Generally, this process should consume no more than a few percent of your CPU, but processing the digital audio signals can sometimes go complex and cause higher CPU usage. With higher CPU consumption, the processing power of the CPU will not be enough to handle other applications making your PC slow. In this article, you will learn how to fix if the Audiodg.exe process has high CPU usage.
Probable Causes of the Issue
Fixes for Windows Audio Device Graph Isolation High CPU Usage
If the Audiodg.exe process has a high CPU usage, it can adversely affect the entire performance of your computer. There are a few minor fixes that you can use to troubleshoot the issue. Here, we have compiled a list of 7 fixes you can use to solve the high CPU usage of the audio device graph isolation process.
Perform a Virus Check
Most of the time, when the Windows Audio Device Graph Isolation process has a high CPU usage, it has been found that a virus has camouflaged itself as the legit Windows services and runs in the background. This process is not harmful on its own. If you are confused about if the process actually is consuming a high CPU or is the virus, you can perform a virus check and see the legitimacy of the process. Follow these steps to check if the process is a virus or the legit one: If you find out that the process is created by a virus, you need to remove it as soon as possible to be safe from potential threats. If you have an antivirus installed on your computer, run a full scan of your computer. It will help find and remove the virus from your computer. You can also run a built-in scanner on your Windows if you don’t have one. Here’s how:
Disable Cortana Service
Cortana is an AI-based virtual assistant service provided by Microsoft on Windows computers. Based on your voice commands, it can help you do a bunch of tasks like answering your questions, opening applications on your computers, and setting alarms. Since this is also an audio-based service, it can also be the reason for high CPU consumption. Many users even reported that Cortana ate up their CPU to 30%. The same might be the case for you, so you can try disabling it. You can not uninstall it since it’s an in-built service on Windows, but you can disable it.
Disable Audio Enhancements
Audio enhancements are audio packages like Bass Boost and loudness equalization installed on Windows which help the output audio from Windows sound better. Since it is responsible for increasing the quality of sound, it is obvious that it consumes more CPU for audio processing. If you have enabled any of them and started seeing that the audio process started consuming a lot of resources on your PC, you can try disabling them and checking back to see if the CPU consumption returns to normal. Follow these steps to disable audio enhancements on your Windows computer:
Change the Sample Rate and Bit Depth
Windows uses sample rate and bit depth to define the sound quality it produces. There are basically two types of audio quality you can choose on Windows 11, namely CD and DVD quality. Earlier versions of Windows can have other options as well. Using higher bit depth and sample rate on your PC requires larger processing that can consume a higher CPU. Consider setting them to a lower value and check if the audio process still consumes a lot of CPU. Here’s how:
Perform an Audio Driver Update
Audio drivers are a small piece of program that acts as communication agent between your operating system and audio devices like sound cards and speakers. If those drivers are outdated, it badly affects your computer’s audio performance. The Audiodg.exe process has to struggle to give the optimum performance, resulting in high CPU usage. Therefore, you must keep the audio drivers up to date for ideal performance. Here’s how to update audio drivers on your computer:
Use Audio Troubleshooting Tool
You can also try running the built-in audio troubleshooting tool on Windows to figure out the cause. It will find and show you if any audio-related errors are causing the high CPU usage. You can choose what action to take after looking into the issue on the troubleshooter. Follow these steps to run audio troubleshooter on your computer:
Check for Third-party Apps
Most of the users reported that the audio process was consuming high CPU when they were using video-calling applications like WhatsApp and Skype. If you are using any of those applications, they are resource-intensive apps and can cause CPU overuse. Consider uninstalling them and checking if it solves the problem of high CPU usage.
