Audio popping issue

[MiaShino]

My takeaway was, that the audio issues are increasing strain on my system - not the other way around - hence the title. But I honestly don't know enough about any of this to make either statement.

I think it's important to note here, that I actually had to go back and reseat my RAM after this video - video made me realise I only had half my RAM showing up in Task manager. If that makes a difference at all.

What would be a correct title - for any future watchers? What would be the correct takeaway from this?

Ohhh, only issue was in suggesting it may be gpu issue as I am fairly certain the audio engine does not perform any calculations on the gpu. Uncertain what proper title could be though.

I am aware that I've got a CPU bottleneck with my system. I mostly use this PC to work with adobe programs - gaming is a secondary concern. In fact, I was able to 100% write off all my parts from my yearly tax report. Only reason I've not yet replaced my CPU/Motherboard is because that wouldnt fly. I'd actually have to pay money for it :-P

By the twelve no, not with this current awful awful market. I am still running one i7 4790K. These FX cpus are more then sufficient for FF14 and should they switch away from Dx11 to low level api (Vulkan) in the future you may even see decreased cpu load.

Now - how relevant is the bottleneck for the audio issue?

I believe exceptionally, though bottleneck has less to do with the age of cpu and more with the architecture its self.

I am playing at uncapped framerate. Yes. My monitor is set to 60hz. Supports up to 75 hz. I did record this using nvenc in OBS. Does this defeat the purpose of the video? Apologies, I do not really stream - I just make recordings here and there for personal reasons. So I dont really think much about my settings.

Ahhhh yup! I thought so because unless you were using some form of adaptive sync you would never see refresh rate sync to 123 like that. Also nope nope, nvenc was what I hoped you were using. If you were cpu encoding that might muddy results with it increasing cpu load quite substantially.

I am aware. I unfortunately made that video a few hours before your enlightening post some 10-15 pages back.

Tis okay! I am only hoping to assist others in figuring this out and helping make certain they look in the correct places when diagnosing. Mah! English is driving me bonkers!

The video was rather enlightening though, a 49% to 72% jump in cpu load simply by muting one audio channel is.. alarming. I believe no one here needs me to say that this should not be occurring. Something else I caught when re-watching, there was brief moment where the entire game process stalled when you muted ambient sound. Ummm roughly 10 frames I thinks. That is also well, strange.

Edit: I just checked the in-game bug reports page, and it seems many of these bug reports have been moved to "duplicate bugs". Now I'm not very familiar with these forums, I only made an account to post here about this issue, but a sticky thread on that page says the bug reports in "duplicate bugs" won't be investigated. I have a bad feeling about this.

Speaking of this, I have one curiosity door that requires closing. Would anyone be willing to run FF14 while placing their cpu under artificial load, then attempt to re-create the audio stuttering issue?