Audio popping issue

[Rannzyr]

Two or three days ago, I installed a Virtual Audio Cable to take over instead of using RealTek (whose drivers I keep up to date, anyway). The only difference was that instead of choppy audio garbage, the sound would constantly mute out. Not an improvement.

So the VAC did actually stop the stuttering?

If thats the case it may be a problem with FX chips and their motherboards onboard audio. unfortunately its something I cant exactly test because who has sound cards anymore?

I'm stumped to be honest, I just cant believe that its not been addressed when its been reported thousands of times.

[Grimno]

So the VAC did actually stop the stuttering?

If thats the case it may be a problem with FX chips and their motherboards onboard audio. unfortunately its something I cant exactly test because who has sound cards anymore?

I'm stumped to be honest, I just cant believe that its not been addressed when its been reported thousands of times.

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

[GorthRedsteel]

So the VAC did actually stop the stuttering?

If thats the case it may be a problem with FX chips and their motherboards onboard audio. unfortunately its something I cant exactly test because who has sound cards anymore?

I'm stumped to be honest, I just cant believe that its not been addressed when its been reported thousands of times.

VAC has not changed anything for me, and I've been using it since that had been proposed. It's the same as before. The only change that I experienced was after 6.01 - and that was for a worse.

[XenophineEX]

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)

[ChilledApple]

For those with RealTek chipsets on their motherboard you can get a marginal improvement by installing the latest drivers for your sound chip.

What it sounds like is happening is the new spatial sound engine is processing some kind of after effects on the sounds. in single instances this is fine, however it seems like the FX series has an issue with processing these sounds, either its cache is too small or some quirk of its architecture. either way this is unacceptable, you should have the choice to revert back to the old sound engine, they keep in DX9 after all and literally nobody uses that anymore.

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.

[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.