Sound Crackling X-Fi Sound cards fix 101 for DummiesThis may or may not resolve the Crackling issue that some have been getting when running high-end Aircraft or other stressful add-ons that use this card, it all just depends if you are as dumb as me or not!Read on...Funny thing, I was running some FSX benchmarks for various ram tight vs. loose timings in various scenarios with extreme settings on the system as well as in FSX with high quality settings and Lod Radius of 8.500000 etc etc

It was!

Increasing the bufferpools to a higher amount and decreasing the amount of trees has always fixed my crackling problem. For some reason buildings don't affect it at all. :(I'll give this a try next time I fly.

A couple of computers ago I used a X-Fi sound card. Never messed with the modes and used Gamer mode all the time. So I can't say anything about problems. I guess that the purpose of Gamer Mode is to reduce the sound driver footprint. Happy that you to discovered the purpose of the Gamer Mode.You'll find more info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster_X-FiMake sure that you have the latest drivers for your OS. If you have older drivers that might explain why you have problems.I now use on my onboard sound device and it works very well. No need to purchase sound cards these days if you don't have exceptional demands on functionality. Why do you use a X-Fi card with that mobo?

Thanks.Onboard sound is good these days for sure, but there are still the obvious benefits to using the Fatal1ty card in gaming as you hinted at, but primarily the on board sound just doesn't suit my needs for recording and playback of audio.I always switch modes, just got lost with my one track mind and forgot to do it while running some FSX benchmarks. Never had made that mistake before and never experienced the crackling that others complain about, so I thought I would post my er..."discovery"...Doh!Edit: BTW - I do not use any BP in the FSX.cfg

I always have my X-fi set to gamer mode... haven't had any sound crackling issues

Thanks for sharing, now am just gona leave sound in gamer mode no touching.Never moved my Xifi from gaming mode, but been thinking about it, however i have had sound crackling problems, but very very rare on my system.Two solutions i think work arebacking up on slidersand turning down sound quality in sound card control panel

I find music to sound better in gaming mode.... from what I've read it is the highest level of processing sound wise when set to game mode

I find music to sound better in gaming mode.... from what I've read it is the highest level of processing sound wise when set to game mode

Good point, Could be, but I kind of feel it is the reverse. But I dont know, will have to look into it better for sure. I think though that out of the the three, Audio creation Mode has the highest level of proccessing.

One thing to remember is that onboard audio almost always uses the CPU for digital audio processing. Personally, I prefer to use all the CPU cycles I can for game processing and not for audio chores. Also, if using Creative sound cards, make sure you use Alchemy, especially with older games and newer OS's.

What is Alchemy?

Creative Alchemy:http://www.soundblaster.com/technology/alchemy/welcome.aspxhttp://connect.creativelabs.com/alchemy/default.aspx

Is this something X-fi users NEED to run? Or just recommended? the only other games I play other than FSX are Battlefield2, Age of Empires II, occasionally Half Life 2 (and related steam games) and Warcraft III