[SOLVED] Soundblaster Sound Card Cuts Out During Gaming

[The_Ginja_Ninja]

I have found that my soundcard cuts in and out (sound for a second, off for a second) when gaming - I have a suspicion it may be due to heat from GPU? I couldn't swear it's every time, but I think it's when the GPU hits around 70+ degrees.

My GPU is installed in the first (top) PCIe slot, and the soundcard in the bottom one, with the sound cards 'daughter card' above it. The daughter card does not require a PCIe slot. The sound card is connected to an external 5.1 amplifier using an optical cable.

When I experience this issue, my USB headset (HyperX Cloud II, with it's own external sound card) works fine.

Windows and all drivers are up to date, however, I do have an extra registry key for the sound card, as suggested by Creative support for a separate issue.

Specs:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X,
MoBo: MSI Mag X570 Tomahawk
Memory: 32GB RAM 3600MHz CL18 Vengeance LPX
GPU: Zotac Amp Holo RTX 3080
PSU: Antec Earthwatts 750W Gold Pro
Cooling: Cougar Aqua 240 AIO, 7 x 120mm Fans
Storage: Sabrent Rocket Q4 1TB NVMe, WD Blue 250GB NVMe, 2 x TCSunbow 1TB SSD, Seagate Firecuda 1TB SSHD, Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB
Sound: Soundblaster ZxR Pro
Case: Corsair Airflow 275R

Any suggestions on how to resolve or pinpoint the exact issue would be gratefully received!

 

[kerberos_20]

do you have enabled encoder in soundblaster settings?

 

[The_Ginja_Ninja]

do you have enabled encoder in soundblaster settings?

Yes - 'Dolby Digital Live'

 

[kerberos_20]

thats whats causing those 1second dropouts, its not working properly since windows 10 came out no matter driver version and no matter any DPC tweaks...
it works fine when u use analog, for digital u will need to go without encoder or switch to windows 7/8 to get rid of sound drop outs, or use HDMI instead

or u can use unofficial driver which should fix that aswell
https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/soundblaster-z-crackling-sound.247336/page-6

official "fix" would be increasing buffer size
View: https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/bghenf/permanent_fix_for_soundblaster_cards_where_audio/

but on your CPU u might want higher buffer...dword:ffffffff on all

 

[The_Ginja_Ninja]

thats whats causing those 1second dropouts, its not working properly since windows 10 came out no matter driver version and no matter any DPC tweaks...
it works fine when u use analog, for digital u will need to go without encoder or switch to windows 7/8 to get rid of sound drop outs

Thanks kerberos_20. Why would this issue only occur during intense gaming and not, for example, prolonged listening to music?

 

[kerberos_20]

Thanks kerberos_20. Why would this issue only occur during intense gaming and not, for example, prolonged listening to music?

mine did that during youtube..no idea