Having a weird problem since ages and i never thought to post about it.
I'm using a external sound card, a pretty common one the Scarlett 2i4.
I'm using mostly ASIO protocol.
Using an 1000W power supply.
The issue append both with a power only by usb setup or with an extra powered usb hub.
Under heavy load with Octane sound starts crackling, like undersampled.
Having a lot of non working CPU power or memory left.
Having no issue with other GPU intense app, no problem with RNDR job.
This DAC is stable like hell in any other ways i used it.
Problem append at the beginning of a job after 1 or 2 minutes.
If i unplug/plug my soundcard during render everything will be back to normal during rendering until a new frame starts and the crackling sound will be back.
I have the same issue with differents workstations the same external audiocard and one other one (a really cheap m-audio one).
So i guess this is not hardware specific.
I never had any kind of problem with build in audio card on motherboard.
This is so weird, not a major big deal but i can't see a descent explanation to this....so it's bugging me hard .
Maybe you do have some kind of idea about this minor problem ?