Audio popping issue

[Rannzyr]

Ryzen, too. There's a whole slew of chipsets that are having issues. If I had to guess, I'd say it's down to these chipsets being very common in North America, fairly common in the EU, and not common in Japan, hence why they weren't among the hardware sets tested.

Its possible, however a guy was running this on a Phenom II, i dont really think they tested that.

yet again, internet cafes, so its possible.

[ChilledApple]

Ryzen, too. There's a whole slew of chipsets that are having issues. If I had to guess, I'd say it's down to these chipsets being very common in North America, fairly common in the EU, and not common in Japan, hence why they weren't among the hardware sets tested.

Ya i also think thats what happened there. Or atleast i hope thats the reason. Didnt they say they were already short on quality and stability testing because of the postponed release of endwalker? I really hope the issue just slipped through.

[MoonstalkerZ]

I am not using realtek as my audio driver, and I am having this issue.

[GorthRedsteel]

With full respect - most of the people that have reported the issue here have CPUs from FX series. Can't tell exact percentage but I'd imagine at around 85%. Perhaps it's but a similarity of the problem that bounded us together, when our troubles slightly differ. I know stuttering and popping can be experienced in various ways. For me, it's not really so common in combat. It mostly happens in cutscenes with voice acting, which is the worst as it prevents me to get a proper mood of conversations. It seems to happen the most in closed in "zones". No matter if there are more or less objects present. Funny enough, if the stuttering appears yet one of the NPCs does any action that releases a sound (clapping, walking, etc) it goes back to normal for the duration of the extra sound played. Stuttering varies based on location but 2 spots that have it at their worse are: The Rising Stones, and Temple Knights headquarters. Stuttering there is so bad it's hardly anything but annoying noise. In other locations, cutscenes may pop or stutter based on camera position. I have done most of HW and patch content with these awful troubles to guarantee that my observations are correct.

[Rannzyr]

While some are saying PS4/PS5 users can also experience the issue too, I've yet to actually see proof of it happening...
If we could get some video of that, it could help get it noticed probably.
I mean nothing would make "Maybe it's 10+ year old CPU's" lose all credibility like the PS5 having issues lol

People who say it's an issue with a 10 year old CPU have no idea about computers or hardware and can be readily ignored.

Especially since this issue only cropped up in endwalker with the push for this crappy immerse audio engine. I could play the game fine at 60 FPS max settings, my CPU doesn't suddenly become untenable overnight.

What stings more is I love this game, I want to do the msq buy I can't because the audio is so bad.

[Rannzyr]

And thats where i doesn't add up. I am having this issue most in single instances like the rising stones and every inn room. With the spatial audio pack activated i just have to enter those instances and wait a few seconds until the audio breaks. However with the pack activated combat is fine. If i deactivate the audio pack it is exactly reverted. Single instances are fine unless i am not using any Skills, but combat sound is broken.

It's going to be different for every person more than likely. In my testing I've found that melee classes suffer the most, especially warrior and dark knight shoes.

I've had it happen in quiet areas and loud ones. Overall the audio is just broken and it should not have been released in this state.
We are not running some whacky combination of hardware, we are running a very common CPU that's still good to this day.

[Rannzyr]

Seems like a weird fix to install a driver made 4 years ago to fix a problem in 2021/2022

Realtek Driver:
Vista, Windows7, Windows8, Windows8.1, Windows10 Driver (32/64bits) Driver only (ZIP file) R2.82 2017/07/26 427 MB

it is so old it is downloading at 40kb a sec. It will be done in 4 hours, despite already having it on my system as windows installs a newer version, i'll try it none-the-less.

40.0 KB/s - 15.6 MB of 417 MB, 3 hours left (not exaggerating)

It's because realtek abandoned the chipset drivers long ago because they are just bad at doing audio drivers.

It does improve it for me but as I said your mileage may vary, I'm just trying to go down the list of solution's I can possibly try. I can't find any ini or settings to limit the amount of audio channels so that idea is out.

[XenophineEX]

It's because realtek abandoned the chipset drivers long ago because they are just bad at doing audio drivers.

It does improve it for me but as I said your mileage may vary, I'm just trying to go down the list of solution's I can possibly try. I can't find any ini or settings to limit the amount of audio channels so that idea is out.

I am close just buying this stupid new audio thing they have to make this go away, but apparently even that is broken. I just want combat to work. I play as a dragoon, and it is crippling not to be able to hear things.

To be exact their last "fix" on making combo sounds "more noticeable" made it to where I can no longer hear them over the stuttering and now I am lost unless I stare at my combo bars and turn the sound off.

[aaantares]

Also using an AMD FX series processor, had some audio crackling when Endwalker dropped but it was manageable (switching between Standard and Bass Boost in settings often got rid of it for some hours); the latest patch however made it unbearable. The only way I can play with sounds on is to turn the camera away from the enemy - the issues begin the moment I enter a battle - as all sounds that come from the sides or behind don't cause any issues, only the sounds that come from front centre and front left/right do. I've tried nearly every suggestion found in this thread & what was suggested in the patch notes but none of them helped me so far; I still need to try using monitor speakers instead of headset but at this point I'm not very hopeful & I'd like to keep using my brand new headset :-(

I realise the FX series cpus aren't recent at all but for example mine, the FX-8370, is 7 years old (2014) which... isn't ancient like many of the official responses imply.

[XenophineEX]

My processor is also AMD

AMD FX(tm)-6300 Six-Core Processor 3.50 GHz
Installed Ram 16.0 GB @1866
Nvidia geforce gtx 960
mobo msi 970

It has played everything including this quite well, minus the sound issues.

Need to add it is on windows 10 home, (paid for) 64 bit.
Windows 10 Home version 21H2; OS Build 19044.1415

I can also add I have another 12gig's of vram across 3 drives, and 1 drive a solid state for only system performance at 80 gigs a ssd.

Another thing to add it that I have everything set to programs, as that would reap the most benefit here, setting things to background processes won't work. I have also gave the game near realtime processor priority, yet even then it only eats about 40%. The processor is also overclocked and running under 70 degrees at 4.2 ghz.

This is the mobo page https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/970-GAMING/Specification

the main take-away from that mobo page is the audio device: Audio

• Realtek® ALC1150 Codec
- 7.1-Channel High Definition Audio
- Supports S/PDIF output