Hi folks,
 
I've read a bunch of other threads but can't seem to find a solution that works for me. In my case, my Nu Audio card creates a tremendous amount of noise through the speakers whenever the GPU is doing anything. So if the desktop is completely idle, there's no noise I can hear at all. If I browse, scrolling in particular can create noise. And if you start up anything in the background (a gpu benchmark, for example), the noise is very distracting and a terrible experience for something that I thought was a premium sound card. It is far, far worse than my onboard sound (granted on an old, but very premium motherboard), and unfortunately I am past the return period since EVGA only gives 14 days.
 
Any tips? So far I have tried:
- Messing around with all of the settings in the app (I usually have all the stuff turned off, like Surround, Noise Cancellation etc).
- Trying every single sample rate.
- Making sure the power connector for the card is on it's own cable.
- Changing PCIe slots.
 
I don't think it is PSU related, as load on the CPU for example (which can easily eat 250W, more than my EVGA 1070) does not create any noise.
 
Is there any way to, I don't know, shield the card?
 
Thanks!
Fed

Cpu bus noise is being amplified. Not something to expect from such a high end card. What board are you using and what slot is it installed?

Hey all,
 
Thanks a bunch for all your advice. Sorry if I sound frustrated, I came here only once the hair-pulling started :) I think the fact that this doesn't go away in different slots and the fact that the onboard sound doesn't suffer from this really eliminates a lot of the options that were laid out, don't you agree?
 
After reading all your tips:
- I checked, the driver I have is the latest one from August. I reinstalled it anyway.
- I have no reason whatsoever to think the PSU is causing this. If you have thoughts as to how one would check this, I'm all ears. Voltages are solid, and the PSU is nowhere near its max.
- PCIe slots-wise, it is currently in the 1x slot I have but as I mentioned I tried the others too. Some slots on my mobo go to the CPU and are PCIe 3, but others are PCIe 2 and go to the chipset. The only one I haven't tried is the one that turns off the M2 slot if it's used.
 
My machine deets:
6950X (@4.6, 1.27V)
ASUS Rampage V Extreme
64GB of Patriot Viper RAM
EVGA 1070 Black
Samsung 970 EVO
Corsair HX1000i PSU
Everything is watercooled (custom loop)
 
I haven't registered this card so apparently I can't contact EVGA support. I kind of have to make a call as to whether I think that chance is worth it, because currently all things point to me having to resell this card to someone else and I don't want to use up the registration.
 
If we step back from solutions for a sec, what is the actual likely cause? Considering loading the CPU doesn't cause a problem, only the GPU, do we think it is coming from PCIe interference? Or, and I'm really grasping for straws/out of my depth here, does a GPU also create EM fields that can somehow be picked up by the card? If this is the problem, is there even any hypothetical solution? Or SOL?
 
One minor addition - I cranked up my speakers to levels I don't use, and there is a hissing/buzzing even at idle. I re-tested the GPU and CPU loading after doing so, and the GPU sounds start to get real interesting (there is a sort of intermittent louder pulsing within the noise), while the CPU load, weirdly, actually reduces the noise. Also, this may be self-evident to those of you who are more well-versed in this stuff, but if I mute the sound in windows, the noise does not change at all. As a layman in sound things, this tells me the noise is not being generated by the system or apps or whatever, but rather is electrical in nature.
 
And slightly off-topic: do USB sound cards still suffer from interference through the USB port, or are they much more immune to this kind of interference?

Have you checked the motherboard for new drivers? It really seems odd since mine work perfectly but drivers besides for the card itself could easily be the issue.

The back side isn't shielded.
 

 
I would expect that if you made a backplate or otherwise shielded the back, things would improve.  It's hard to know for sure.
 
If you don't have the line-in and mic-in muted, mute those (if possible).  The mic-in especially is a concern with such long exposed traces on the back of the card.
 
An easy-ish way to shield the back would be to plasti-dip the whole back of the card ... really, really well so you don't accidentally short anything by the next step ... apply a layer of aluminum foil tape over the whole back on top of the dried plasti-dip, and make sure that you curve the foil tape over the back edge onto the surface of the rear IO plate so that the top surface of the aluminum foil tape grounds to the rear of your computer case when you install the card into your computer.  You should be able to peel the plasti-dip back off in the future, so it shouldn't cause the warranty to be void, as long as it doesn't also peel the stickers off.  Maybe cover the stickers in weak tape first, so the plasti-dip peels the weak tape off instead of the stickers.
 
The new model has a backplate over the PCB.  And the new model doesn't have a front panel header.  Those two changes could have possibly been made partly because of interference complaints.  You aren't the only one who has reported interference with the old model.

Has anybody had an issue like this with an older sound card that was resolved by upgrading to an EVGA model with proper backplate and better shielding?

I have a xonar essence stx and it has a buzzing only through the mic and line in but not on the analog output. I got complaints about it and the only way to resolve it is to use onboard audio for mic and the xonar for output.

I'd like to upgrade but only if I can be confident that a higher quality card will solve the issue. Would like to hear a success story if it exists...