GX is responsible with enabling EAX effects in some games, but its know to cause crashes and audio loops in games and other applications while this is enabled. Keep GX (Xear 3D in C-media Panel) disabled. Selecting more channels than the number of speakers you have connected won't enable you to hear more sounds or hear the footsteps and positioning of enemies better in games. For a 2.1 audio system, select Audio Channel: 2 and Analog Out to 2. For a 5.1 audio system select Audio Channel: 6 and Analog Out to 5.1. Select Audio Channel/System input (present only in Win Vista/7/8) and Analog Out/System Output settings based on the number of speakers that you have. Increasing Sample Rate without having a source thats encoded at a higher sample rate won't improve sound quality and in fact it might degrade it. Keep Sample Rate at 44.1 kHz, this is generally valid for most media (games, movies, music), while video DVDs use 48 kHz. What are best settings to achieve best audio quality, performance and functionality from my (Xonar) card? (updated )