Ableton Forum

Using VSTs like Serum and Dune 3, I get audio crackles when I have the VST window open. When I close the VST window, the crackles go away.

I noticed the GPU is spiking in task manager when this happens.

I tried all of these things: Updated BIOS. Did a clean install of graphics drivers. Ran DPC latency checker. And many other little things. Nothing helped.

I started to notice that the size of the plugin impacted the performance: the larger the size (e.g. some plugins allow you to scale the UI), the worse the audio performance.

So, I reduced my monitor resolution, and the problem went away.

For some reason, my system does not like the 25xx resolution. The 19xx resolutions seem to play nice.

I'm sure this is some graphics BS that is all over my poor little audio guy head.

But, I am still curious: Why would the higher resolution cause these issues with the audio? Maybe the increased demand on the GPU forces it to talk to the CPU and cause issues? I dunno.

Any ideas?


Live 10.0.6b4 (but happens on other Live versions as well)
Win 10 latest stable build
Intel 4930 6 core CPU
NVidia GeForce 610 - latest drivers installed
32 GB Ram
1TB SSD

First thing I note is you have not listed an audio interface? What are you using for your audio output? If it is just your default sound card then do you have ASIO4All installed at least?

What it sounds like is a typical issue of how the WDM/Direct audio driver will work with a DAW and handling all the other tasks of the computer itself. The audio path is not reliable, hence why ASIO drivers exist to create a reliable path.

If you do have an ASIO audio interface then you need to detail your samplerate and buffer. Could be your buffer is simply too low.

Thanks for the reply.

I am using a RME UFX. IIRC, the problem happens even at high buffer sizes. I usually run at 64, but I think I tried 128, 256, and 512.

Again, it is super odd how changing the monitor resolution had such a big impact.

I'm not familiar with Windows but I see your graphics card is kind of on the old side.

Do you have good graphics performance in other applications? Can you play hd videos smoothly etc? I feel like a lot of modern VSTs have pretty intense interfaces. If the graphical load for the whole computer is too high dropouts seem like a likely symptom.

But otherwise your pc specs look very nice so...

Does it occur with other VSTs with less fancy interfaces?

Thanks for the reply.

I agree, I bet the graphics card is the issue, and it seems VSTs have surprisingly large graphics demands.

I may end up replacing the card. I never buy fancy cards, because I do not game or watch much video.

Older, simpler (with respect to graphics) VSTs do not have the issue. It’s mainly the ones with the resizable graphics.