Hello all,
 
I've got an annoying popping / crackling sound with the HDMI audio output from the GFX card! Only noticed it when running some media content to check my audio/video codec pack had installed correctly.
So far I've tried:
DVI-I to HDMI 
DVI-D to HDMI
HDMI to HDMI
Tried various Nvidia Drivers (including a clean sweep after each version) from 327 up to the latest release (including beta versions)
Different video cables (glad I've got spares)
Seating the card in a different slot
Tried with all the on board motherboard audio drivers installed / removed
Tried with just the microsoft HDMI audio driver
 
Nothing has made a difference! The motherboard audio works just fine though when I tested that separately.
 
Anyone have any ideas as to what may be causing this? Tried my very old GTX260 which had to be done old school via a cable to to the main board and the HDMI audio was fine!
 
I've not tried any games games or anything else yet as I want to solve the audio issue first, though I have noticed that the card running idle is fluctuating between 33-40 degrees which seems a bit high! 
 
 
This is a fresh install with this card and as yet, not got round to re-installing any games or normal software so windows is pretty much running "As is"
 
Asus M5a99x Evo R2.0 Mainboard
2 x 4gb DDR3 2133mhz ram
AMD FX 6350 Black Edition cpu c/w with Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Evo
EVGA GTX 760 (02G-P4-2761-KR)
Vista Home Premium 64
 
All drivers / updates / bios have been done to the latest versions.
 
Thanks in advance for any input to this.
 

My bad for not being clearer on the issue.
 
The card is plugged direct into my 42" 3DTV (LG). The audio and video signal is sent direct to the TV via the DVI-I/D/HDMI to HDMI cable. No other cables are currently being used.
 
 
There is currently no (middle man) A/V Receiver currently plugged in yet when I do eventually get round to wiring that part up, the sound will be connected to that via the on-board motherboard optical spdif connection and not through the GFX card.

It's a brand new system so complete fresh install so No - never had an AMD card. Only Nvidia.
 
Also yes, disabling on-board audio was the first thing I did after installing the card. I've tried disabling / enabling the on-board audio yet it's had no effect. The crackling & popping is still occurring.

I have had similar issues. However it seemed from several things not relating to the video card. The original audio source, my settings for audio computer (windows playback devices)/receiver, and speakers I was using where on there way out. Took awhile to sort out, however issue turned out not to be the audio card. However this is just one experience.

 The popping has stopped but the crackling is still there along with stutters. I temporarily routed the HDMI signal through to my pioneer 8.1 decoder  then back to the TV just to be sure a speaker hadn't blown! If it was the speakers that have blown, I'd be mighty p*@#ed as the TV is only 2 weeks old!  However, the issue is still there with the external decoder and speakers.
 Tried optical to optical this morning via on-board sound to the receiver and that is fine - no stuttering or crackling. Whipped out the card, slotted an old GTX 260 back in, plugged the 2 pin lead into the card & motherboard for HDMI audio.
 Ran that through the receiver via HDMI (DVI-D to HDMI cable) and no issues - sound was perfect! Unplugged it from the receiver and straight to the TV - still fine. Removed the old card, plugged the new one back in and problem is back.
 
I do suspect there is a latency issue going on with the card as the audio signal is sent in a raw state and not actually decoded until it hits the "receiver" end. I'll run some latency tests later to try and work out if anything strange is going on.
 

I presently use as a Steambox
EVGA GTX 670ftw rear exhaust blower with a Asus Z87-PRO MB, 4770K CPU, 16GB ram, W7 sp1. 
 
FYI,
The HDMI audio has no issue with a Denon 3808ci receiver to the Bose 201's
 
And yes, I have two sets of Bose 201's (latest model).  One set for my PC gamer rig seen in my sig (W8.1) and one set for a Steambox rig (W7 sp1) hooked HDMI for Video/Audio via a Denon 3808ci A/V Receiver
 
No crackling & popping, but that is with the Denon 3808ci A/V Receiver hook HDMI only with up to date Mediabridge http://www.amazon.com/s/r...d-keywords=Mediabridge cables.
 
Also, the OP's AMD's CPU is quite inferior and maybe the culprit but i dunno

Awesome!

Yeah, I'm at a bit of a loss as to that as well! I can only guess that it was there with the 260, just not noticeable due to the way the audio was handled compared to the 760.
 
This is just a guess:
The HDMI audio feed was sent from the motherboards on-board sound to the 260 so that card didn't have to worry about processing the signal - just had to send it along with the video data stream.
The GTX 760 processes the audio signal on the card then send the signal along with the data stream.
Due to the way the 260 handles the signals and the fact it uses a lot less bandwidth than the 760, the DPC latency wasn't sufficient enough to effect the audio stream signal.
 
Again though, that's just a guess and something I may look more into at a future date
 
**edited bit**
I'm getting my hands on an old 660 today so will see if I can reproduce the same problem with that card as well on my system.
 
I also discovered that "apparently" the GTX 260 shouldn't have worked with my new system as it's a UEFI motherboard - Pfft.. changed a few bios settings to Legacy and no issues on the boot. Will be interesting to see what the 660 does later on.
 
 

Thanks for the insight. Same problem. For me the solution was to disable the on-board audio chip.

This has been driving me crazy for years. Now I can finally pull out my old pcie audio card and actually just use hdmi. Thanks for figuring this out!

Never load more than one set of sound drivers.  If using the MB sound - do Not load the Nvidia sound drivers