If you spend some time in Task Manager, you may have noticed something called “Windows Audio Device Graph Isolation”, with high CPU usage, 

Here’s what it does and what you can do if “Windows Audio Device Graph Isolation” is using your computer and CPU resource more than it should.

What Is the “Windows Audio Device Graph Isolation” Process?

at first, it doesn’t give you much clue about what “Windows Audio Device Graph Isolation” is and what it does on your computer. other than knowing that it’s somehow related to audio.

just like other programs “Windows Audio Device Graph Isolation” is also an import part of the windows operating system.

It serves as the audio engine in your operating system so that third-party apps can run sound on your computer. 

in computers, call this digital signal processing.

Why Does Windows Audio Device Graph Isolation Process

Sometimes show high CPU usage?

if Windows Audio Device Graph Isolation is showing you high CPU usage in task manager then it’s not normal. and it needs an immediate fix.

There can be various reasons why it’s showing you high CPU usage.

so, here is the list of all the things that you need to check and fix it.

• Fix Audio Drivers
• Disable Sound effects
• Check for malware

How to Fix Audio Drivers in Windows 10?

Under normal conditions, you should see “Windows Audio Device Graph Isolation” using below 2% of your CPU, minimal memory, and no disk activity at all.

but if you see a change in any of the above then, check whether you have the right audio drivers installed or not and also check if they are updated or not.

because If your audio drivers are corrupt or out of date, they can cause Audio Device Graph Isolation to High CPU usages.

How to check if your audio drivers are corrupt or out of date manually?

To check whether your audio drivers are corrupt or not, go to the device manager and then expand the Sound section.

here is a step by step method to find any corrupted audio drivers.

1. Press “Windows start button+ x”
2. Click the “Device Manager”
3. then expand the sound Section.
4. and check whether any of them have any yellow triangle sign.

if they show this sign then you need to update your audio drivers.

how to update your damaged audio drivers manually?

1. right-click on the damaged driver
2. click update drivers 
3. click search automatically for updated driver software

it will automatically load you, updated driver.

else if you don’t see any warnings on your audio drivers then your drivers are perfectly fine.

other than this, you can also use third-party software to update your drivers.

How to Disable Sound effects in windows 10?

most Windows users have seen that optimizing your sound settings can help with your high CPU usage issue.

so try that also.

To do that, use the following instructions:

1. Right-click on the speaker icon on your Taskbar.
2. Select “Open sound settings“
3. Click “sound control panel“
4. go to the “sounds” tab.
5. select sound scheme windows default to “no sound“
6. click apply and click ok.

Hopefully, your CPU usage is at a reasonable level now.

Check for malware

the third thing you can do to reduce high CPU usages from windows audio graph isolation is to check for any malware.

now if you’re wondering, could “Windows Audio Device Graph Isolation” be virus then a straightforward way to check that is this-

1. go to task manager
2. find Windows Audio Device Graph Isolation
3. right-click on it
4. select open file location 
5. and check it’s location

if it’s location is C:\Windows\System32 then it’s not a virus.

also, there could be any malware who is trying to do damage in any way possible.

so check for that.

go to the windows defender and scan the whole computer.

also, you can use paid virus scanner applications like Malwarebytes which is highly recommended.

Can I Disable Windows Audio Device Graph Isolation?

No, that’s a bad idea. There is no benefit in doing that, it will close all audio service from your windows computer.

Related to: What is service host superfetch? and why you shouldn’t disable superfetch?