Sound stuttering on guest OS

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
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ionico
Posts: 4
Joined: 30. Sep 2022, 14:05

Sound stuttering on guest OS

Post by ionico »

Hello dear community,
I'm sure this issue has been discussed many times. But I tried all the advice I found on the internet. But nothing helped me. That's why I'm asking here.
Host OS: Windows 11, Guest OS: Windows 11.
Host hardware: CPU Ryzen 5 5600X, RAM 16GB.
Dedicated resources for the guest OS: 6 CPU cores, 8GB RAM.

Audio settings
Host audio driver: Windows DirectSound
Audio Controller: Intel HD Audio

Issue:
Sound stuttering on guest OS. Low audio quality.

I tried to change Audio Controller to ICH AC97 and SoundBlaster 16. But it did not help. Also I tried enabling surround sound in the guest OS.

Please help solve the issue
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Sound stuttering on guest OS

Post by mpack »

Put the audio back to Intel HD then provide a VM log file. Make sure the VM is fully shut down, then right click it in the manager UI. Select "Show Log" and save "VBox.log" (no other file) to a zip file. Attach the zip here.
Martin
Volunteer
Posts: 2560
Joined: 30. May 2007, 18:05
Primary OS: Fedora other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: XP, Win7, Win10, Linux, OS/2

Re: Sound stuttering on guest OS

Post by Martin »

The Ryzen 5 5600X is a 6 core CPU.
You don't leave a core free for the host OS to handle the running of the VM, so the host needs to pause the guest evey few time slices.
Could you please try again with only 2 or 4 CPU cores assigned to the guest?
ionico
Posts: 4
Joined: 30. Sep 2022, 14:05

Re: Sound stuttering on guest OS

Post by ionico »

mpack wrote:Put the audio back to Intel HD then provide a VM log file. Make sure the VM is fully shut down, then right click it in the manager UI. Select "Show Log" and save "VBox.log" (no other file) to a zip file. Attach the zip here.
Please check attached log saved from VBox.log tab
Windows 11-2022-09-30-22-19-36.zip
(35.69 KiB) Downloaded 25 times
mpack wrote:Put the audio back to Intel HD then provide a VM log file. Make sure the VM is fully shut down, then right click it in the manager UI. Select "Show Log" and save "VBox.log" (no other file) to a zip file. Attach the zip here.
I tried with 3 CPU cores only... no result
Here recorded audio sample
dropbox. com/s/0tikjeps5k4ot86/audio%20sample.mp3?dl=0[/code]
Music playing on a virtual machine, recorded from the host
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Sound stuttering on guest OS

Post by mpack »

Stuttering sound is usually a sign of an overloaded VM: i.e. allocating resources the host cannot afford. Note that VirtualBox is a program running on the HOST. CPU cores you allocate to the VM are for guest OS use - they do not help VirtualBox run faster.

So please reduce CPU cores to 2, as I don't trust AMD method of counting cores.

Enable 3D acceleration. This will relieve the VM of a lot of simulated graphics overhead: you should never be using full HD graphics without this.

If the guest OS gives you the option, then reduce the audio output to 16 bit stereo. Simulating 5.1 or 7.1 audio carries a much greater overhead.
ionico
Posts: 4
Joined: 30. Sep 2022, 14:05

Re: Sound stuttering on guest OS

Post by ionico »

mpack wrote:Stuttering sound is usually a sign of an overloaded VM: i.e. allocating resources the host cannot afford. Note that VirtualBox is a program running on the HOST. CPU cores you allocate to the VM are for guest OS use - they do not help VirtualBox run faster.

So please reduce CPU cores to 2, as I don't trust AMD method of counting cores.

Enable 3D acceleration. This will relieve the VM of a lot of simulated graphics overhead: you should never be using full HD graphics without this.

If the guest OS gives you the option, then reduce the audio output to 16 bit stereo. Simulating 5.1 or 7.1 audio carries a much greater overhead.
Thanks... I've dedicated 2 cores to the guest VM. And enable 3d acceleration. It seems to have gotten better. I'll check in a few days and let you know.
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