1 Topic by davidgiga1993 (edited by davidgiga1993 2020-10-09 14:43:15)

  • Registered: 2020-10-09
  • Posts: 2

Topic: USB Dropouts with Nvidia RTX 3080

Hello,

I'm using a RME UCX for a longer time now without any issues. Recently I've upgrade my graphics card (from gtx 1080 to rtx 3080) and suddenly I get USB dropouts every couple of minutes.

The dropout happens in WDM and ASIO mode where the audio just cuts off. After 1-5 seconds the audio restores itself. Rarely you can also hear the dropout (cracking noises) while the pitch of the audio signal increases. If this happens I have to restart the audio driver (e.g. close and open cubase or any other audio player using WDM).

I've noticed that the DPC latency of the system is much higher than before (> 1000us, before ~350us).
Interestingly there is no spice in latency when the dropout occurs.
Also the Fireface USB Settings panel always shows "Errors: 0/0" regardless what happens.

Is there any way to debug / resolve such an issue? My guess is that the driver of the GPU causes the issues but I want to make sure.

I also wrote a post in the Nvidia form (link below) to see if anyone can help with this issue. My full system spec is also listed there if you're interessted.

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/fo … -rtx-3080/

Update: The dropouts happen regardless if I use 48 or 2048 samples as buffersize.

  • mr.r
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  • Registered: 2008-02-11
  • Posts: 70

Re: USB Dropouts with Nvidia RTX 3080

A wild guess.

Is there an audio device in the device manager? Some Nvidia cards install an extra high definition audio interface, not sure if this could cause problems.

Try if different energy settings in the Nvidia driver do help. I read that some people with previous Nvidia cards could solve latency issues by disabling energy saving or better by putting the setting to 'max performance',  so that there is no dynamic clocking by the gpu.

Would be very interested in a solution in case you find one.

  • Registered: 2020-10-09
  • Posts: 2

Re: USB Dropouts with Nvidia RTX 3080

mr.r wrote:

A wild guess.

Is there an audio device in the device manager? Some Nvidia cards install an extra high definition audio interface, not sure if this could cause problems.

Try if different energy settings in the Nvidia driver do help. I read that some people with previous Nvidia cards could solve latency issues by disabling energy saving or better by putting the setting to 'max performance',  so that there is no dynamic clocking by the gpu.

Yes there is, but it was there in the past as well.
I narrowed down the issue to certain USB controllers on the mainboard: The board has 3 different usb controllers:
a) Directly from the CPU
b-c) Chip connected via pci-e lane to the cpu.

I've noticed that the issue only happens for usb devices connected to b or c. This also applies to other usb devices (keyboard, mouse, ...). They all will drop out randomly for a short period of time. The OS doesn't notice this issue so my best guess at the moment is that it's somehow a pci-e communication issue between the usb controllers and the cpu. Therefore the RME driver doesn't notices the dropouts since it's happening on an even lower layer (I guess?).

Additionally the issue doesn't seem to happen as soon as a slight load is applied to the gpu (e.g. low performance rendering). Watching the GPU clocks I couldn't tell any difference from an idle desktop. The dynamic clocking happens in any case so I would assume this is not the root cause.

So overall it's not related to RME at all and definitely some issue with the gpu driver and/or the new card and my mainboard.

  • Registered: 2008-01-01
  • Posts: 3,025

Re: USB Dropouts with Nvidia RTX 3080

As temporary workaround:

NVidia Control Panel -> Manage 3D Settings -> Power Management mode -> Prefer Maximum Performance

Restart and see if this helps until NVidia get their act together.

  • Registered: 2020-10-27
  • Posts: 1

Re: USB Dropouts with Nvidia RTX 3080

Already replied on Nvidia forums as well, but probably good to mention it again here:

I'm having the exact same problems with the Palit RTX 3080 and RME Fireface UFX II.

A slight difference however is that for me the problem occurs when the GPU is under load (strangely enough NOT with Benchmarks). And mostly it happens when going to/switching from menu's or when maps are loading or i'm alt+tabbing. For me the Audio will then start to stutter (like constant half-second chops) and all I can do is restart the audio interface (how bad is that for the interface btw?).

I've managed to find one situation where it ALWAYS happens, and it's a rather weird one. It's when switching to the registration menu for Genshin Impact. Here's a video of that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY6eg1R … e=youtu.be