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Electrical noise through speakers when GPU under load (Not coil whine)

Footyslayer

Footyslayer

Footyslayer

Associate
Joined
16 Mar 2009
Posts
1,916
Hi all looking for some help on this...

RTX 3080 gpu and a Creative Soundbalster AE-5 soundcard.

Using my speakers through 3.5mm speaker input I get electric interference through the speakers (deffo not coil whine) whenever the GPU is under load. When not gaming etc it is fine.

If I use toslink / optical for sound then this does not happen.

I have tried with a 3080 FE and an MSI gaming X trio 3080 and both cause this issue. I was running a Zotac 1080TI before and this did not have the issue. I have also tried a ground loop noise isolator but this does not work either.

Its related to 3.5mm speaker inputl and is only since using a 3080, 100% not coil whine.

Any advice?
 
sounds like RFI from your GPU to me, its a frequency emitted from GPU creating interference or getting into the creative sound card. shielding normally cures it.
 
create a metal plate over your sound card, will stop the RFI enter your soundcard.

or use external sound device
 
Usually motherboards and sound cards will have rfi blockers - you should look into that or like others said use an external sound card
 
Footyslayer said:
...If I use toslink / optical for sound then this does not happen...
Click to expand...
Since this completely eliminates the problem, why not just do that? Using a digital output, you don't even need a soundcard - the motherboard's digital output will work at equal quality.

vapor matt said:
...shielding normally cures it.
Click to expand...
smogsy said:
create a metal plate over your sound card...
Click to expand...
Shielding helps if the noise is radiated, but not if it is conducted.
 
Cheers all, this soundcard is fairly new. Like I say the 1080TI is fine yet two seperate 3080s cause this.

I assume due to the power delivery of the 3080?
 
Mr Evil said:
Since this completely eliminates the problem, why not just do that? Using a digital output, you don't even need a soundcard - the motherboard's digital output will work at equal quality.

Shielding helps if the noise is radiated, but not if it is conducted.
Click to expand...

Currently I am, however with toslink you cannot use the software to customise your sound settings, where as with 3.5mm you can adjust every little custom audio setting.
 
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The card looks like it's shielded so it shouldn't be that (how well though I don't know).

The Xonar STX cards are shielded and I don't get noise on that.
 
Nasher said:
The card looks like it's shielded so it shouldn't be that (how well though I don't know).

The Xonar STX cards are shielded and I don't get noise on that.
Click to expand...
seems very common on the model he has, poor design & shielding i guess...

out of curiosity @Footyslayer does the noise reduce if you drop your FPS to what your 1080TI would have got?
 
Footyslayer said:
Currently I am, however with toslink you cannot use the software to customise your sound settings, where as with 3.5mm you can adjust every little custom audio setting.
Click to expand...

That's strange I have always used the optical on soundblaster cards and I have been able to adjust all the sound settings and equalizers and every setting to adjust sound, it should work as long as you have setup the digital out right on the soundcard, check your settings and how it is setup to output, it should state output to speakers not optical but sound will be sent to optical if you enabled the digital i/o to pass audio in the creative software (will be two outs available in windows sound settings from the creative card) in windows sound settings, I think when set to optical as default some settings get greyed out on the creative software. This is from memory but my X-Fi Titanium-Fatal1ty Pro allows me to do everything I can do while on the analogue outs on optical too. So something is a miss or Creative have changed something in their drivers, I always use the optical as it saves on all the wires and cleaner sound.


The card you have is shielded for RFI, what I would try is moving it to a different PCIe slot and one furthest away from the gpu, it could be the PCIe on the motherboard picking up the noise too. Also make sure the motherboard is grounded to the case well, the screws to the posts don's have plastic washers to the posts can cause grounding issues and the backplate for the motherboard is grounding correctly to the motherboard and case too.

You will need to set to continuity testing on a multimeter if you have one to rule out a bad ground to the case, by touching the motherboard screws to the case that has some metal showing if a painted case and again from the backplate to the case again or to the motherboard screws. Should beep or show continuity on the mutimeter.
 
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The problem with a buzzing noise is it can just be frequency interference or it can be a hardware fault. Drivers can also be a cause. Sometimes its just the line in for the mic left unmuted.

Check all the cables. I had issues until I fully pushed the HD audio plug int the motherboard. It had not gone all the way in. Also I moved the cable away from the pump and replaced the pump.
 
smogsy said:
seems very common on the model he has, poor design & shielding i guess...

out of curiosity @Footyslayer does the noise reduce if you drop your FPS to what your 1080TI would have got?
Click to expand...

I wonder if it is the card though as it did not do it on the 1080TI. MY 1080TI ran the same FPS as the current 3080 but the noise does go lower if FPS is lower...

zx128k said:
What PSU is being used?
Click to expand...

Corsair RM850, RM Series, 80 Plus Gold Certified, 850 W Fully Modular ATX Power Supply.

Purgatory said:
That's strange I have always used the optical on soundblaster cards and I have been able to adjust all the sound settings and equalizers and every setting to adjust sound, it should work as long as you have setup the digital out right on the soundcard, check your settings and how it is setup to output, it should state output to speakers not optical but sound will be sent to optical if you enabled the digital i/o to pass audio in the creative software (will be two outs available in windows sound settings from the creative card) in windows sound settings, I think when set to optical as default some settings get greyed out on the creative software. This is from memory but my X-Fi Titanium-Fatal1ty Pro allows me to do everything I can do while on the analogue outs on optical too. So something is a miss or Creative have changed something in their drivers, I always use the optical as it saves on all the wires and cleaner sound.

The card you have is shielded for RFI, what I would try is moving it to a different PCIe slot and one furthest away from the gpu, it could be the PCIe on the motherboard picking up the noise too. Also make sure the motherboard is grounded to the case well, the screws to the posts don's have plastic washers to the posts can cause grounding issues and the backplate for the motherboard is grounding correctly to the motherboard and case too.

You will need to set to continuity testing on a multimeter if you have one to rule out a bad ground to the case, by touching the motherboard screws to the case that has some metal showing if a painted case and again from the backplate to the case again or to the motherboard screws. Should beep or show continuity on the mutimeter.
Click to expand...

Well the Sound Blaster command program when in Playback / Headphones I can adjust everything to suit, when selecting "Digital" the options are very minimal and even sound volume is a lot lower. On 3.5mm I can run my speakers on volume 4, on digital I have to go to volume 20 for the same level of sound.

Nothing is greyed out on the soundblaster command centre and I think it is set up correctly. Have you any screenshots at all? The GPU and Soundcard are as far apart as they can be in the motherboard.

Mr Evil said:
It could be the 3080 generating noise, or it could be the PSU generating extra noise due to the 3080 drawing more power than a 1080Ti.
Click to expand...

That has crossed my mind but the PSU is a very good one... Corsair RM850, RM Series, 80 Plus Gold Certified, 850 W Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

Nablaoperator said:
It could also be power related..
Sometimes i fail to push the external power cable all the way into the PSU..
and can hear static from my speakers in pwr on state
Click to expand...

Yep, just tried all the connections again, all are inserted correctly...

zx128k said:
The problem with a buzzing noise is it can just be frequency interference or it can be a hardware fault. Drivers can also be a cause. Sometimes its just the line in for the mic left unmuted.

Checked all the cables. I had issues until I fully pushed the HD audio plug int the motherboard. It had not gone all the way in. Also I moved the cable away from the pump and replaced the pump.
Click to expand...

My Mic is in a USB slot on the motherboard, my speakers are in the soundcard directly. I will check the HD audio plug again but I am sure its seated correctly.
 
Me2... I posted that it's the job for the sound to reduce RFI no matter what is around it. At the end of the day. Any RFI could reduce sound quality so rfi protection should be part of the RND
 
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