XPS 410, GT 1030, problems

Problems: Constant audio crackling, or popping, and sometimes buzzing or stuttering, and sometimes dramatically reduced framerate make watching videos unbearable. The problems seem to depend on video resolution, bitrate, and compression: While all videos are affected, 1080p; 10-bit; and HEVC videos tend to be significantly worse. In contrast, unlike the GT 1030, the Radeon HD 6450 works as expected, with some occasional frame drops, but usually not enough to ruin the viewing experience.

Troubleshooting steps taken:

- I tested several operating systems: Windows 10 64-bit, Windows 10 32-bit, Windows 8.1 64-bit, and Linux Mint 19.1 Xfce 64-bit. The problems persisted across only all Windows operating systems.

- I tested several driver versions: 419.67, 419.35, 397.93, 391.35, and 384.76. The problems persisted across all driver versions.

- I tested other GT 1030s from different manufacturers. The problems persisted across all video cards.

- I tested a GT 1030 with DDR4 VRAM in a different PCIe lane. The problems persisted.

- I tested a DVI connection to a monitor and an HDMI connection to a Smart TV. The problems persisted across both devices.

- I tested different video formats: mkv and mp4. The problems persisted across both video formats.

- I tested different video resolutions: 720p and 1080p. The problems persisted across both video resolutions.

- I tested different video players: PotPlayer and MPC-BE. The problems persisted across both video players. Initially, MPC-BE worked as expected, but it later developed similar problems to PotPlayer.

- I tested a brand new power supply. The problems persisted.

I emphasize that these problems did NOT occur on a live copy of Linux Mint 19.1 Xfce 64-bit, which I booted from an old 4GB USB 2.0 stick, and, therefore, seem to be limited to only Windows operating systems. Also, while the audio crackling, or popping, extends to games, framerate is as expected.