Audio Crackles When V-Sync is Enabled on MacBook Pro M4

[malikouda]

Describe the bug
Frequent audio popping/crackle when V-Sync is enabled (happens every 3-4 seconds). There is no issue with the video, video is completely smooth.

Steps to reproduce
Turn on V-Sync (frame pacing on or off doesn't matter) and play audio.

Affected games
All games, mostly tested this playing music in Spotify

Other Moonlight clients
No, doesn't happen on other clients, only MacBook (also tested on Shield and Pixel 9 Pro)

Moonlight settings (please complete the following information)
Mostly default, 1440p @ 120fps @ 150mbps

Gamepad-related issues (please complete if problem is gamepad-related)
None

Client PC details (please complete the following information)

• OS: MacOS Tahoe 26.1
• Moonlight Version: 6.1.0
• GPU: Apple M4

Server PC details (please complete the following information)

• OS: Windows 11 Home 25H2 26200.7462

• Sunshine or GeForce Experience version: 591.59

• GPU: Nvidia 4090 FE

• GPU driver: 591.59

Additional context
Anything else you think may be relevant to the issue

[astroz]

I've observed this occasionally as well on the latest nightly build (Moonlight-macOS-d865c7, from here). This happens with GPU-intensive gameplay and playing Youtube videos in the browser. In my case, they're less frequent than 3-4 seconds - I'd estimate 2 to 4 hitches per minute.

Client:

• OS: MacOS Tahoe 26.1
• Moonlight version: Moonlight-macOS-d865c7
• GPU: Apple M2

Server PC:

• OS: Windows 11 Pro
• GPU: Nvidia 3080
• Host Software: Apollo 0.4.6
• GPU driver version: 572.17