Z790 - Realtek ALC4080 - No band Equalizer on Windows 11

[Wesley1]

I upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11, everything went smooth, but my audio driver lost some functionality.
Basically the band Equaliser does nothing in Sonic Studio 3, and in Realtek Audio Console the bands EQ is not even present. Interestingly Sonic Studio 3 sound effects like Smart Volume and Voice Clarity do work.

I tried to reinstall driver Realtek_Audio_Driver_V6.3.9600.2393_WIN11_64-bit,
and after that Realtek_Audio_Driver_V6.4.0.2395_WIN10_WIN11_64-bit

Same, band EQ not present in Realtek Audio Console, and not working in Sonic Studio 3.

Can anyone confirm if he has working band Equalizer with this Realtek ALC4080 codec on Windows 11?

I could try uninstall everything and install Armory Crate, but it's such a buggy bloatware, and conflicts with my hardware monitoring software, so I would like to avoid that on fresh system.

[Wesley1 · Accepted solution]

Removed all Asus software and folders in safe mode, reinstalled Realtek Audio driver via Armoury Crate, that solved the problem. 😫

I wish there was an easier way to do this, like working standalone driver package. 🤣

[johnhellstar]

Hello!Same problem here but on two fresh Win11 installs 23h2 and 24h2...No equalizer section....tried both driver versions for my Apex Encore,asus's web site and Mokichu's....This is a little game braking,EQ is very important.Any ideas?Is there a way to enabled it?

Coming from a z390 Hero,the audio was awesome and all settings and sections was working perfectly.Apex's audio seems like a big downgrade.

[Wesley1 · Accepted solution]

I can only recommend clean installation and reinstall driver with Armoury Crate, it will install correct audio driver with proper licence for your motherboard.
EQ will probably work, since it is even in Realtek Audio Console,
but you can have different variant of additional software, eg. Sonic Studio3 , Sonic Studio (within Armoury Crate), or some other app they use now.

Here is what I did, and worked for me both on Windows 10 and Windows 11.

https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/intel-700-600-series/asus-z790-dark-hero-sonic-studio-iii/m-p/1079170/...

I don't use modded drivers since they require to disable Windows driver signature verification and that poses threat to whole system.