Buzzing sound when playing games

Mr Arky · 25 Jul 2016 at 23:50

I get a constant buzzing sound when I load up a game, even at the main menu.

I also get some audio pops/crackles every now and then.

Headset is connected to back of pc.

My motherboard is Asus Maximus viii hero alpha, could it be an isolation fault with the motherboard? the quality of the sound itself is fine.

I have tried removing unessential USB's from the pc, with no success.

Any help would be great,

Thanks.

Method0ne · 26 Jul 2016 at 00:04

Assuming 3.5mm connections then if you have front ports I'd suggest testing those, my money is on EMI of some kind.

Mr Arky · 26 Jul 2016 at 00:56

Yes its 3.5mm, same issue with the front :L I'm looking at getting an internal soundcard, the Creative Sound Blaster Z PCIe, red cased one, that should prevent any interference right?

archerz · 26 Jul 2016 at 08:52

I have one and its very nice

also ...

116dB Signal-to-Noise Ratio

A signal to noise ratio or SNR of 116dB means your audio will be more than 99.99% pristine, which is over 35.4 times better than motherboard audio.

varkanoid · 26 Jul 2016 at 10:46

A_Metal_Viking said:
Yes its 3.5mm, same issue with the front :L I'm looking at getting an internal soundcard, the Creative Sound Blaster Z PCIe, red cased one, that should prevent any interference right?

Yes. Onboard sound has come on leaps and bounds but its still no replacement for a good internal sound card.

Mr Arky · 26 Jul 2016 at 12:28

Cool ok, gone with the sound card, hopefully it helps!

Thanks

JanxSpirit · 26 Jul 2016 at 12:53

archerz said:
A signal to noise ratio or SNR of 116dB means your audio will be more than 99.99% pristine, which is over 35.4 times better than motherboard audio.

This is just marketing nonsense and best ignored. A well designed motherboard carrying the same audio electronics will have identical performance.

The problem comes in finding anyone who measures it properly in reviews. Ignore all RMAA test results as they're the product of a loopback test so include noise and distortion from both input and output summed.

Inputs are sometimes prone to more stray pickup on motherboard solutions, but outputs aren't on a properly designed motherboard. This nearly always leads to RMAA tests showing significantly worse apparent performance than you'll get in reality for playback.

Even on the budget Gigabyte Z170-Gaming K3 motherboard with an on-board ALC1150 (115dB S/N ratio) solution and with the volume high enough to cause potential short-term hearing damage, there is no audible noise from the hardware itself under any circumstances.

YMMV depending on how well it's implemented, but this "Discrete is good, on-board is bad" talk is just utter cobblers.