Here's the scenario: I recently completed a new AM5 build consisting of the following components:
- B650M Aorus Elite AX motherboard
- Ryzen 7950X processor
- Corsair Vengeance DDR5 memory (2x32GB)
- Sapphire 7900XTX Nitro+ graphicss card
- Samsung 990 Pro NVME drive
After installing Windows 11 (and updates) and the latest drivers, I noticed pops during audio playback after the system was running for a few hours, along with a noticeable mouse delay that would occur every second. I allowed the computer to run idle for two days without use, and upon returning, the system was completely unresponsive: nearly a minute delay between mouse movements.
I've dealt with this in the past with a faulty driver version, and since Windows was just installed, I simply re-installed it and did not install any drivers from the motherboard manufacturer, nor any drivers for the GPU. However, the latency remained. I then removed the GPU and rotated between each stick of RAM, but no improvements. Note that the CPU and RAM are running stock, i.e. no overclocking.
My next step was to try a variety of tweaks, including:
- Disabling CPU C-State
- Disabling on-board WIFI
- Disabling SATA ports
- Windows power plan modifications
- Disabling HPET
Still nothing. At this point, I've grown tired of having to restart the computer every few hours to continue working, so I decided to try a different motherboard and set of RAM, alongside a clean Windows install. I had a Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero available to use, along with an identical RAM kit, so I swapped everything out.
With this configuration, I followed my previous step of installing the basic motherboard drivers and the GPU drivers. I assumed the issue was solved: under the previous configuration, I would get audio pops within 2 to 3 hours, but I didn't see that here. After leaving the system idle for some time, I then realized the issue was still there, but the window between start-up to the first sign of latency being an issue was greatly extended: about 16 hours of general use before the issue become apparent.
To be clear, this is not an problem with the audio system itself: this is a system latency issue. The trouble is I'm having a difficult time pinpointing where the issue may be, especially when the issue isn't apparent from system start-up. I've ran an XPerf profile, and can see that winhvr and ntoskrnl have the longest execution times. I use containers for development, but they have never been an issue on my previous machine (also running Windows 11). Thoughts?