Audio popping issue

[AeroXaia]

I do not have any issues in combat or in towns etc. Cutscenes are ofc unwatchable though.
The funny thing is, whenever I MUTE the ambient, every single other audio channel freaks the fuck out indefinitely.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYGu2rv3gbg&t=321s

I've always played with ambient muted, unmuting it does help somewhat, however I still get the distortion sometimes. Turning it to zero also breaks it like muting, but with ambient sound on, when the sound breaks, it more often corrects itself or comes and goes, instead of staying broken forever (when I started the game with it already unmuted). Unmuting ambient sounds is helping much more than listening position.

The only things that have helped for me so far (without fully fixing it):

Ambient unmuted, volume not zero (Setting it to 1 seems to help as much as 100)
DX9 (Ew)
Listening position (Ew, I hate hearing the sounds from some other location than where I'm looking from)
Turning CPU power up (Ew, overheats room and blasts fan noise)

Yes, CPU is still affecting it. After 6.0.1 it didn't seem to help anymore, things just got worse and it wasn't enough to stop it. With ambient unmuted, it's often better but still gets bad sometimes in fights, and raising CPU again helps again, just like listening position helps. I get a realtime immediate reaction muting/unmuting ambient sounds, just like with adjusting CPU. (I'm not saying "get more CPU", I'm saying something is broken in a way that overwhelming CPU can partially compensate for, which is why I think you have less trouble than many of us, but something is still clearly wrong and shouldn't require so much CPU.)

I really don't want to have to use those settings and it's not entirely gone, something is still wrong here, and it's still worse than before 6.0 even with all of these settings. At least it's a lead and partial workaround for now.

[Lagunow]

Ok, so now that queues are more bearable I got up earlier today and did some through testing. I logged in and out more than 20 times testing many different settings. I put the game on the most stress I possibly could, here is what I found:

- Using DX9 and capping FPS to 30 are absolutely the only "sure" things that appear reduce the issue down to a playable level. Anything else was either placebo, ramdom/situational or a very minimal improvement. I will test the CPU power solution after work today.

- Setting graphics to low, changing equalizer to standard, updating drivers, using a "virtual cable" software are all placebo or give minimal temporary relief, if at all.

- The issue is not caused by graphic settings, as it was playable with average settings and even on high, as long as I was using DX9. If I use DX11, however, the glitch occurrs even with low graphics.

- After patch 6.01, activating immersive audio immediatly triggered the glitch. Which is weird since on 6.0 it had the opposite effect of making it more bearable. Edit: Probably has to do with the fact that I have to use DX11 to turn on immersive audio.

- Muting ambient sound like some are suggesting did not solve it, quite the opposite in fact, it made it worse.

- Once the audio glitch is triggered, there is nothing you can do to fix it besides a fresh restart. Logging out to the title screen and back again does not solve it. You have to close the app, and restart back from the launcher. Sometimes it fixes itself if you wait long enough, but it's very random.

- Alt tabbing does seem to ramdonly trigger the audio glitch sometimes. Most of the time it doesn't, though. Possibly depends on what kind of app you're alt tabbing into. Haven't looked into it that deeply, but I suggest closing any apps you're not using and killing any unecessary background processes when you run the game just for precaution.

For reference, I've tested on multiple ingame situations that are known "culprits" of triggering the noise glitch: instanced rooms such as rising stones, cutscenes with lots of npcs on a enclosed space and combat. I have not tested dungeons yet.

[AeroXaia]

Ok, so now that queues are more bearable I got up earlier today and did some through testing. I logged in and out more than 20 times testing many different settings. I put the game on the most stress I possibly could, here is what I found:

- Using DX9 and capping FPS to 30 are absolutely the only "sure" things that appear reduce the issue down to a playable level. Anything else was either placebo, ramdom/situational or a very minimal improvement. I will test the CPU power solution after work today.

- Setting graphics to low, changing equalizer to standard, updating drivers, using a "virtual cable" software are all placebo or give minimal temporary relief, if at all.

- The issue is not caused by graphic settings, as it was playable with average settings and even on high, as long as I was using DX9. If I use DX11, however, the glitch occurrs even with low graphics.

- After patch 6.01, activating immersive audio immediatly triggered the glitch. Which is weird since on 6.0 it had the opposite effect of making it more bearable. Edit: Probably has to do with the fact that I have to use DX11 to turn on immersive audio.

- Muting ambient sound like some are suggesting did not solve it, quite the opposite in fact, it made it worse.

- Once the audio glitch is triggered, there is nothing you can do to fix it besides a fresh restart. Logging out to the title screen and back again does not solve it. You have to close the app, and restart back from the launcher. Sometimes it fixes itself if you wait long enough, but it's very random.

- Alt tabbing does seem to ramdonly trigger the audio glitch sometimes. Most of the time it doesn't, though. Possibly depends on what kind of app you're alt tabbing into. Haven't looked into it that deeply, but I suggest closing any apps you're not using and killing any unecessary background processes when you run the game just for precaution.

For reference, I've tested on multiple ingame situations that are known "culprits" of triggering the noise glitch: instanced rooms such as rising stones, cutscenes with lots of npcs on a enclosed space and combat. I have not tested dungeons yet.

There's definitely different variations of it then. Ambient has a very noticeable effect for me, and limiting FPS does nothing. Once broken it used to stay broken, but unmuting ambient makes it recover like whatever's getting bogged down starts clearing up after the spell spam stops enough. It's like there's a meter that fills up and past a certain point starts distorting, and recovers when there's less going on, but some areas just do it even without any spells at all.

If wonder if different types are based on what CPU people have, but that sounds like a lot of work to gather the info. For reference:

SYSTEM_CPU AMD FX(tm)-8350 Eight-Core Processor (8 CPUs), ~4.0GHz
SYSTEM_CORE_NUM SYSTEM_CORE_LOGIC 8 SYSTEM_CORE_PHYSICS 4
GPU: AMD Radeon R9 270x
RAM: 16gb DDR3

Edit: To be clear, when I said CPU power I meant this option: https://i.ibb.co/X5cQJV2/cpu.png (Most people probably have it at 100% already unless they're on power saver or on a laptop.)

[Lagunow]

There's definitely different variations of it then. Ambient has a very noticeable effect for me, and limiting FPS does nothing. Once broken it used to stay broken, but unmuting ambient makes it recover like whatever's getting bogged down starts clearing up after the spell spam stops enough. It's like there's a meter that fills up and past a certain point starts distorting, and recovers when there's less going on, but some areas just do it even without any spells at all.

If wonder if different types are based on what CPU people have, but that sounds like a lot of work to gather the info. For reference:

SYSTEM_CPU AMD FX(tm)-8350 Eight-Core Processor (8 CPUs), ~4.0GHz
SYSTEM_CORE_NUM SYSTEM_CORE_LOGIC 8 SYSTEM_CORE_PHYSICS 4
GPU: AMD Radeon R9 270x
RAM: 16gb DDR3

Edit: To be clear, when I said CPU power I meant this option: https://i.ibb.co/X5cQJV2/cpu.png (Most people probably have it at 100% already unless they're on power saver or on a laptop.)

I'm also strongly suspecting that, while the problem is the same, there are several variants, since there is no shortage of fixes that only works for a few. Even then, I'm yet to hear a success case of a 100% fix. Most of them only fixes it partially or the glitch returns later on.

Curiously enough, though, I'm also using the the very same CPU as you(AMD FX-8350). It got me thinking if it might have nothing to do with AMD-FX after all, but rather with the possibly dated motherboards that support it.

[AbysmalDuck]

I've noticed a lot of people experience this with AMD processors, but wanted to add my system is an i7-8650. My issues didn't seem to arise, or at least exasperate, until 6.01. I got through all of the MSQ fine, but now HoH, the new normal raids, and many of the current MSQ/post-MSQ dungeons stutter constantly while casting/fighting.

It doesn't really happen to me outside in cities and such though. I also occasionally have no audio at all, or at least just background music. A restart fixes this, but not sure if it is tied to the other audio issues.

I never had any of these issues before 6.0 and had the no audio once before 6.01, I believe.

[Vendi]

I'm also strongly suspecting that, while the problem is the same, there are several variants, since there is no shortage of fixes that only works for a few. Even then, I'm yet to hear a success case of a 100% fix. Most of them only fixes it partially or the glitch returns later on.

Curiously enough, though, I'm also using the the very same CPU as you(AMD FX-8350). It got me thinking if it might have nothing to do with AMD-FX after all, but rather with the possibly dated motherboards that support it.

Well some people can run the game no problem with an AMD Phemon X4 or 2, which probably also run on old motherboards (sometimes even the same ones). Considering that I also can play sometimes an hour or 2 before it breaks seems to show that is indeed a bug, which is specific to certain chip architectures. Now the questions what excatly causes it, I have no idea.

[Cornet]

Gosh, I was so baffled last night, after an isp issues induced break, logging in to find nothing I did stopped my audio from stuttering, particularly in combat. This was my first time back on since the patch.

I actually have encountered audio stuttering before Endwalker, but I run this game on a toaster, so I was never surprised. (I recall encountering it in a ShB dungeon where there was a waterfall/a lot of sounds at once... and I'd forgotten to close some things, was streaming and had Discord voice chat on. Hopping out of voice chat fixed it.)

Once in Endwalker, I noticed couple times audio struggling a bit with voice chat+game if I'd had to close and reopen the launcher a billion of times to beat the 2002, but that stopped being an issue.

Then last night, after downloading the patch, streaming (OBS), voice chat... went into a dungeon and OH the stuttering. Good lord. The fps seemed fine, from what I could see. The animations looked smooth to my eye, but it was like the audio slowed down and lagged/stuttered. I hopped outta voice chat, thinking that'd fix it, and it improved it a little, but not nearly enough. Did full reboot, the usual way to fix anything. Nope. Nothing else I've tried has done squat. Any time there's a bunch of sounds all at once, it's just ALL the stuttering. Frustrating when it was nothing like this before the patch.

My toaster is an AMD Athlon II quadcore with a GTX 670, still running Win 7. (The fact it runs the game as well as it does, even when streaming, is pretty miraculous, I know. lol) I'm so heavily in unsupported-ville, I rather doubt a bug report from me would taken with a grain of salt, but boy, I'm so glad to know I'm not going crazy and there is something up.

[Resheph]

I have had my first play session without audio popping and stuttering since installing the game last week and I'm sharing what I did in hopes it helps someone else. What I was experiencing was only present after fully logging in but otherwise CONSTANT popping and stuttering which sounded just like the example in the first post of this thread, (but without end) and it would get worse even if I just targeted the door in my inn room.

The suggestion by SE to reduce sample rates and such on sound devices did NOT work, but it got me into googling for ideas on how to optimize my PC's sound. The below is cobbled from a few different guides on audio optimization. I hope it helps some others out and that the fix wasn't temporary on my end.

1. I'm currently playing in DX9 mode. Not sure if that matters but I wasn't about to log out and wait in the queue to test once I got it working tonight. I will test DX11 mode tomorrow. (It also works in DX9 so this is probably unnecessary)

2. Set processor scheduling to "Background services"

• In Control Panel select "System"
• Go to "Advanced system settings" and then the "Advanced" tab
• Click on "Settings.." under Performance to bring up the "Performance Options" window.
• Go to the "Advanced" tab and set processor scheduling as "Background Services"
• Click "Apply" then "OK"

3. High-Performance CUSTOM Power Plan (I was in Power Save settings prior to this)

• Open Control Panel and search for ‘Power Options'
• In the menu on the left, select ‘Create a power plan’.
• Select ‘High Performance’
• Give your plan a name: For example, ‘Audio Workstation’.
• Select ‘Never’ for both ‘Turn off the display’ and ‘Put the computer to sleep’
• Select ‘Create’
• You will now be on the Power Options page where your NEW custom power plan will be selected.
• Select 'Change Plan Settings' for your NEW custom power plan
• Open ‘Advanced power settings
• Expand ‘USB settings’
• Disable ‘USB Selective suspend’

4. While running FFXIV, change priority to high in Task Manager.

• Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to start Task Manager.
• Go to the Details tab, right-click the desired process, and choose Set priority and select any value that you want.
• When the confirmation dialog appears, select Change priority.

This also came with the added bonus of fixing what my FC homies were referring to as "taco bell drive through mic" on my end. Go figure.

FWIW I am running a nearly 12 year old Gateway FX 6860 with Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU, 8gb RAM, and upgraded to SDD + Refurbished: MSI Radeon RX 570. (So I should be able to run DX11).

Good luck folks. SE needs to put out some better guidance on fixing this issue than what they have provided so far. Reducing sample rates does nothing.

Had a full play session in DX11 without issues last night. I think the most important things here were steps 2 and 3, which prioritize audio processes and allow for more power draw respectively.

I also have Graphics on High Desktop and the Equalizer set to Standard. I don't have the fancy AI sound thing installed and certainly don't intend to even try it after all this.

[Jizu]

Had a full play session in DX11 without issues last night. I think the most important things here were steps 2 and 3, which prioritize audio processes and allow for more power draw respectively.

I also have Graphics on High Desktop and the Equalizer set to Standard. I don't have the fancy AI sound thing installed and certainly don't intend to even try it after all this.

As these steps were new to me I decided to test it.

I was about to respond with it not working, when I realized I forgot to set the priority in the Task manager. Even though I was sure I've tried that before (it might have reset itself somehow), I set it from Normal to Realtime.

I logged back in with my priority set as high as possible, and so far I have yet to have the issue turn up.
So far I've been testing it by doing FATEs in highly populated areas. Since 6.0 it would start up as soon as 1 or 2 players were fighting with me.

I was not going to attend my FCs raidnight, but I might as well use it as an extreme stress test before I get my hopes up, as it was absolutely horrendous last Saturday before the 6.01 patch. Could only play it muted.
I'll report back once it does happen, or if it helped.

Yea, na. Jumped into a un-synched fight with friends and it immediately started again. Was only 4 ppl, 8 ppl is going to suck ass.

[Maeklos]

As these steps were new to me I decided to test it.

I was about to respond with it not working, when I realized I forgot to set the priority in the Task manager. Even though I was sure I've tried that before (it might have reset itself somehow), I set it from Normal to Realtime.

I logged back in with my priority set as high as possible, and so far I have yet to have the issue turn up.
So far I've been testing it by doing FATEs in highly populated areas. Since 6.0 it would start up as soon as 1 or 2 players were fighting with me.

I was not going to attend my FCs raidnight, but I might as well use it as an extreme stress test before I get my hopes up, as it was absolutely horrendous last Saturday before the 6.01 patch. Could only play it muted.
I'll report back once it does happen, or if it helped.

Yea, na. Jumped into a un-synched fight with friends and it immediately started again. Was only 4 ppl, 8 ppl is going to suck ass.

Did all this, went to Rising Stones and cast Dyskrasia. Took 5 casts to break the sound engine instead of 3. Possibly an improvement or just random.