[SOFTWARE] Sonic Studio III WARNING WARNING WARNING

[rtfmoz]

If you are gaming on Windows do not, I repeat DO NOT install the Sonic Studio software. It is the cause of frequent game crashes on that platform.

Testing Results

Date:14/06/2024
Game: Ubisoift's Skull n Bones
Replicate:

1. Identify sound hardware platform as per 
   Re: [DRIVERS] Realtek USB Audio (AMD 5xx/6xx/TRX40... - Page 86 - Republic of Gamers Forum - 845528 ...
2. Remove ALL sound software as per instructions for your sound hardware
    [DRIVERS] Realtek USB Audio (AMD 5xx/6xx/TRX40 & I... - Republic of Gamers Forum - 845528 (asus.com)
3. Download drivers and install software as instructed by same article.
4. Install apps using Windows Store Links provided in Apps directory of same software
5. Play your games, note any crashes that are not usually there.
6. Repeat Steps 2 & 3 but this time skip skip step 4.
7. Play your games, note the difference.
8. Repeat to isolate software components.
9. Identified culprit, Sonic Studio.

This by far the most complete removal and re-install of sound software I have seen. Very thorough, thank you @MoKiChU 
 
Results
The game has frequent crashes soon after loading. No errors just quits back to desktop. After the fifth time, I performed the diagnosis above. Game plays normally now without crashing.,

Hardware
Tested on Windows 11 Pro - Release 23H2
Motherboard: ROG STRIX Z690-E GAMING WIFI
Sound Device: Realtek USB Audio HWID: USB\VID_0B05&PID_1996&MI_00
Type: SS3
Software: No other ASUS software is installed on this system

[rtfmoz]

Played 12 hours yesterday and no crashes. With SS3 installed would get at most five maybe ten minutes before the game would crash. I have experienced this before. I believe the underlying cause is the mixer. While it does not seem to cause any issues with the base drivers installed which deploy the SS Virtual Mixer as soon as SS3 is added the entire system becomes unstable with modern games. I don't know why but empirical evidence reflects this.

If you are a gamer, until they have resolved the issue I strongly recommend if you have it installed follow the guide linked above to remove relevant sound software for your specific motherboard and install just the supplied driver set.

[Knight2pwn]

While it might be nice to see some updated audio drivers for many mobos I have not seen any real issues with software using the ASUS drivers and Sonic Studio. That is using the drivers and software available from the ASUS site under my mobo.  That doesn't mean your experience isn't valid though and I hope you can work out what is causing the issue.

[achugh]

@rtfmoz Can you share what version of the BIOS you are using? Your motherboard and my motherboard (ROG MAXIMUS Z790 DARK HERO) plus a whole lot of other motherboards recently got a new BIOS update. The recommendation is to use the Intel Baseline Profiles. With the most recent BIOS you can now properly choose Intel Performance or Intel Extreme profiles instead of the ASUS Default meant for overclocking which is not considered stable but is meant to post just higher points for overclocking and short term use.

Also, can you confirm that you installed the Power Delivery (PD) firmware updates as well as the Realtek Firmware updates for stable sound out of Realtek Chipset.

Once you have all the BIOS and firmware updated I hope you can use Sonic Studio with this game as well.

[rtfmoz]

Current Board and BIOS below.

I'll track down those updates. Had not seen them before

[rtfmoz]

-- place holder --

[achugh]

Hi @rtfmoz , The latest BIOS for your board is 3603. It has DDR5 optimizations released in 3401 as well. If you are interested in trying a different solution, you can install 3603 BIOS version. Before installing please EXPORT your BIOS settings to an external USB stick so that if things do not work and you want to rollback your BIOS back to your current working version, you can also easily apply the settings by importing your configuration as well.

Once you install the latest version of BIOS, press F5 to load optimized defaults. and save and exit to reset to defaults. Then go back into BIOS again and this time choose INTEL PERFORMANCE as the profile instead of ASUS AI Overclocking. This option is only available for K series CPUs i.e. K, KS and KF. You have not shared what exact CPU you have as well as the DDR memory details so just letting you know in case you do not see this option then it means you do not have an unlocked CPU anyways and do not have to worry about.

When running this test keep your memory profile to AUTO and NOT on XMP I or XMP II or Manual or ASUS Tweaked. This is because most of the issues with games are due to memory not staying stable at higher speeds.

I hope this information will truly help you find out the if it is Sonic Software or something else.

[rtfmoz]

Actually getting DTS Ultra for the first time on this system. Noticed this before I updated anything. Have not yet installed SS3 yet, will get to that, enjoying my games first. Since then have done the following.
Updated BIOS.
Updated Audio.
Updated PD.
I'll double check with your post above to make sure I have everything then go back to SnB for testing.Thanks for the help man. Hope this works *fingers crossed*

[rtfmoz]

I dont have a performance profile, see below. After loading optimised defaults, selecting Intel Default , the only other change I have made is XMP II to support the rated memory speed. My machine started significantly faster than before. I was very surprised.

[achugh · Accepted solution]

Hi @rtfmoz , I am glad to hear that I was able to make your experience better. You are using Intel i5-13600KF. This is a locked CPU hence you WILL NOT get additional settings I mentioned. Those additional settings get available on i9-13900 or i9-14900 K series processors only (also called the UNLOCKED versions of the processors).

The settings you showed are the best one for your setup. I hope this resolves your issues with crashes you had previously and you will see that the problem was not audio drivers but the BIOS updates you were missing.

Enjoy!