Gigabyte 9070 XT audio issues

[ZigorVeal]

Yesterday I installed a Gigabyte 9070 XT Gaming OC. I immediately noticed some problems with audio. I am getting crackling, popping, and skipping anytime I play music or other sounds. Whether it's an MP3 or FLAC music file with VLC or another media player, watching youtube, or if I'm getting email sound notifications. Pretty much any audio while not playing a game. Gaming does not seem to be affected so far.

I'm coming from a Gigabyte Nvidia 2080 card that had no issues at all with my setup.

I run my PC to a Denon receiver and then to my LG OLED TV. If I run the PC directly to the TV the issue does not happen. If I plug the HDMI cable directly into the motherboard there's no issue. I'm on Windows 10. Again, this config using the receiver had no issues using the Nvidia 2080.

It seems like the card + the receiver is the problem. Is this a known and common problem? I'm having trouble finding much about it online. It feels like an AMD driver issue with the card, but the same driver works fine with HDMI direct into the motherboard. The audio driver doesn't seem like it's been updated in about a year, too. So that's not encouraging.

I did find one recent reddit thread where someone described crackling audio problem with the 9070 but no ideas. They didn't mention using a receiver.

If anyone has an idea or any input at all I would really appreciate it.

 

[Epaminombas]

Your Windows is out of date.

If you have any hardware released after 2021, use the 100% updated Windows 11 24H2.

Format and start from scratch.

Take the opportunity to update the BIOS.

Strange bugs happen when you have new hardware and an old operating system. They are not compatible.

 

[Halo3Addict]

Need a lot more information

Make/Model/Driver versions/firmware versions/OS versions/etc

EDIT: Also did you use DDU to cleanly remove your previous drivers

 

[ZigorVeal]

Your Windows is out of date.

If you have any hardware released after 2021, use the 100% updated Windows 11 24H2.

Format and start from scratch.

Take the opportunity to update the BIOS.

Strange bugs happen when you have new hardware and an old operating system. They are not compatible.

Yeah Windows 11 was my next idea. I guess I need to do it sometime before October anyway. Hopefully that is the fix. Thanks for the reply. Right now I'm using an optical cable to the receiver and the HDMI to the TV as a workaround. Sound is not as good but at least I don't have to keep switching the HDMI input around.

 

[AsRock]

Yesterday I installed a Gigabyte 9070 XT Gaming OC. I immediately noticed some problems with audio. I am getting crackling, popping, and skipping anytime I play music or other sounds. Whether it's an MP3 or FLAC music file with VLC or another media player, watching youtube, or if I'm getting email sound notifications. Pretty much any audio while not playing a game. Gaming does not seem to be affected so far.

I'm coming from a Gigabyte Nvidia 2080 card that had no issues at all with my setup.

I run my PC to a Denon receiver and then to my LG OLED TV. If I run the PC directly to the TV the issue does not happen. If I plug the HDMI cable directly into the motherboard there's no issue. I'm on Windows 10. Again, this config using the receiver had no issues using the Nvidia 2080.

It seems like the card + the receiver is the problem. Is this a known and common problem? I'm having trouble finding much about it online. It feels like an AMD driver issue with the card, but the same driver works fine with HDMI direct into the motherboard. The audio driver doesn't seem like it's been updated in about a year, too. So that's not encouraging.

I did find one recent reddit thread where someone described crackling audio problem with the 9070 but no ideas. They didn't mention using a receiver.

If anyone has an idea or any input at all I would really appreciate it.

It might be the software, has i been having drop out with my RX6950 with the new drivers too, hopefully they will get it sorted out soon.

 

[Epaminombas]

View attachment CABLETMIE_DisplayPort_2.1_Guide_9f171fa4-e1e6-42b2-a0a2-98d1864a4a10.webp

View attachment D_NQ_NP_946094-MLB46557410701_062021-O.webp

 

[ZigorVeal]

Need a lot more information

Make/Model/Driver versions/firmware versions/OS versions/etc

I'm using the latest AMD drivers, 25.3.1. AMD Audio driver 10.0.1.38. Windows 10 22H2 update KB5053606 from 3-11-25. Card is showing BIOS 023.008.000.068.00001 in GPU-Z. I attached some GPU-Z and CPU-Z screenshots. Hopefully that covers it.

EDIT: I did use DDU to remove all the Nvidia drivers. I also reinstalled the AMD drivers several times, using DDU in safe mode each time.

 

[ZigorVeal]

View attachment 389697

View attachment 389698

If you're trying to tell me to use a displayport cable, I did try that as well. My receiver doesn't have a displayport in connection, but I have a displayport to HDMI cable, and using it does not fix the issue.

 

[Epaminombas]

Use HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.1
Maximum 2 meters

 

[white-star]

I just registered, because I think I have same issue and I think I know what is a reason for this. I have a new Powercolor Rx9070 Hellhound and I get sound distortions, when I play music in background via displayport on my monitor. When I play music via HDMI on my LG Oled TV apart from sound distortions I also get short sound cut outs. I found out that all these issues disappear when graphic card is not in idle state, for example when I open GPU-Z and run built in render test. It stresses graphic to about 30% of load and makes clocks go higher. Please check if it solves your issue with sound? If yes you can report a bug to AMD, I already did that. I hope they will increase idle clocks in next graphic driver update.

 

[ZigorVeal]

I just registered, because I think I have same issue and I think I know what is a reason for this. I have a new Powercolor Rx9070 Hellhound and I get sound distortions, when I play music in background via displayport on my monitor. When I play music via HDMI on my LG Oled TV apart from sound distortions I also get short sound cut outs. I found out that all these issues disappear when graphic card is not in idle state, for example when I open GPU-Z and run built in render test. It stresses graphic to about 30% of load and makes clocks go higher. Please check if it solves your issue with sound? If yes you can report a bug to AMD, I already did that. I hope they will increase idle clocks in next graphic driver update.

I just tried this and you're spot on, that's got to be where the issue is because it goes away while running the render test. I'll report this to AMD. Thanks for signing up and posting this! Even though it's not a fix, it's progress towards one I hope. I've just been using a digital optical cable from the PC to my receiver for now until this gets fixed, if it does. That's the only workaround I could come up with.

 

[rusty caterpillar]

Yesterday I installed a Gigabyte 9070 XT Gaming OC. I immediately noticed some problems with audio. I am getting crackling, popping, and skipping anytime I play music or other sounds. Whether it's an MP3 or FLAC music file with VLC or another media player, watching youtube, or if I'm getting email sound notifications. Pretty much any audio while not playing a game. Gaming does not seem to be affected so far.

I'm coming from a Gigabyte Nvidia 2080 card that had no issues at all with my setup.

I run my PC to a Denon receiver and then to my LG OLED TV. If I run the PC directly to the TV the issue does not happen. If I plug the HDMI cable directly into the motherboard there's no issue. I'm on Windows 10. Again, this config using the receiver had no issues using the Nvidia 2080.

It seems like the card + the receiver is the problem. Is this a known and common problem? I'm having trouble finding much about it online. It feels like an AMD driver issue with the card, but the same driver works fine with HDMI direct into the motherboard. The audio driver doesn't seem like it's been updated in about a year, too. So that's not encouraging.

I did find one recent reddit thread where someone described crackling audio problem with the 9070 but no ideas. They didn't mention using a receiver.

If anyone has an idea or any input at all I would really appreciate it.

Get a Certified cable for 2.1 HDMI or DP cable. DP cable @ 2.1 specs max length is 1.6 meter. NVD 2080 and AMD 9000 series don't have same signal. While your old cable suffice for 2080 doesn't mean is up the task for AMD 2.1. Look for Club3D 2.1 HDMI or DP port, I will go for DP but, that is my preference.
I have such DP cable and is thicker than a standard 1.4 DP cable 8mm vs 6mm.

 

[ZigorVeal]

Get a Certified cable for 2.1 HDMI or DP cable. DP cable @ 2.1 specs max length is 1.6 meter. NVD 2080 and AMD 9000 series don't have same signal. While your old cable suffice for 2080 doesn't mean is up the task for AMD 2.1. Look for Club3D 2.1 HDMI or DP port, I will go for DP but, that is my preference.
I have such DP cable and is thicker than a standard 1.4 DP cable 8mm vs 6mm.

I appreciate the reply. I do have 2.1 HDMI already. I will admit it's a 10 ft cable running from the PC to the receiver, though. Maybe this matters, but then how can it be explained that the issue does not occur when running the cable directly to the TV? It also stops being an issue while I'm running the render test in GPU-Z? See my previous comment that was in reply to a comment from white-star. I am not knowledgeable enough to explain what's going on there. If the cable itself was an issue how would it stop being an issue when the card is put under a moderate load, or not run through a receiver?

 

[rusty caterpillar]

I appreciate the reply. I do have 2.1 HDMI already. I will admit it's a 10 ft cable running from the PC to the receiver, though. Maybe this matters, but then how can it be explained that the issue does not occur when running the cable directly to the TV? It also stops being an issue while I'm running the render test in GPU-Z? See my previous comment that was in reply to a comment from white-star. I am not knowledgeable enough to explain what's going on there. If the cable itself was an issue how would it stop being an issue when the card is put under a moderate load, or not run through a receiver?

Integrity of the signal fails under higher load I guess.

 

[DeXteR97]

I also registered just to reply to this thread.

I have the same issue on an ASUS Prime Radeon RX 9070 XT OC - sound cutting off when going through my audio receiver. What I noticed was that it only happened when the computer was idle - even starting typing text or moving the mouse would make the sound work again.

The workaround I'm currently using is to have the performance metrics overlay enabled - this probably gets the GPU out of the idle state and makes the sound work too.

 

[Assimilator]

I am not knowledgeable enough to explain what's going on there. If the cable itself was an issue how would it stop being an issue when the card is put under a moderate load, or not run through a receiver?

You don't need to be knowledgeable about a subject to theorise a cause from a correlation, and in this case other people have noticed the same correlation. It's very obviously a bug whereby the card isn't able to drive the display at the speed it's supposed to, because its clocks are too low. Ignore the trolls saying "just replace your cable" and wait for AMD to issue a driver fix.

 

[Knight47]

Your Windows is out of date.

If you have any hardware released after 2021, use the 100% updated Windows 11 24H2.

Format and start from scratch.

Take the opportunity to update the BIOS.

Strange bugs happen when you have new hardware and an old operating system. They are not compatible.

Isn't 24H2 quite bad? I read a lot of people complain about it and when they go back to 23H2, suddenly no more issues.

 

[Ruru]

Isn't 24H2 quite bad? I read a lot of people complain about it and when they go back to 23H2, suddenly no more issues.

Some users have issues, some haven't. Nothing to complain about 24H2 myself.

 

[Dajose]

Thank you for this Forum section. i just installed my sapphire pulse 9070 xt and thought i might have broken something. i came from a gtx1070 with long years of nvidia driver so i tried to find an answer to that.
Yeah no i also have 10meter hdmi cable for my reciever and that would make no sense. Can confirm from my previous commentaors that making the gpu not idle or changing audio output headset fixes the problem.
Starts to skip half a second of beats/music/video sound when not in the same Tab of the input.

 

[LabRat 891]

I just registered, because I think I have same issue and I think I know what is a reason for this. I have a new Powercolor Rx9070 Hellhound and I get sound distortions, when I play music in background via displayport on my monitor. When I play music via HDMI on my LG Oled TV apart from sound distortions I also get short sound cut outs. I found out that all these issues disappear when graphic card is not in idle state, for example when I open GPU-Z and run built in render test. It stresses graphic to about 30% of load and makes clocks go higher. Please check if it solves your issue with sound? If yes you can report a bug to AMD, I already did that. I hope they will increase idle clocks in next graphic driver update.

I just tried this and you're spot on, that's got to be where the issue is because it goes away while running the render test. I'll report this to AMD. Thanks for signing up and posting this! Even though it's not a fix, it's progress towards one I hope. I've just been using a digital optical cable from the PC to my receiver for now until this gets fixed, if it does. That's the only workaround I could come up with.

Oh. oh no... This is disturbingly familiar.

IIRC, Mining-specific Polaris cards had this kind of issue as well.
2 diff fixes to try, IIRC:
1. Disable PCIE ASPM - this should keep the card from transitioning to lower PCIe states.
2. Lock the card to a Gen-back PCIe bandwidth (Gen2 for RX580s, Gen4 for RX 9070s)

 

[XpanD]

This was also commonly reported on AMD's most recent 5xxx series, from what I recall. Main reason I skipped the 5700XT. Hope it's not still that same issue, that would be pretty sad...

 

[viper]X[]

Registered to reply to this thread.

Same issue here, Asus prime 9070XT HDMI audio out to AVR, 5.1 PCM.
Desktop audio, YouTube, music the audio crackles and cuts out intermittently. Audio in games works perfectly.
Using GPUz to create some GPU load appears to correct the issue for me as well. Also already had PCIe aspm disabled.

 

[rusty caterpillar]

Yesterday I installed a Gigabyte 9070 XT Gaming OC. I immediately noticed some problems with audio. I am getting crackling, popping, and skipping anytime I play music or other sounds. Whether it's an MP3 or FLAC music file with VLC or another media player, watching youtube, or if I'm getting email sound notifications. Pretty much any audio while not playing a game. Gaming does not seem to be affected so far.

I'm coming from a Gigabyte Nvidia 2080 card that had no issues at all with my setup.

I run my PC to a Denon receiver and then to my LG OLED TV. If I run the PC directly to the TV the issue does not happen. If I plug the HDMI cable directly into the motherboard there's no issue. I'm on Windows 10. Again, this config using the receiver had no issues using the Nvidia 2080.

It seems like the card + the receiver is the problem. Is this a known and common problem? I'm having trouble finding much about it online. It feels like an AMD driver issue with the card, but the same driver works fine with HDMI direct into the motherboard. The audio driver doesn't seem like it's been updated in about a year, too. So that's not encouraging.

I did find one recent reddit thread where someone described crackling audio problem with the 9070 but no ideas. They didn't mention using a receiver.

If anyone has an idea or any input at all I would really appreciate it.

Till is fixed by AMD drivers or other, can't you switch to you MBO audio codec is an Realtek 1200 only ALC 4080 codecs pops and cracks?

 

[tugrul_LordOfDrinks]

Dont push the sound pin all the way in. Try half insert. Because some holes have irregular connectivity in there.

 

[ZigorVeal]

I wanted to reply and say that once I set up my TV and receiver to use ARC, the audio issues are completely gone. I have no idea why but it works. If that's not feasible for whatever reason, you can also try using a digital optical cable to your receiver and HDMI to your TV. It's not ideal but it does prevent the cracking and skipping. Hope that helps someone.