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3070ti FE Active Monitor Speaker Buzz (Under high power usage)

Rowan88

Rowan88

Rowan88

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2 Jun 2013
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1,286
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Glasgow
I have a 3070ti FE and notice when the GPU is under high load I have a buzzing noise coming from my active monitor speakers. I tried most of the stuff I found online regarding ground loops and coil whine.
The noise is fine at idle, and even at high usage from the actual card (very little noise from inside the case) but because they are connected through USB to my Scarlett 2i2 audio interface then to two Yamaha HS5 active monitor speakers this amplifiies the noise when the GPU is under high power usage.

I have tried the following so far:
  • Different USB ports, different USB cable
  • Powering the Scarlett 2i2 via TP Link UH720 powered USB hub
  • Plugging the power leads into different sockets/seperate sockets
  • Making sure the TRS 1/4" jack cables to my speakers are balanced (and even tried different cables)
  • Removing everything else connected to the PC at the time of the noise (keyboard, ethernet, DP cable, bluetooth adapter, wireless mouse adapter)
  • Purchased a iDefender+ USB Ground Loop & Power Noise dongle (this made a tiny difference, maybe 10-20% but for £60 it didnt justify fixing the issue compared to getting rid of my active monitor speaker setup)
  • Attaching ferrite clips to the ends of my USB cable and balanced 1/4" cables
First thing I done was take his basic speakers that connect via 3.5mm jack and plugged them into my motherboard while the GPU was high usage - NO ISSUE, there was no noise coming from his speakers, this led me down the road of possible USB port issue?
At this point I started to think my GPU under high load is leaking EMI into the motherboard which is causing it to travel through the USB ports. To test this theory I done a bit of "part swapping" with my son's PC. I should also mention he has a "similar" setup to mine (Ryzen 5600, Tomahawk B550)
  • Connected my USB cable, Scarlett 2i2, balanced cables and speakers to his current setup - NO ISSUES, this led me to think it must be the GPU that causes it
  • Same setup as above but with my 3070ti FE installed - NO ISSUES (you could only hear coil whine from the actual card itself because the case was open not from the speakers, this now made me believe it was something within my current PC (motherboard, psu etc)
  • Same setup as bove but with my RM750 installed - BUZZING FROM THE SPEAKER, this now made me think I have it, the PSU is the issue
Taking this info I decided it would make sense to install my GPU, speakers, scarlett, cables etc all back into my PC with his TX650M PSU. Unfortunatley I then got buzzing from the speakers again!!!
I then also tried removing things like the 24pin extension cable, unplugged any SATA devices (corsair commander, HDD drives etc), still same issue.


I am close to just calling it a day and purchasing normal 2.1 speakers for my setup. I do prefer using these as I connect my guitar to the PC and use plugins and its nice to have them for general desktop/music/gaming usage too.

Does anyone know anything else I can try to solve this issue? The only thing I haven't attemped yet but the "his PSU not working in mine" put me off, was removing my motherboard/components and running the PC without the case, just in case there is a ground issue with that.

Thanks
 
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Rowan88 said:
Yes the Scarlett 2i2 Gen 2 is an external DAC/ADC
Click to expand...
Well that is baffling. I totally get your confusion.
It certainly sounds like interference from some RFI. Is that DAC well grounded? is the chassis grounded as far as you know?

an external DAC should be totally isolated from this kind of noise. I wonder if its an issue with drivers or settings somewhere, i don't know how, but you have troubleshooted enough to narrow down the source as the issue.
 
Does the scarlet have a dedicated USB power plug on it? In other words could you use a USB wall wart to power it and connect a different USB jack just for data? That's the only way I've solved usb noise issues in the past if I'm honest. USB power from a bus can just be annoyingly noisy.

Other things you could try for general usb issues is checking your ram overclock(ie do you still get the noise on stock) or seeing if dropping pcie slot to gen 3 instead of 4 does anything. Might not solve the issue though as those usually cause dropouts or communication issues rather than ground loop hum. Just might be worth a try as a last ditch effort.
 
baritonejohann said:
Well that is baffling. I totally get your confusion.
It certainly sounds like interference from some RFI. Is that DAC well grounded? is the chassis grounded as far as you know?

an external DAC should be totally isolated from this kind of noise. I wonder if its an issue with drivers or settings somewhere, i don't know how, but you have troubleshooted enough to narrow down the source as the issue.
Click to expand...
Exactly what I thought, but since there was no issue on my sons PC this made me think the Scarlett was fine and that the PSU was the issue (until his didn't work on mine)

Rawr said:
Does the scarlet have a dedicated USB power plug on it? In other words could you use a USB wall wart to power it and connect a different USB jack just for data? That's the only way I've solved usb noise issues in the past if I'm honest. USB power from a bus can just be annoyingly noisy.

Other things you could try for general usb issues is checking your ram overclock(ie do you still get the noise on stock) or seeing if dropping pcie slot to gen 3 instead of 4 does anything. Might not solve the issue though as those usually cause dropouts or communication issues rather than ground loop hum. Just might be worth a try as a last ditch effort.
Click to expand...
The Scarlett 2i2 Gen 2 is only powered via USB. If I connect a plug onto it similar to a phone charger and put into the wall then I have no way of connecting it to the PC to check with the GPU. I did however purchase a TP Link UH720 powered USB hub. So I have that powered into the socket with the Scarlett connected into that, then connected into the PC.

As it only does it under load im 99% sure it's coil whine, but as mentioned the noise from the physical card is fine, its only when its amplified by the speakers.

Here is a small clip to show, and when I move the mouse for higher FPS etc it gets more high pitched.
(apologies if this link is against the rules, if so please remove!)

Another thing I forgot to mention, I attached my Corsair headphones to the 1/4" jack on the front of the Scarlett 2i2 and there is no buzzing at all, so again this led me to believe everything up to the Scarlett was fine, and that its to do with the rear ouputs, cables and speakers.
 
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I once had a similar problem, I believe it is known as a ground loop. I tried every which way to fix it even went as far as buying snake oil type devices and in the end the only way I could break the ground loop was via optical cable which severed the ground connection between the computer and the speakers.
 
mmj_uk said:
I once had a similar problem, I believe it is known as a ground loop. I tried every which way to fix it even went as far as buying snake oil type devices and in the end the only way I could break the ground loop was via optical cable which severed the ground connection between the computer and the speakers.
Click to expand...
This also sounded like a good idea to try. As mentioned I tried ground loop isolators, iDefender+ dongle, ferrite clips etc.
But yes using optical SP/DIF would be better, but the Scarlett 2i2 does not support that.

Do you have any recommendations on a new audio interface I could purchased that has this feature?
Or can USB 2.0 Type 2 be converted to Optical?
 
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RE: Optical - Most of the SMSL DAC/Headphone Amps have this functionality.
I'm still using a now quite old M6, and it does the job well. (It is also powered by a wall wart rather than USB)

Seperating the power and source is always going to be cleaner than one size fits all; but it does depend on what connectivity you need your USB interface to have.
It may even be seperating these and having a wallwart powered USB DAC will resolve the ground hum without needing to switch to Optical.

Edit: Just looking around quickly, the Douk Audio Q2 Pro amp is available currently for around £80 on the large rainforest; and has seperate USB power and USB audio inputs. Might resolve your issues; plus rainforest means easy return if it doesn't :)

Edit2: The Douk Audio K5 looks even better; as it takes a dedicated wallwart connection for power with a barrel jack, rather than USB, so clearly seperated power; and £90 atm.

Maybe give one/both of those a try whilst they're on sale and easy returns, and then go with what you prefer assuming they do the job! Both support both optical and USB input from what I can see, whilst the Q2 Pro takes power via USB, but the K5 takes via barrel jacked wallwart. :)
 
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I noticed you have a RTX 3070 Ti and you say the problem doesn't occur with other GPU's? In that case perhaps it is a problem unique to the RTX3000 series because I had a RTX3080Ti (also FE) at the time but in the end I just went back to headphones.
 
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I had the exact same problem, and it turned out to be cold solder joints in the speaker cable (I made them myself so fair enough!).

But if you've swapped the cables then I would guess you need to isolate the power to the DAC as others have said.
 
Rowan88 said:
This also sounded like a good idea to try. As mentioned I tried ground loop isolators, iDefender+ dongle, ferrite clips etc.
But yes using optical SP/DIF would be better, but the Scarlett 2i2 does not support that.

Do you have any recommendations on a new audio interface I could purchased that has this feature?
Or can USB 2.0 Type 2 be converted to Optical?
Click to expand...
Yes I tried all of those type of devices too and like I said I could only fix it by using optical. In the end I was looking at £100+ devices which may or not work and I just thought to myself it is not worth the hassle and went back to headphones.
 
baritonejohann said:
Gotcha. I agree it now sounds like an issue with the speaker outputs/cable or speakers themselves.
Does the issue persist if the speakers are moved further away? does the issue persist if the monitor is powered off?
Click to expand...
No change if the speakers are moved away from the PC.
If the speakers are powered off then no issue.
If I mute windows you still hear the buzzing.
If my display monitor (Gigabyte M27Q) is turned off still same buzzing.

Alexrose1uk said:
RE: Optical - Most of the SMSL DAC/Headphone Amps have this functionality.
I'm still using a now quite old M6, and it does the job well. (It is also powered by a wall wart rather than USB)

Seperating the power and source is always going to be cleaner than one size fits all; but it does depend on what connectivity you need your USB interface to have.
It may even be seperating these and having a wallwart powered USB DAC will resolve the ground hum without needing to switch to Optical.
Click to expand...
I have tried seperating the power and source by connecting the TL Link UH720 to a different socket, even with an extension from a socket to another room.


mmj_uk said:
I noticed you have a RTX 3070 Ti and you say the problem doesn't occur with other GPU's? In that case perhaps it is a problem unique to the RTX3000 series because I had a RTX3080Ti (also FE) at the time but in the end I just went back to headphones.
Click to expand...
Yes I am sure its mainly down to the power output of the 3070ti FE. I even underclocked it with MSI Afterburner to 1890mhz @ .925v so help with high temperatures. I do believe the GPU is the "cause" of the issue, it was to see why its happening to my speakers on my PC rather than my sons lol.
Feels like the longest rabbit hole I've been down.
 
mmj_uk said:
Yes I tried all of those type of devices too and like I said I could only fix it by using optical. In the end I was looking at £100+ devices which may or not work and I just thought to myself it is not worth the hassle and went back to headphones.
Click to expand...
This is also my dilemma then, I either pay for an expensive optical DAC to "hopefully" solve this issue. I was hoping either a converter or cheap optical DAC would let me test this theory. As mentioned the iDefender+ connected to the USB port the Scarlett was connected to did reduce the noise, but only by 10-20%, and for £60 it didn't seem worth the purchase. It's as if there was "too much" power for it to handle.
Or I just keep my Scarlett & Yamaha HS5's for my guitar only, and purchase seperate desktop speakers instead (Creative Pebble Pro etc)
 
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Rowan88 said:
I have tried seperating the power and source by connecting the TL Link UH720 to a different socket, even with an extension from a socket to another room.
Click to expand...

That isn't seperating the power and source necessarily especially inside the unit if they've been a bit lazy with design. One thing I couldn't see clearly from your posts is does your version of the unit take the power and data on the same cable, or is it seperate cables?

That's why I've suggested the Douk units above on the rainforest, easy return, but would be an easy way to rule a bad interaction and ground loop between your interface and other parts of your setup; the Q2 has a seperate USB power and USB input (but does admittedly read like it can draw power from the data source as well); whilst the K5 is completely seperated data via USB, power via barrel jacked wall wart. Both take optical also, giving you multiple new things to test to see if you can work around the issue.

I had a 3080 in my previous machine, and didnt suffer the issue at all with my M6, which also takes power via barrel jacked wallwart.
 
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