I have a 460 and no sound crackling here, but there are a couple of differences; I don't have a separate sound card as you do, I utilize my onboard Realtek (works flawlessly) and as soon as the NGX dropped, I wiped my comp clean (format HDD) and did a reinstall of Windows and went from there. Took a while, but well worth it since I've truly experienced no issues except for a panel freeze that never occurred again. So basically Vin might be on to something.

Wow, I just installed Windows 7 64-bit clean before purchase, so I sure don't want to go through it again. Also, the performance boost isn't much. I don't know if it's that the GTX 460 isn't worlds better than the 7950 GT I began with, or (more likely) that FSX is so processor bound that beyond a certain point, the graphics card doesn't improve things much. So John Drago, I've never thought about this. How do I connect a set of computer speakers to the HDMI port you mention on the GTX 460? How do I direct the sound from FSX to said port? Joe Legander

Hi Joe, I probably should have mentioned that I have an HDMI port in my monitor (Samsung 46" HD TV), and that it has sound built-in. The sound quality is so good from the monitor, that I opted not to use external speakers. If you don't have that option, then perhaps using your motherboard's built in sound, or the Soundblaster card may be the only way. Sorry for any confusion. John

Thanks. I'm using some older, Analog input LCD's, so I doubt I've got such a port, and certainly no built-in speakers. But perhaps a monitor upgrade is in order, particularly since they aren't supporting 4/3 with this one at present in 2D. Thanks for the input. The key seems to be you can't use a separate sound card with this video card, at least with this MB combo, without running into problems. Thanks! Joe Legander

Joe, Im running out of ideas to give you ... have you tried using headphones to see if it crackles through there also ? This would rule out the speakers being the problem. Does the crackling happen with other FSX aircraft or other non FSX software? What you play tests sounds in windows sound card options does it play back correctly? My experience of swapping GFX or Sound Cards on an OS has always brought mixed results - somehow I think that this is what is happening on your setup and I am inclined to recommend a OS reinstall.

I actually just reinstalled the old sound and video cards, and everything is fixed. Basically, diagnostics demonstrate that the GTX 460 generates DPC latency all over the bus, which causes the audio to fall out, at least in FSX. I'm back to no great thrills in the frame rate realm, but fine sound. The difference was only 5-10 FPS anyway, since the app is so processor-bound, so not a huge loss. But thanks for all your efforts. I'm good to go, at least until I get a new motherboard or something, and try again. Joe LeganderOne note though: at least for me, 737NGX performance is significantly worse than that of MD-11, and also worse than J-41. I had expected it to be the same or better than MD-11, so that's a disappointment. And oddly, no amount of reducing scenery really does much. The difference between every slide to the right and every slider to the left is maybe 10 FPS. It's as if something in the app is actually creating limits. Don't know. It's playable, depending on the airports I pick, and how much jerkiness I can tolerate, but MD-11 and J-41 are superior by about 10 FPS. Joe Legander