or not. Fortunately there's been quite a few more reports since Zhexos' post, but if everyone in this thread made one, Squeenix would HAVE to notice (or at least I would hope so).

Personally, I'd have unsubbed by now if it weren't for the fact that we just got three weeks of free game time due to the queues. I was able to get on just fine during that time due to being on at weird hours. so for now this is where that time is going for me. If the PR campaign continues along these vaguely defensive and accusatory lines without any substantial fixes, though, yeah, my sub's looking pretty dire.

Also just want to say it's been absolutely infuriating dealing with this while everyone copypastes the same damn memes about grapes. I hate those grapes, I'm glad they're gone, give me my sound back.

[MiaShino]

I'd love to help out. Can you walk me through a way to provide you with the necessary information?

Someone below I shall be quoting suggested speccy, you can also obtain good information from cpuz found here; https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

Everything from memory speed and timings to bios revision and cpu cache.

CPU: AMD FX-8350 63 °F
RAM: 16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 933MHz (10-11-10-32)

Motherboard: MSI 990FXA-GD65 (MS-7640) (CPU 1) 105 °F
GPU: 2048MB ATI AMD Radeon R9 200 Series (XFX Pine Group) 101 °F

I almost mentioned ram speeds before, but I was a bit confused whether to say 933 or that times 2, since it's been a while and I forget how that works.



You can use Speccy to get the info free and easy with the timings just in case (the 4 numbers at the end above), small simple program I've been using for years. It should all be in the bios somewhere too, or other programs can probably get it, but this is just "open, copy and paste".

Speccy is here: https://www.ccleaner.com/speccy

Yikes! I had almost forgotten to remember how toasty those FX cpus and the older 200 series can get. Anyone can post either it is acceptable as it is just base speed times two. Unfortunately 1866 is the maximum for that FX cpu. Darn, I thought I may be onto something. Memory timings are even in acceptable range. Plenty of bandwidth to feed that cpu.

Computer stats:

• CPU: AMD FX-6300
• RAM: 16 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 722MGz
• Motherboard: ASUSTeK M5A99FX Pro R2.0
• Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (MSI, 4095MB)

Hmm, am guessing maximum memory speed for your system is actually 1600 and is just operating memory controller at lower c state. 1600 is also enough

I took a look at FFXIV's CPU usage when stuttering was happening (Intel i7-920, 2.67 GHz), and I noticed it would go to about 40-50, when normal usage is about 18-25.

You were the one with zee old reliable 920! Was looking for your older post as am surprised the 920 is also potentially suffering here. That was one of intel's better architectures and absolute joy to work with. X58 was fantastic platform (triple channel memory support!). Your i7 920 is stock speed yes?

Many apologies all as I was hoping to give some temporary alleviation to this issue but am off base. Was shot in dark, I suppose. Memory speeds can effect effect various cpu architectures differently (especially Ryzen) and easily starve them if too low. Also with everyone using integrated sound chips that also access system memory (anything realtek).

Have just awoken and coffee to blood ratio is loooooow so post may be more sloppy then I would like.

Ohhh right! One additional thing; Can anyone confirm if this issue is occurring on ps4/ps5? Am remembering reading something that it might have been but am uncertain. Checking options on ps4 and the "spatial audio" option doth not even exist there. Are ps4 and ps5 still using legacy sound engine? Am most curious now.

[Teiren]

Yeah, stock. I would be too nervous to overclock it or anything like that. Though maybe it has some dynamic form of it? I wouldn't know, but I highly doubt I've pushed it much. It's interesting to hear that CPU was really nice for its time; I didn't even realize what I was picking back then. I guess that's how everything's survived this long, haha, since January 2011. I just kept procrastinating on getting anything new besides the graphics card and RAM.

Oh, speaking of, this is the RAM, along with other things, just to have it all together:
CPU: Intel Core i7-920, 2.66 GHz
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970, 4 GB
RAM: 12 GB Triple Channel DDR3, PC3-10700 667 MHz (9-9-9-24)

Anyway, sounds like you were onto something, but not, huh...technically, it could be anything.

[Breezelyn]

Ohhh right! One additional thing; Can anyone confirm if this issue is occurring on ps4/ps5? Am remembering reading something that it might have been but am uncertain. Checking options on ps4 and the "spatial audio" option doth not even exist there. Are ps4 and ps5 still using legacy sound engine? Am most curious now.

I've seen some people complain in shout channel, novice network about PS4 stutter, possibly PS5 as well. Mostly complaining about how noticeable in the newest content in raid 4 majority. I haven't found any videos about it, but I will link any I come across.

[MiaShino]

Yeah, stock. I would be too nervous to overclock it or anything like that. Though maybe it has some dynamic form of it? I wouldn't know, but I highly doubt I've pushed it much. It's interesting to hear that CPU was really nice for its time; I didn't even realize what I was picking back then. I guess that's how everything's survived this long, haha, since January 2011. I just kept procrastinating on getting anything new besides the graphics card and RAM.

Oh, speaking of, this is the RAM, along with other things, just to have it all together:
CPU: Intel Core i7-920, 2.66 GHz
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970, 4 GB
RAM: 12 GB Triple Channel DDR3, PC3-10700 667 MHz (9-9-9-24)

Anyway, sounds like you were onto something, but not, huh...technically, it could be anything.

It was a monster cpu for the price when it launched. Hmm, I believe it was 180 dollars for the one my partner was using and held stable overclock of 4 ghz until the board experienced demise. The cpu never became unstable, I still have that cpu and a spare for server hosting. You even have proper triple channel twelve gig config. Aye, I believed there may have been lack of memory bandwidth but that is definitely not issue as everyone who put memory information is running well within spec (quite close to what myself and partner are currently using).

If it were I could have suggested enabling xmp, tweaking timings, purchasing second stick if running in single channel for anyone willing until Square fixes software reason for issue.

Slightly off topic-ish? Overclocking on X58 is not too difficult if you ever wish to attempt some day. You can easily gain 30+% performance increase on those 920s without having to touch voltages. They will run nice and toasty though! Must have decent cooling (I used all in one liquid cooling then later noctua nh-d15).

Also aye, even the old 920 had turbo boosting as all modern cpus do. Partner's overclocked 920 regularly turboed to 4.2 ghz while undervolted. Would give Bloomfield S-tier, it was not bad.

Real permanent solutions for this are down to software and would be fantastic if Square were willing to post the specifications of their testing setups. This would help us tremendously!

I've seen some people complain in shout channel, novice network about PS4 stutter, possibly PS5 as well. Mostly complaining about how noticeable in the newest content in raid 4 majority. I haven't found any videos about it, but I will link any I come across.

Many thanks! Am curious about the consoles because PS4 uses Jaguar(based upon Bulldozer aka FX architecture if am remembering correctly) and PS5 uses Ryzen cpu and both are within systems reported suffering from audio stuttering.

[MoonstalkerZ]

It's incredibly insulting that they keep telling us our computers are too crappy, when 1. It's happening to brand new, high-end computers, 2. our hardware meets the minimum specifications listed by Square Enix when we bought the game, 4) the benchmark they gave us to check to see if our computer could run Endwalker said our computers could run it just fine, and 4) it's happening to console users. If the game doesn't work on the hardware they advertise it as working on, and then they blame US for not having hardware it works on, then that's a case of false advertising.

Upgrading your computer isn't going to help when it's happening to new computers. Asking us to upgrade our computers when they can't upgrade their servers, when they advertised their game as being playable on our computers, is... I don't even have a word for that.

It's okay if they don't understand what's causing the problem. Bug fixing takes time. They could just say they are looking into the issue. But instead they are choosing to blame it all on user error, even though it's happening on such a wide variety of hardware.

[Ariel_Valmont]

… We are aware everything worked fine before the release of endwalker, but now you all need a new computer…. The audacity. Fix the problem already, there’s no way these issues should have made it to the launch date, you’re out here looking like a bunch of amateurs.