Audio popping issue

[Puss_Kat]

Actually encountered someone during Trial Roulette who was suffering from choppy audio to the point they had to mute their end and pausing to do so got them killed...

Mute globally, do not mute the individual channels or if you do, set to 1 on the slider instead of 0 or mute.

having the channels muted in some fights can lead to the audio thread maxing out a cpu core and hanging up the game until the audio processing completes also leading to deaths.

[thesm1l3y]

Mute globally, do not mute the individual channels or if you do, set to 1 on the slider instead of 0 or mute.

having the channels muted in some fights can lead to the audio thread maxing out a cpu core and hanging up the game until the audio processing completes also leading to deaths.

With mute globally you mean turn down the master, right?

[Puss_Kat]

With mute globally you mean turn down the master, right?

Yes, i encountered several second lockups on P4 myself since the floor mechanics introduce additional sound sources pushing beyond the limit.

[Ravnus]

I can say that since the Endwalker launch I have this issue and it got worse after the patch.

I do enjoy the game as I can and love it, but for someone that is musician this kind of issue really upsets me!

unlike some fan boys who have already commented here, even though I love this game, I know there are things that can and should be improved and this, mainly, is one of them.
I know they may not know what causes the problem or where exactly it is, but not recognizing that there is a problem having a thread already with so many comments containing good information is simply dishonest, something I didn't expect from Square Enix.

As a customer we all have a right to demand a full working product, that is what we expect when we buy something. I trust they'll find and solve the problem, I hope at least. But for now their behavior about this issue is disappointing.

[Tokavo]

I can say that since the Endwalker launch I have this issue and it got worse after the patch.

I do enjoy the game as I can and love it, but for someone that is musician this kind of issue really upsets me!

unlike some fan boys who have already commented here, even though I love this game, I know there are things that can and should be improved and this, mainly, is one of them.
I know they may not know what causes the problem or where exactly it is, but not recognizing that there is a problem having a thread already with so many comments containing good information is simply dishonest, something I didn't expect from Square Enix.

As a customer we all have a right to demand a full working product, that is what we expect when we buy something. I trust they'll find and solve the problem, I hope at least. But for now their behavior about this issue is disappointing.

Official response of the support service

Greetings,

Thanks again to everyone who submitted detailed information regarding the ongoing sound-related issue. Rest assured, the bug reports that were moved to the Duplicate Bug section have been also passed down and have been helpful in our investigation.

While it has taken some time to narrow down the conditions of the issue, we were able to reproduce it on our end.

We discovered an anomaly in the calculation process within FFXIV's game sound driver where the number of digits is not being adjusted correctly. Due to this, some CPUs with certain characteristics are unable to keep up with the calculation processes and have a high possibility of encountering the issue.

As mentioned previously, we noticed this primarily occurs on older CPU models that are around 10 years old, but have also confirmed cases on some of the latest CPU models.

We are continuing to investigate the matter and are working on a resolution to ensure that CPUs with these characteristics will be able to handle these processes correctly. Our current plans are to conduct pattern tests and release an additional fix in the next patch.

We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work towards resolving this issue.

[Nommers]

Of the six posts I linked in which Intel users were suffering from the bug, one person alleviated the issue (by 90% in their estimation) by cleaning out the dust in their machine. Another solved an issue with their audio dropping entirely but still had the stutter. Not one of the six posters was able to "fix it totally." I don't understand what point you're trying to make with Intel users supposedly being in a better position to fix it - there's no evidence to suggest this at all as far as I can see. The queues are a separate issue. I agree, they suck, but EVERYONE is dealing with that.

As I've said way too many times in this thread, you can try upgrading if you have the money, but the only fix for the actual technical problem that's causing all of this can only come from Square Enix. They are aware of the problem and will be trying to get it fixed before 6.1, but we have no idea when that will be. The best things you can do are to submit a bug report if you haven't already, cancel your sub, be patient, and play another game for a while.

[XenophineEX]

Of the six posts I linked in which Intel users were suffering from the bug, one person alleviated the issue (by 90% in their estimation) by cleaning out the dust in their machine. Another solved an issue with their audio dropping entirely but still had the stutter. Not one of the six posters was able to "fix it totally." I don't understand what point you're trying to make with Intel users supposedly being in a better position to fix it - there's no evidence to suggest this at all as far as I can see. The queues are a separate issue. I agree, they suck, but EVERYONE is dealing with that.

As I've said way too many times in this thread, you can try upgrading if you have the money, but the only fix for the actual technical problem that's causing all of this can only come from Square Enix. They are aware of the problem and will be trying to get it fixed before 6.1, but we have no idea when that will be. The best things you can do are to submit a bug report if you haven't already, cancel your sub, be patient, and play another game for a while.

I appreciate the sentiment, but all of my posts are in this thread. I'm not going anywhere till this issue is fixed. Then you will never hear from me again. =)
6 intel people out of 10000 amd users is still 99% amd users. Statistics not your thing?

Doesn't matter, they said they are finally aware of this issue on AMD machines. They aren't very common in Japan because it is mainly a North American budget processor. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California.

I expect a fix to happen within 2 weeks, and sales to resume again around the same time.

I was going to get my wife to play... but during several "super awesome boss fights" the audio stuttering started happening... embarrassing as hell when you are trying to bring someone into the game... She immediately noticed and said what the hell is that... if your pc can't run it mine damn sure can't and I tried to explain it was something they were working on but that with the sales taken down... she may never join me in this game now.

[Nommers]

My point was that Intel users are not in a better position to FIX the stutter, which seemed to be the argument you were making - I'm not arguing against the fact that they aren't affected as often (they certainly aren't complaining as often). 6 Intel users having the problem in this thread is 6 more Intel users than you appeared to be willing to acknowledge a few posts ago. I apologize if I wasn't clear.

Furthermore, while I'm aware of the scarcity of AMD CPUs in the Japanese PC market, Square Enix did NOT specify that they are only aware of this issue on AMD machines.

We discovered an anomaly in the calculation process within FFXIV's game sound driver where the number of digits is not being adjusted correctly. Due to this, some CPUs with certain characteristics are unable to keep up with the calculation processes and have a high possibility of encountering the issue.

As mentioned previously, we noticed this primarily occurs on older CPU models that are around 10 years old, but have also confirmed cases on some of the latest CPU models.

This doesn't specify AMD at all, and just as importantly, it also acknowledges that recent processor models are having the problem.

Also, while I do still highly recommend finding something else to play in the meantime, please don't take anything I say as a request to stop complaining about the bug. Personally I'm happy to make as much noise about this as possible. For anyone with social media, PLEASE use it to raise awareness as much as you are able - but remember to BE RESPECTFUL.

[Larirawiel]

OMG, please do not start an AMD vs. Intel flamewar here.

And there are reports that Intel CPUs are also affected in very rare cases. The AMD Bulldozer is affected mostly because the architecture of this CPU type is very special. Unfortunately the CPU cores share many things like caches, FPU units etc. and it can quickly lead to bottlenecks. This is the resaon why this CPU cannot unfold its theoretical potential in real world applications and Intel CPUs were much better at this time.

But the real reason for the problem is, that they have screwed up some things in the client. Again, with the information that there were "some digits not adjusted correctly" you can assume that they use a wrong data type somewhere. And processing of this data type can be slow on some CPU types.

Cheers

[ClaraKitty]

OMG, please do not start an AMD vs. Intel flamewar here.

And there are reports that Intel CPUs are also affected in very rare cases. The AMD Bulldozer is affected mostly because the architecture of this CPU type is very special. Unfortunately the CPU cores share many things like caches, FPU units etc. and it can quickly lead to bottlenecks. This is the resaon why this CPU cannot unfold its theoretical potential in real world applications and Intel CPUs were much better at this time.

But the real reason for the problem is, that they have screwed up some things in the client. Again, with the information that there were "some digits not adjusted correctly" you can assume that they use a wrong data type somewhere. And processing of this data type can be slow on some CPU types.

Cheers

Thank you! You said it better than I could have. At this point, it doesn't matter what CPU you have that is having trouble. Square literally said it is on their end, not ours. So debating what CPU has it worse is moot point and a waste of time. Just sit back, chillax, and wait for the fix.