Hey guys,

As most of you know - CrimeCraft uses the technology of the Unreal Engine 3 - a good engine at first but not appreciated by a lot of seasoned veteran games prior to the development of this engine since it's quite shakey with a lot of Nvidia cards - and it's just generally a demanding engine on video cards and incorrect drivers.

Below information is all dug up and provided to help people tweak their computer around this engine for maximum performance around CrimeCraft in more advanced areas - without having to upgrade your PC's components and/or switch to a recent ATI Radeon.

All information provided in this topic is written by experienced users and advanced tweakers. Do not mess with your PC if you are insecure or uncertain about certain effects; I will personally not be held responsible for any problems that might occur after doing something described in this thread - it is completely at own risk.

[SOURCE : http://www.tweakguides.com/NVFORCE_1.html]

[OTHER INFO : http://www.tweakguides.com/ATICAT_1.html                                                  http://www.tweakguides.com/Graphics_1.html ]

Table of contents 

1. Part 1: Essential Optimization *READ FIRST*
2. Part 2: Forceware Installation
3. Part 3: Tidying Up
4. Part 4: Windows Graphics CP
5. Part 5: Forceware CP
6. Part 6: nView Desktop Manager
7. Part 7: Advanced Tweaking
8. Part 8: Overclocking & Concl.

Nvidia Forceware Tweak Guide
[Part 1] Essential Optimization

This section contains some extremely important optimization information you should read through, understand and perform along with Forceware tweaking. Do not skip this section.

Windows and System Optimization

Optimization of Windows and your system is critical to the stable, smooth performance of your PC. The place to start is with the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion. It is the complete system optimization guide for Windows users. Designed for novice and advanced users alike, it is written in plain English to help you genuinely understand all aspects of Windows and your PC. The guide covers every major topic, from the correct installation of Windows and critical drivers and software, through to recommendations for every significant setting and feature, all the major performance and convenience tweaks and customizations, as well as detailed troubleshooting advice. There are also links to a range of reliable free applications which can enhance your system and give you viable alternatives to purchasing commercial software. There are separate versions available for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

If you've ever wondered what common graphics and display settings like FPS, VSync, Refresh Rate, Antialiasing and Anisotropic Filtering are, and how they really work, then check out my Gamer's Graphics & Display Settings Guide for all the details in an easy to understand format. The guide also gives you a rundown on exactly how a game goes from a being a set of files on your drive to a 3D image on your screen, including relevant performance tips.

Make sure to read the guides above. Even if it takes some time to go through them, you will not only learn how to thoroughly optimize and troubleshoot any current problems on your system, you will also gain a greater understanding of how your PC and Windows actually work which will really help you in the future. Most if not almost all problems which appear graphics-driver related are actually symptoms of general system instability and lack of optimization. Just because you see a graphics driver-related error message for example, doesn't mean the graphics driver is actually at fault - the error can be caused by a multitude of things such as overclocking, overheating, incorrect or sub-optimal BIOS or Windows settings, software conflicts, etc. Make absolutely certain to go through and optimize Windows before pointing the finger at your drivers or hardware.

Motherboard Drivers

It's very important that you install the latest Motherboard drivers for your system. Many problems such as stuttering or low performance are actually caused by a lack of correct motherboard drivers. These directly affect the level of graphics functionality that is possible on your system, as well as other functionality which indirectly affects graphics performance, since the motherboard is the heart of any system and all information is directed through it. See the Driver Installation/Windows Drivers chapter of the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion for full details and download links.

OpenGL and DirectX

DirectX and OpenGL are two major graphics APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) used to develop games and 3D graphics applications on Windows platforms. DirectX is a Microsoft proprietary API, while OpenGL is (as the name suggests) an open standard API. Direct3D (D3D) is a major component of DirectX, and the one most relevant to 3D graphics, hence people often refer to a game as being a Direct3D game. Most games also usually do not have the option of switching between OpenGL or Direct3D mode, and hence you cannot force them to run under another API. Even if they do have such an option, games are usually programmed for optimal performance under one and not the other.

Importantly, you should make sure you're running the latest version of DirectX for maximum compatibility with the latest games. The latest full version of DirectX can be downloaded from here. Windows XP uses DirectX 9.0c, while Windows Vista uses a combination of DirectX 10 and a different version of DirectX 9.0 called DirectX 9.0EX, and these are not compatible with Windows XP. Windows 7 uses DirectX 11 but provides backward support for DirectX 9 and 10. Note that DirectX can't be uninstalled as it is a critical system component, so once you've installed the latest official version, if you experience any DirectX-related errors then try doing a re-install of DirectX over your existing install just to be safe. It can't do any harm and it just may resolve the problem.

Power Supply Issues

An often-overlooked aspect of graphics performance and stability is the power supply. Modern graphics cards require a stable source of power, and your Power Supply Unit (PSU) has the main job of providing this to all the components in your system. If you're not using a good PSU, you will have problems running your games with any stability, and you may incorrectly blame Windows or your graphics drivers, or even your games for this. No amount of tweaking will resolve PSU-related problems. Use this Interactive PSU Calculator to see whether your existing PSU's wattage is sufficient. Importantly, keep in mind that stable voltage from the power supply is crucial important, so that needs to be monitored as well - see the BIOS & Hardware Management and Overclocking chapters of the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion once again for details and links to relevant tools. The best way to guarantee stable voltage from a PSU is to buy a better-known quality brand, and check the specifications and read reputable reviews of the product, rather than just relying on any generic PSUs which typically come installed in cases.

Graphics-Specific BIOS Settings

I can't go into all the possible BIOS Settings here, because that would take literally a guide in itself. More importantly, each BIOS is different in many subtle and not-so-subtle ways. I refer readers as always to the Definitive BIOS Optimization Guide. Scroll down that page to find the link to the free version of the guide. If you're serious about making sure your entire BIOS is optimized, and you want to know what all those weird and wonderful settings in your BIOS actually do, make sure you check the guide. Particularly relevant to the topic of this guide are the settings under the 'Graphics Subsystem' section of that guide. Below I provide some easy-to-understand information on the most important video-related BIOS settings and terms:

AGP Port: The Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) is a dedicated PCI slot for your graphics card. It's the place where mainly older graphics cards plug into the motherboard. This port provides the interface between your graphics card and the rest of your system. When people talk about AGP settings, they are essentially referring to settings which affect your graphics card and the speed with which it "talks" to the rest of the system. Note: some very old graphics cards are PCI graphics cards, and almost all recent graphics cards use PCI-Express (don't confuse the two), and hence don't use the AGP port or the AGP-related settings. PCI Express is covered further below.

AGP Speed (1x, 2x, 4x, 8x): This setting determines the data transfer rate (speed) of the AGP Bus - the pipeline along which video information flows. As logic suggests, the higher the speed setting, the higher the potential performance of your graphics card. However what is counter-intuitive is the actual performance difference between the various AGP modes. AGP 8x is not twice as fast as AGP 4x, which is not twice as fast as AGP 2x - and so on. The reason for this is that the higher modes provide more bandwidth - that is, the size of the pipeline effectively gets bigger. But if at AGP 4x the pipe is already bigger than the size of the information flowing through it, increasing the pipeline by going to AGP 8x will clearly not make a large difference to speed. Importantly, lowering the AGP speed (e.g. from 8x to 4x) can help improve stability for some systems (especially overclocked ones), and can also resolve some graphics problems. Generally I recommend setting this to the highest available speed in the BIOS, as long as your graphics card also supports that AGP speed. Note that to adjust the AGP Speed (AGP Rate) setting in the Forceware Control Panel, you will need to follow the instructions under the Advanced Tweaking section. For most systems the performance difference between AGP 4x and AGP 8x is at most around 5-10%.

AGP Aperture Size: This setting determines the allocation of physical RAM for use by an AGP graphics card, should it become necessary. A better description can be found in this AGP Aperture Size FAQ. To decide how big it should be keep in mind the following: (1) keep it above 32MB, as an Aperture Size below 32MB will disable AGP texturing - reducing your performance greatly in games; (2) the greater the amount of Video RAM on your graphics card, the smaller this setting should be; (3) Values between 64MB and 256MB show no real performance difference; and (4) Using larger values can result in more crashes such as General Protection Faults and potential texture corruption. So with all of these in mind, I recommend an Aperture Size of 128MB for most AGP graphics cards. If you have an older 32MB graphics card, set the Aperture to 256MB. If you experience a large number of crashes or texture glitches, try lowering the Aperture to 64MB regardless of your Video RAM amount.

Fast Writes: This setting, whether in the BIOS or in the Forceware Control Panel, is meant to speed up AGP read performance. In practice however it is known in almost all cases to have no noticeable performance impact, and indeed often causes many problems such as crashes and general system instability, especially on overclocked graphics cards. My personal testing has shown it to have literally 0% impact on performance on several different setups. Therefore if you are experiencing problems, I strongly recommend disabling Fast Writes in the BIOS (if available) and also disabling it under the AGP Settings section of the Forceware Control Panel for optimal stability with little or no performance loss. Note that for the AGP Settings screen to become available, you will need to follow the instructions under the Advanced Tweaking section.

Sidebanding: This setting controls a method whereby additional new video requests are sent along with the main video information, in effect working alongside the main data channel. This increases bandwidth, which can improve performance, although not by much. In practice Sidebanding can cause instability, particularly on overclocked graphics cards. Sidebanding is usually enabled on most Nvidia graphics cards, and shouldn't be causing any problems. To check whether Sidebanding is enabled on your system, check the AGP Settings section of the Forceware Control Panel (Under the AGP Settings tab - see the Advanced Tweaking section). To disable Sidebanding, if there is a Sidebanding option in your BIOS you can try disabling it there, and you can also use RivaTuner to check and disable/enable Sidebanding. Once again see the Advanced Tweaking section.

PCI-Express: AGP is an older interface between your graphics card and the motherboard. PCI Express (PCI-E) is the latest interface which has replaced AGP. For a detailed description of it and what it all means, read this Wikipedia article. In simple terms PCI-E graphics cards work faster and smarter than AGP graphics cards, but you will need both a motherboard with a PCI-E interface and a PCI-E graphics card to take advantage of these improvements. If you are considering upgrading your system, I strongly recommend getting a motherboard with PCI-E and a PCI-E graphics card to maximize performance and provide the potential for future upgradability.

Scalable Link Interface (SLI): In conjunction with PCI-Express, SLI is proprietary technology developed by Nvidia to take advantage of PCI-E's greater bandwidth potential. SLI-based motherboards allow the installation and use of two graphics cards on a single system with both cards outputting via an SLI connector to a single display device. In effect, an SLI-equpped system can produce up to twice the graphics performance of a similar system which is using only one graphics card. Read this Wikipedia Article for more details. For the most part however SLI does not automatically double framerates in most games, and while there is a performance boost in a range of games/3D applications it can vary from as little as 5% up to 50% on average. It depends on the game, the level of driver support, and the particular cards you're using in SLI mode as to the performance impact of SLI.

Take the time to research, understand and optimize your entire BIOS since incorrect settings in the BIOS will cause problems no matter how much you tweak the software

Last Edited on: Mar 26 2011 03:31 AM UTC (321 Days ago)

Nvidia Forceware Tweak Guide
[Part 2] Forceware Installation

The Nvidia Forceware drivers require some attention to detail when installing and setting up, as there are several things you can do along the way to make your entire system work much better with them. Follow the advice in this section to ensure smooth, trouble-free performance from your Nvidia graphics card.

Download the Latest Drivers

The official Nvidia Forceware driver package is suitable for all Nvidia graphics cards, regardless of their brand. You may have used specific drivers found on your graphics card manufacturer's website before, or those on the disc which comes with your graphics card, however these are always based on the generic Nvidia Forceware drivers anyway and almost always well out of date by the time you receive them. It is recommended that instead you use the latest Forceware drivers for all Nvidia-based graphics cards.

To download the latest official Forceware drivers, go to the Nvidia Driver Site, select your particular graphics card model, operating system and language, click the Search button. On the next page tick the box and click on the 'Download Now' button to download the latest Official version of the Forceware Drivers which come in a single large unified driver package.

Note the following specific requirements for certain graphics cards/configurations:

For those running the very latest hardware and software/games, I strongly recommend using the latest official Beta drivers available on the Nvidia Advanced Driver Search page. They usually have specific optimizations and fixes for the latest hardware and software, which can make a significant difference in some cases, particularly for popular games. Although they may be Beta (pre-release), they are completely fine to use and rarely result in any significant problems.
If you have an Nvidia graphics card with specific capabilities or requirements like a TV tuner, DualTV, running under Linux and so forth, check the Other Downloads section at the bottom of the main Nvidia driver page.
If you want to download an earlier version of the Forceware drivers, or recently released official and unofficial beta Forceware drivers check the Nvidia Advanced Driver Search page or the Nvidia FTP Site.

In general I recommend using the latest available version of the Forceware drivers simply because they contain the largest number of specific fixes and optimizations, particularly for recent games. If you run a very recent Nvidia graphics card and/or a newly released game, you should use the latest available official beta driver as these are designed to provide better support for newer hardware and newer games. But in general there is no reason to go backwards to older drivers unless you're experiencing serious issues with the latest Forceware. Even if you gain a couple of extra FPS from an older driver, it is likely to cause odd problems in newer games and applications. Remember, if you are experiencing problems with the latest drivers it is almost always due to either not cleanly installing the most recent driver (i.e. there is driver 'residue' from other versions of graphics drivers on your system), or typically some other system-related issue - see the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion.

Profiles

As of recent Forceware versions, you can now save and load various Profiles which hold all your main Forceware Control Panel settings. Open the Forceware Control Panel and under the Profiles menu select Save - you will see a new dialog box which allows you to choose which settings to save, and where to save the profile (.nvp) file. I recommend saving your profile(s) to your own personal directory so they won't accidentally be wiped when you remove the Forceware drivers and manually delete the Nvidia directory for example. Note that these profiles shouldn't be confused with per-game profiles which are covered under the Forceware Control Panel section.

Interestingly, the Profiles menu only appears when you select one of the components under the Display category of the Forceware Control Panel. If you are in the 3D Settings category for example, the Profiles menu disappears. This is despite the fact that saving a profile saves all selected settings, including 3D Settings for example.

Old Driver Removal

Now we move on to the simplest, and yet most commonly mishandled part of using graphics drivers - the removal of previous Nvidia graphics drivers. To do this successfully, you need to follow some simple steps which will help guarantee that your installation of the drivers is 'clean', and leads to trouble-free performance. I particularly recommend this procedure if you are experiencing graphical corruption, performance issues, or strange behavior. To completely remove your existing graphics drivers and all traces of them from your system do the following:

1. Uninstall any existing graphics drivers. To do this, go to Control Panel>Add or Remove Programs in XP or Control Panel>Programs and Features in Vista and 7. Select the 'Nvidia Drivers' (or similar) item if available and click the Change/Remove or Uninstall button and follow the prompts, rebooting as required. If you happen to have any other graphics drivers left over from previous hardware, such as ATI graphics drivers, uninstall them from here as well. If you have an Nvidia-based motherboard, when uninstalling the Nvidia drivers you will have to specifically select the 'Remove only the following' item, then only select the 'Nvidia Display Drivers' box. If you cannot find any Nvidia display-related entries (e.g. a fresh install of Windows), you are probably using the default Windows graphics drivers, which means you can skip to the New Driver Installation section further below.

Note that if available, you may wish to save your settings under a custom Profile (see further above) before you uninstall the Forceware drivers. Note further that there may also be 'Nvidia Display Control Panel', 'Nvidia PhysX', and even a 'Nvidia Stereoscopic 3D driver' components visible. You can uninstall any of these which are left after uninstalling the main 'Nvidia Drivers' component before installing another graphics driver to prevent any problems, but it is not absolutely necessary.

Prior to the next step, you may hear some people recommending that you reboot Windows into Safe Mode before continuing installation. You can do this if you wish - see the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion for details of how to enter Safe Mode, and what exactly it does. The reason Safe Mode can be used is because in Safe Mode, no third party drivers are loaded up into memory by Windows; only the default Windows drivers are used. However this is almost always unnecessary; you do not need to enter Safe Mode to install/uninstall drivers properly. Only if you're having major driver-related problems which nothing else resolves should you use the Safe Mode method, as it is not a required part of the standard driver installation routine. Certainly I've never used this method and I've also never had any notable driver issues for many years now.

2. When you reboot, you may find Windows detecting your graphics card as a new device and attempt to find appropriate drivers for your card. Cancel out of all such attempts. If you can't then don't worry about it - usually Windows will simply install its own built-in default drivers for your graphics card and this is fine.

3. This step is optional, however it is strongly recommended if you are either (a) downgrading your Forceware drivers to an older version, or (b) experiencing problems and want to ensure you have a complete 'clean' install of the Forceware drivers. Basically the aim is to find all the individual Nvidia graphics driver files and Registry entries and remove them manually. Note that if you have an Nvidia nForce motherboard, it is recommended that you undertake this step with great caution, as you may accidentally delete Nvidia driver files which relate to your motherboard and not the graphics card. The instructions differ based on your OS:

Automated Removal

For less advanced users, or for those who want to take less of a risk, you can remove older driver files and entries using the free and fully automated Driver Sweeper utility.

Manual Removal

If you are still experiencing problems after using the automated method, or you want to be certain you've removed all driver debris, use the manual method below, though it carries extra risks:

Windows XP: For nForce users, the only file you can safely delete is nv4_disp.dll which relates to the graphics driver - skip to step 4 below after that. For all non-nForce users, to manually delete the Forceware drivers go to your \Windows\System32 and \Windows\System32\Drivers directories, and find and delete all files beginning with 'NV...'. You may notice that some of these files keep recreating themselves - don't worry, these are just the default XP Nvidia drivers which are protected and can't be permanently deleted. Just delete all the Nvidia driver files and let Windows decide which default files the system should keep. Alternatively you can use the Windows Search function (Start>Search), with the search string NV*.* to make searching and deletion faster. Importantly however, do not delete the files under the \ServicePackFiles or \Lastgood directories, or under any game or application-specific directories. Just stick to files found under the two directories mentioned above.

Windows Vista & 7: See the 'Viewing, Updating or Uninstalling Drivers' section in the Windows Drivers chapter of the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion. It can be trickier to manually remove driver traces in Vista and 7, so you must read the instructions carefully to see how it's done. Generally speaking manual driver removal in Vista & 7 shouldn't be required unless you're experiencing problems.

Note: If you want to know the exact filenames of all the Nvidia graphics driver files in use on your system, prior to uninstalling the drivers open the Forceware Control Panel and click the 'System Information' link in the bottom left corner of the new Forceware CP. Under the Components tab of the box which opens you can see all the individual filenames and the functionality they relate to. Make a note of these and you can then search for and remove any that are left after you've uninstalled the drivers.

Finally, make sure you delete the main program folder(s) where you installed the Forceware drivers. The default install location is \Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation (and also \Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation on 64-bit systems) - go there and delete this folder and all of its contents.

4. This step is completely optional, but again it is recommended if you want to ensure a totally 'clean' install, especially if you are experiencing graphics-related problems. See the Windows Registry chapter of the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion for the relevant tools you can use to do this. If you're using the Windows Registry Editor to manually delete registry entries - which is recommended only for more advanced users - go to Start>Run or Start>Search Box, type RegEdit and press Enter. Then go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key, select the 'Software' subkey, and scroll down to the 'Nvidia Corporation' entry, and underneath you should find a 'Global' entry. Right-Click on this 'Global' key and select Delete to remove it. You can also delete the 'Installer' and 'NVControlPanel' keys. Do not remove any other items.

The steps above should remove all the main components and entries of old Nvidia graphics drivers and Control Panels which have been installed on your system. Of course the quickest method is to just uninstall the Nvidia Drivers item in Add/Remove Programs or Programs and Features under the Control Panel and reboot - but as I've said, if you have a history of graphical problems, if you've installed multiple versions of the Forceware drivers without a proper clean out, or if you are reverting to an older version of the Forceware drivers from a newer one, I strongly suggest you follow all four steps above at least once, and even consider the use of the Safe Mode method if all else fails.

New Driver Installation

Once you've uninstalled any old Nvidia graphics drivers, there is nothing tricky or difficult about installing the new Forceware drivers. The whole process is simple, but here it is in case you want to be 100% certain it's being done right:

1. Once you've downloaded the latest Official Forceware driver package, simply double-click on it to launch the Nvidia driver installation wizard.

2. When the driver package prompts you for a directory to install the Forceware drivers, it is important to note that this directory is just the place where the files will be temporarily unzipped for installation purposes. It is not where the final drivers will be installed. You can leave the default location shown, but I personally recommend you specify an empty folder of your own choosing. In any case make a note of the directory name, as after installation you can safely delete this directory and its contents - see the Tidying Up section on the next page.

3. Follow the remaining prompts and during the installation process reboot as often as you are prompted, since this is also an important step in making sure Windows has a chance to replace system files which are currently in use. As noted earlier, you do not need to enter Safe Mode in Windows to properly install/uninstall drivers.

If you want to install an unofficial Forceware driver set for which there is no single executable driver package or automated setup file, you will have to manually install the driver. To do this, go to the Windows Control Panel>System>Hardware>Device Manager in XP or Control Panel>Device Manager in Vista & 7 and under the 'Display Adapters' category, double-click on your particular graphics card. Go to the Driver tab and click the 'Update Driver' option, then select 'Install from a list or specific location' and click Next. Then select 'Don't search, I will choose the driver to install' and click Next. On the next screen click the 'Have Disk' button and Browse to the directory where the new Forceware driver files are located, and find the appropriate .INF file.

Once the above is done, your new Forceware drivers should be installed and your system should be fully functional. Test out a few of your games to see if there are any obvious issues or glitches. If available, you can also load up your Forceware Control Panel settings from any pre-saved Profiles you may have - see the Profiles section further above.

The next section continues with details of how to clean up your system and do some initial optimization after the Forceware installation.

Nvidia Forceware Tweak Guide
[Part 3] Tidying Up

Before we move on to tweaking the Forceware drivers, let's do some cleaning up and optimization of the system in preparation for more specific tweaking. These steps are important so try to do each and every one of them each time you install a new Forceware version.

Delete Installation Files

When the new Forceware drivers have installed, and you've rebooted your system, it is now perfectly safe for you to delete the temporary installation files which were created in the directory you specified during installation. These are simply the unzipped contents of the Nvidia driver installation package which were used to install the drivers elsewhere on your system - they are not the actual driver files being used by Windows and are no longer needed. Delete them all.

Remember to also either delete or backup the latest Forceware driver package which you downloaded earlier. You probably won't need to use it again given the frequency of new Nvidia Forceware drivers, but if you know you may need to do a reformat/reinstall of Windows soon, it may be worth saving them somewhere for future use. Try not to keep lots of older driver packages as these are readily available for download (see the links at the top of the previous page) and I generally recommend against installing older driver versions as they can be problematic in newer games and software.

Disable Unnecessary Services & Startup Items

When the Forceware drivers install on your system, they install new Services and startup items. Some of these can be removed or disabled, depending on your circumstances. If you're unfamiliar with how to disable a Service, or how to find and temporarily or permanently remove startup items, see the Services and Startup Programs chapters of the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion.

Nvidia Display Driver Service - This service generally doesn't appear to have an essential function. Most people can safely disable this service and not run into any difficulties whatsoever. In fact disabling this service can improve Windows startup and shutdown times and general performance. However, some people report that disabling this service may cause problems with SLI or Hybrid SLI, as well as with temperature monitoring on their graphics cards. I recommend disabling the service to begin with, then if you experience any strange behavior or reduced functionality, set it back to Automatic and restart it.

NVIDIA Stereoscopic 3D Driver Service - This service is only useful if you have specific hardware to use the Nvidia 3D Vision functionality. Since most users do not have this hardware, then this service is best set to Disabled as it is not required for normal 3D graphics functionality. The best option however is to remove this component altogether, which can be done by going to Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs in XP or Control Panel>Programs and Features in Vista & 7, selecting the 'Nvidia Stereoscopic 3D Drivers' item and uninstalling it. This will remove the Nvidia Stereoscopic 3D Driver Service as well as the relevant driver components, which again are not necessary for normal gaming, and are only used if you specifically have Stereoscopic 3D glasses and hardware.

nTune Service - This service is installed only if you install the older Nvidia nTune Utility which added several performance and stability monitoring functions to your Forceware Control Panel. Note that nTune is now out of date - it has been replaced by Nvidia Systems Tools, the latest version of which can download by clicking the 'Nvidia System Tools with ESA Support' link at the bottom of this page.

The Forceware drivers may also install up to three additional startup programs which load at Windows startup: NvCplDaemon, NvMediaCenter (sometimes called NvMcTray) and Nwiz. Depending on the functionality you use in the Forceware drivers you can remove some or all of these from your Windows startup, speeding up startup times and reducing background memory usage:

NvCplDaemon - Relates to the Nvidia System Tray icon and related functionality. If you don't use the System Tray icon to access the Forceware Control Panel settings - and it's certainly not necessary - then you can remove this item. Note however that if you're overclocking your graphics card using the Forceware Control Panel (See the Overclocking section) then you need to keep this item in your startup.
NvMediaCenter - Relates to certain Multimedia functionality in the Nvidia System Tray icon and once again it is recommended you disable this item as well. However if you find particular games don't function correctly with this disabled - which should be rare - re-enable it.
Nwiz - Relates to nView functionality in XP (See the nView Desktop Manager section), and unless you use nView you can safely disable it.
nTuneCmd - If you've installed nTune, this item is added to your startup. Once again it should not be removed if you use nTune, as it can cause issues with the Forceware Control Panel working properly. Even if it is removed, it seems to recreate itself as a startup item regardless, so it is best left untouched.

If you have any doubts, or experience any issues, reset all of the above back to their defaults. If you've permanently removed a startup item by accident, you can get it back simply by reinstalling the graphics driver. It is not critical that you disable or remove these items if you don't feel confident in doing so, but it can speed up startup time and prevent problems if done properly.

Remove Unused Devices

This is a slightly trickier procedure, but it won't be harmful if you follow the instructions below. If you've had several Forceware versions installed on your system in the past, or even an ATI graphics card installed previously on the same Windows install, not to mention any other previous items of hardware which you no longer use, then this tip lets you remove them completely from the Registry and help prevent problems.

To view unused devices in Device Manager, do the following:

1. Open a Command Prompt by going to Start>Run in XP, typing cmd and pressing Enter, or in Vista or 7 type cmd in the Start>Search Box, then right-click on the cmd.exe item and select 'Run as Administrator' to open an Administrator Command Prompt. Once the Command Prompt is open, type the following lines, pressing return after each:

Set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

Devmgmt.msc

2. In the Device Manager window that opens, go to the View menu and select 'Show Hidden Devices' - this is very important if you want to see the unused devices. Now expand each of your devices and look through all the sub-components listed. You will see that some of the devices are shown in a lighter grey color.

3. For the purposes of this guide, what we need to look for are entries under the Monitor and Display Adapter device categories. Under Monitor there should be at least one darker monitor entry for each monitor on your system. If there are any greyed out entries, you can remove them by right-clicking on the entry and selecting 'Uninstall'. Do this for all greyed out entries under the Monitor device.

4. Under the Display Adapter device, if you find two entries - a main one, and another one which has 'Secondary' next to it - these just indicate that your graphics card is capable of two separate outputs to two different display devices. You should keep both of these. Do not attempt to uninstall the dark entries under here. You can however uninstall all other greyed out entries under the Display Adapter device list, especially those which relate to previous graphics cards you had on this system.

5. If you're feeling game, you can go through some of your other device entries and delete greyed out devices which you know for certain are no longer connected to your machine, or are traces of a device which has been moved around a few times. For example, under Human Interface Devices you may find multiple greyed out entries for a mouse which you may have moved from one port to another. As long as there is a solid entry for the device when it is still connected to your system, you can uninstall the greyed out ones. However I do not recommend uninstalling devices which you are not sure about. Most importantly, do not uninstall any greyed out Microsoft (or other Codec) entries under the Sound, Video and Game Controller device, and be extremely careful about entries under the Non Plug and Play Drivers, and Network Adapters device list. If in doubt, do not uninstall a device.

If you do happen to uninstall a device which is still connected to your system, it's not the end of the world. Windows will usually re-detect it upon reboot and look for drivers to reinstall it. If not, then remove and reconnect the device, and/or reinstall its drivers.

Refresh Rate Fix

Windows XP has an issue in which the screen Refresh Rate resets to 60Hz (60 times per second) for every resolution by default whenever you install a new graphics driver. This isn't a problem for LCD monitors, but is far too low for CRT monitors. Most CRT monitors can easily exceed this refresh rate, especially at lower resolutions. Most people notice a flickering effect with a 60Hz refresh rate on CRT monitors, and it is indeed very unhealthy for your eyes to view for long periods. If you want to override this tendency for Windows XP to default to 60Hz, there are two simple ways you can do this:

1. Use Refresh Force. Download this small utility and run it, then click the 'Auto Populate' button and it will detect the correct maximum possible refresh rates for each supported resolution on your monitor. You can also view and manually change the refresh rate for any resolution (be careful to make sure your monitor supports the new refresh rate entered though), and even specify additional display resolutions. Click the Apply button and the fix is done. It won't run again at startup, or sit in the background, it just changes some registry settings. You will need to use this utility again every time you install a new driver, so keep it handy.

2. Use RivaTuner to alter your refresh rates and/or add, edit or remove particular resolutions and their associated refresh rates. Details are in the RivaTuner area of the Advanced Tweaking section.

If you want to know more about altering or creating custom resolutions and refresh rates, see the Forceware Control Panel section.

Defragment

This is a simple but very important step which should never be skipped. You should defragment your hard drive - but not an SSD - each time after installing/copying/deleting/patching any application, game, driver or large file. Any time files, particularly game files and system files (like drivers) are added to or deleted from your hard drive they can become 'fragmented' meaning portions of them may be spread over several physical areas of your drive. This fragmentation increases loading times and more importantly often results in greater stuttering, especially during games. Details of both the built-in defragmenting utility in Windows XP, Vista and 7, as well as third-party defragmenters, is in the Drive Optimization chapter of the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion. Defragmentation can make a substantial difference in reducing stuttering in games in particular, so it should not be overlooked, especially after a new driver installation.

The next section looks at all the settings in the generic Windows Graphics Control Panel.

 Nvidia Forceware Tweak Guide
[Part 4] Windows Graphics Control Panel

Once you've installed the Forceware drivers and performed a bit of initial optimization and tidying up, you come to the point at which you need to make some major and minor adjustments to your graphics card's operation using the generic Windows Graphics Control Panel. To access it, in Windows XP go to Start>Control Panel and double-click on Display to open the Display Properties box. In Windows Vista, go to Start>Control Panel>Personalization and select 'Display Settings'. In Windows 7 right-click on your desktop and select 'Screen Resolution'. Not all of options below will be available on all three operating systems.

Settings

Display: The name of your Nvidia graphics card and the display device(s) to which it is currently outputting will be shown.

Screen resolution: This setting determines your Windows Desktop resolution, and can be chosen to taste. It won't determine the resolution for games - you set those independently within each game. Choose a desktop resolution which is comfortable to view. Higher desktop resolutions require greater graphics power to render, though this doesn't have any real impact on performance in most cases. Note that the maximum resolution available is restricted by your monitor's maximum supported resolution. On LCD monitors I recommend selecting the maximum available resolution, which is usually also called the 'native resolution', for optimal clarity. See this page for more details on resolution.

Color quality: This setting determines how many possible colors can be used on your Windows Desktop. The higher the bits (e.g. 16-bit, 32-bit) the greater the number of possible colors and hence the richer the graphics will appear. You can set this to taste, however it is important to note that when playing games, it is often recommended that you match your desktop color quality with that chosen in the game to prevent any graphical anomalies or problems. Higher color quality requires greater graphics power to render in 3D games, but makes little difference to your desktop performance. Importantly, in Windows Vista and 7 you cannot run the Aero interface if you choose 16-bit. In fact there's no real reason to use 16-bit on a modern PC for any reason, as 32-bit will run fine on virtually any graphics card and should be the option you select here.

Identify Monitors: In Vista and 7 you can click this button to temporarily show a large number 1 or 2 on your relevant displays, thereby identifying which is the primary and which is the secondary display.

To access the rest of the settings, click the Advanced button or 'Advanced Settings' link. Each section of the Windows Graphics Control Panel is covered in more detail below, though as noted they're not available or identical across all versions of Windows.

General

DPI Setting: DPI is Dots Per Inch, and you can select a higher or lower DPI by choosing 'custom setting...'. The higher the DPI from the default (96), the larger everything will appear on your screen. Conversely the lower the DPI, the smaller everything will appear.

Compatibility: Whenever you change your screen resolution under the Settings tab, this option will determine whether you need to 'Restart the computer before applying the new display settings', or if the computer will 'Apply the new display settings without restarting' or whether it will 'Ask me before applying the new display settings'. I personally recommend the second option, 'Apply the new display settings without restarting' as it provides the fastest method, and should cause no problems with recent applications or games. If you get a blank screen or display corruption with this setting when changing resolutions, you have an older monitor which requires you choose one of the other options.

Adapter

This tab lists information about your graphics card (also known as a 'graphics adapter'). If the information is incorrect, you may need to reinstall your drivers using the 'clean install' method (See Old Nvidia Driver Removal section), and also ensure you have the latest motherboard drivers installed (See Motherboard Drivers section). If you want to check this information against another source, you can install GPU-Z, or check the System Information chapter of the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion for more utilities you can use.

Properties: Clicking the Properties button will show you the current graphics device and driver version you are using.

List All Modes: This button provides a list of all the resolutions and refresh rates your current graphics card and monitor combination supports. It is important to remember what the highest resolution and refresh rates are for your system, since if at any time you set a resolution and/or refresh rate higher than is supported, you will get an 'out of frequency' error on your monitor, and it will not display any image. Usually your monitor and graphics card will prevent you from being able to use higher resolutions/refresh rates than are supported.

Monitor

This section lists information about your current display output device. Clicking the Properties button shows the device along with its current drivers. You should try to update these drivers by doing a search on Google for your monitor manufacturer's website, or for your particular monitor's brand and model number. Having the latest monitor drivers means optimal image reproduction, so it's worth making sure you have the latest drivers.

Screen Refresh Rate: This box shows the current Refresh Rate used to display your Windows Desktop. The refresh rate is the number of times per second your graphics card and monitor redraw the image on your screen. This is typically expressed in terms of Hz, which is a measure of frequency. For example, 100Hz = 100 times per second. The higher the frequency, the more comfortable the image is for your eyes to view on CRT monitors, but has no significant impact on LCD monitors.

To adjust this value, first tick the 'Hide modes that this monitor cannot display' box, for the reasons explained under the Adapter section above. Then select the highest available frequency in the drop down box and click Apply to see the difference. Also refer to the Tidying Up section for more information about Refresh Rate fixes/overrides if the highest value here is 60Hz. Note that for LCD screens the refresh rate works differently, and even a 60Hz refresh rate for an LCD panel is perfectly fine for your eyesight as it works on a different basis - see the link above for more details.

Troubleshoot

Hardware Acceleration: This setting determines the level of advanced functionality support supplied by your graphics hardware. There are certain graphical functions which are sped up when run through your graphics card, and this slider determines just how many of those are actually accelerated by doing so. This slider should always be set to the far right (Full Acceleration) for maximum performance.

However, there may be instances where you are experiencing a great many graphics-related problems and for the purposes of troubleshooting, you may lower the slider one or more notches to the left. If doing so reduces the frequency of crashes and problems, then you will need to run through the various procedures in this guide for ensuring everything from your drivers to your hardware is optimally set up. If everything else fails, you may need to keep this slider one or more notches to the left of Full, however this is typically not recommended as it reduces your performance.

Enable Write Combining: Write Combining is a technique which merges multiple operations into a single read or write, increasing graphics performance. However just like Fast Writes (See the BIOS section), having it enabled may cause problems and exacerbate instabilities on various sytem configurations. For most people, I recommend ticking 'Enable Write Combining' as it increases performance and should not cause any problems. However if you continually experience crashes, particularly the 'infinite loop' error, you can try unticking this setting to see if things improve.

Color Management

This section lists the 'color profiles' your monitor uses to determine how to display colors correctly. Correct color display in this sense means showing colors on the screen precisely as they were intended to be displayed by the developers of the software. In Vista and 7 you can click the 'Color Management' button to open the Color Management component of the Control Panel, explained in more detail in the Control Panel chapter of the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion.

The correct color profile for your monitor is typically placed as an .ICM file in the \WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\color\ directory when you install your monitor drivers. Your monitor drivers are usually contained on the driver disc which came with your monitor, but can also be downloaded from the manufacturer's website. If you haven't installed these already, I strongly recommend you do so now, and if necessary, manually search for the correct .ICM file and place it in the directory mentioned above. Once placed in the directory above, click the Add button here, highlight the .ICM file and click Add again to add it to the list. Then select the relevant item in the list and click 'Set As Default', then click the Apply button to use it.

The next page provides coverage of the Nvidia Forceware Control Panel options.

 Nvidia Forceware Tweak Guide
[Part 5] Forceware Control Panel

Classic vs. New Control Panel

This section covers the settings in the 'New' Forceware Control Panel available by default under Windows XP, Vista and 7. In fact this is the only Control Panel available for users of recent Forceware drivers. The Classic Forceware Control Panel is a legacy interface only available under Windows XP, and only for old versions of the Nvidia drivers. To attempt to switch between the Classic and New Forceware Control Panels in XP, under Display Properties go to Settings>Advanced, click the tab with the name of your graphics card, and under the 'Control Panel User Interface' section, make your selection.

Since the Classic Control Panel has been removed from recent Nvidia drivers, it will not be covered in this guide. If you wish to try to enable it in newer drivers, use this Registry Tweak. Most of the settings in the Classic CP are much the same as those for the New CP described below, so you can simply refer to the relevant setting if you're still using the Classic CP.

Note: Additional components for the Forceware Control Panel are available if you install the Nvidia System Tools (formerly nTune) utility, the latest version of which is available for download by clicking the link of the same name at the bottom of this page. The System Tools will work on all motherboards, however you may not be able to use all of its features on non-Nvidia motherboards. If you don't install this utility, some of the Performance-related functions may be found under the 3D Settings section of the new CP instead of being under a separate category. However installation of these tools is not required - for most purposes you can use the free GPU-Z utility to monitor your graphics card for example, so Nvidia System Tools is not a necessary component.

Streamlining the Control Panel

The first thing to do after installing the new drivers is to customize the Control Panel interface to suit your needs. To start with though, a new 'Nvidia Control Panel' icon is added to your Windows Control Panel. If you want to remove this, go to your \WINDOWS\system32 directory and rename or delete the nvcpl.cpl file. This Control Panel icon reappears each and every time you install a new version of the Forceware drivers or the System Tools utility, and is generally useful so it doesn't need to be removed unless it really bothers you.

You can customize the actual items which appear in the Control Panel screen by going to the View menu and selecting 'Define Custom View'. Here under each category you can select whether to show only particular components of the Control Panel. Obviously to start with it is recommended you don't hide any options here so you can view and adjust all of them. To make sure you have access to all the settings in the new CP, make sure you select 'Advanced' view under the View menu or when clicking the 'Advanced Settings' button. Finally, if you want to remove the 'Nvidia Control Panel' context menu entry which appears when you right-click on your Windows Desktop, you can untick the 'Add Desktop Context Menu' item under the View menu in the CP.

Each of the relevant sections of the Control Panel are covered in more detail below.

Importantly: Some of the setting names and the order in which they're listed may differ slightly beween XP, Vista and 7 at any time, and also depending on the specific driver version and model of graphics card you're using. Furthermore some settings below may not exist in certain versions of the Forceware drivers, as they may be very new (e.g. experimental Beta features), or very old, or available only to specific models of graphics cards, and hence not visible in your Forceware Control Panel.

3D Vision

By default the latest Forceware drivers install a separate Nvidia Stereoscopic 3D Driver, which enables 3D functionality in games when combined with the right hardware. I do not have this hardware, so I cannot provide details for this functionality, however it should be fairly intuitive to set up if you follow the on-screen wizard.

Importantly however, if you can see this section in your Forceware Control Panel, it means the Stereoscopic 3D Driver and related Service are active and running. If you do not use this functionality, this is an unnecessary use of resources. I recommend reading the instructions under the 'Disable Unnecessary Services & Startup Items' section on page 4 of this guide to remove this component altogether.

3D Settings

There are two major sub-options here once you click this icon, each is covered below:

Adjust Image Settings With Preview

This option is only recommended for beginner users - advanced users should not use this method to adjust their driver settings. This option allows you to either 'Let the 3D Application Decide' - which is not recommended; 'Use the Advanced 3D Image Settings' - recommended for most users, see further below; or 'Use my preference emphasizing' - allows you to use a slider to adjust the overall image quality until you're happy with the quality of the preview image shown. Unfortunately, the problem is that the preview image performs well at any quality level, whereas in actual games your performance may be extremely poor. For example, if you set the slider to the far right (i.e to 'Quality' mode), it enables some significantly stressful options, namely 8x Anisotropic and 4x Antialiasing. Using these settings in many recent games on low to mid-end hardware will result in very poor performance. So once again, it is strongly recommended that you learn more about and manually adjust individual settings by using the 'Manage 3D Settings' option below.

Manage 3D Settings - Global Settings

This option is recommended for most users and will take you to a screen which lists all the 3D graphics options under the Global Settings tab. Make sure you are in Advanced View (check under the View menu). By default the settings changed under here apply to all games and 3D applications, hence the name 'Global Settings'. To use specific settings for individual games, see the 'Program Settings' options further below. Each setting is covered below:

Ambient Occlusion: This setting can be used to force Ambient Occlusion (AO), which will work in certain games. The available settings are Off, Performance and Quality. By enabling this option, the realism of lighting is enhanced in the way ambient light generates shadows - there is greater depth and richer shadowing in the scene. However this setting can also significantly reduce FPS in certain games, at times crippling frame rates. Therefore you can use the Performance option to enable a less realistic form of AO to improve performance, or select the Quality mode to enable full AO for optimal image quality at the cost of performance. It is generally recommended that this option be set to Off globally, and if you wish to experiment with it, only enable it in specific game profiles which support it. More details of Ambient Occlusion, include image quality comparisons, can be found here.

Anisotropic Filtering: Anisotropic Filtering helps make textures - the 2D images covering the surface of all 3D objects - appear clearer. In general, the higher the sample rate of Anisotropic Filtering used, the crisper and clearer the surface of objects will remain, especially as they fade into the distance. However the higher the level of Anisotropic Filtering applied, the lower your graphics performance. The precise performance and visual impact depends on your graphics hardware and the resolution of the game in question. To find out more about Anisotropic Filtering read the bottom of this page of the Gamer's Graphics & Display Settings Guide which also provides screenshot comparisons.

If you wish to individually select your level of Anisotropic Filtering in each particular game, select 'Application Controlled'. This is the recommended setting and will mean that the level of Anisotropic Filtering is determined by your game's in-game Anisotropic Filtering/Texture Filtering settings (if such settings exist in the game). If your game does not have AF settings, you can manually select a specific sample rate such as 2x, 4x, 8x or 16x to force across all games. It is preferable however that you use game profiles (see further below) to force such a setting for specific games. If you want to guarantee the fastest performance in all games you should set the option to Off to forcibly disable Anisotropic Filtering. Make sure that if you choose anything other than Application Controlled, that you disable any AF settings in your games as these can conflict with the setting you choose to force in the control panel.

Antialiasing - Gamma Correction: This setting only works on 7800 series graphics cards or newer, and if set to On improves color quality and further improves the reduction in jaggedness for a slight peformance hit. I recommend it be enabled unless you want the absolute fastest performance. See Antialiasing Setting further below to see what Antialiasing does.

Antialiasing - Mode: This setting determines how Antialiasing (as described in the setting further below) is applied. If 'Application Controlled' is selected, each game can use its own independent Antialiasing sample rate as set using the in-game settings - this is the recommended setting. If you want the absolute fastest performance, you can force Antialiasing Off for all games regardless of their in-game settings. If you have a GeForce 8 series or newer graphics card, you can select whether to 'Enhance the Application Setting', namely to first set a level of AA in a game using the in-game settings, then to select this option and set a higher level of Coverage Sample Antialiasing to add to that AA already used in the game. Finally, you can simply force a specific sample rate of Antialiasing (as specificed in the 'Antialiasing - Setting' option below), regardless of the game's in-game settings, by selecting 'Override any application setting'. I recommend selecting 'Application Controlled' here for most people, and then if you want to apply forced AA to a specific game which has no in-game AA settings, use a game profile (see further below) to do so.

Antialiasing - Setting: Antialiasing helps to smooth the appearance of aliasing (jagged lines) in games. In general, the higher the sample rate of Antialiasing used, the smoother jagged lines will appear, but the lower your performance. The precise performance and visual impact depends on your graphics hardware and the resolution of the game in question. To find out more about precisely what Antialiasing is read this page of the Gamer's Graphics & Display Settings Guide as it contains more details and has screenshot comparisons of Antialiasing. Here you can select the level of Antialiasing to force/apply to all games and 3D applications if the 'Enhance the application setting' or 'Override any application setting' options are chosen in the Antialiasing Modes setting above. The sample rates shown vary depending on your particular model of graphics card but can include 2x, 2xQ, 4x, 4xG, 4xS, 6xS, 8xS, 8xQ, 16, 16xQ. Antialiasing modes ending in 'Q' on GeForce 8 or above series cards provide better image quality at the cost of some performance vs. their standard counterparts. Antialiasing modes ending in 'S' provides greater sub-pixel coverage, meaning the quality of Antialiasing provided is better, however performance may be lower. Note that any 'S' mode Antialiasing setting only works in Direct3D games. Finally, any 'G' (Gaussian) Antialiasing mode provides better image quality than the equivalent standard Antialiasing sample rate, but at a lower performance level.

Antialiasing - Transparency: This setting helps improve the appearance of jaggedness of images which have transparent textures, such as grass, chain-link fences, etc. It can be set to Off, Multisampling and Supersampling. Image quality comparisons can be seen in this article. If you want improved image quality when using AA, selecting Multisampling provides an improvement with minimal performance hit, while Supersampling provides the most noticeable image quality improvement, but has a very significant performance hit. If you don't use AA in games, or just want the best performance, set this to Off. Otherwise set it to Multisampling for a slight performance hit but a nice improvement in AA quality.

CUDA - GPUs: Compute Unified Device Architecture, or CUDA, is a parallel computing architecture developed by Nvidia and designed to allow software to utilize the power of a GPU for general computing tasks, not just graphics. This makes the GPU more like a CPU. A GeForce 8 series cards or newer with at least 256MB of RAM is required to support CUDA. This option allows you to select which Nvidia GPU(s) on your system are allowed to be used as a CUDA processor for things like PhysX or AI processing where supported by the application or game. You should leave this setting at its default globally, however in specific game/program profiles this option allows you to select which GPU a CUDA-based application will run on. This can be useful for either troubleshooting purposes, or if you want to ensure that the load is spread more evenly across your Nvidia GPUs for example by forcing CUDA onto an underutilized GPU. Alternatively you might want to force CUDA support off - though this is not recommended - by unticking all available GPU(s).

Conformant Texture Clamp: Conformant Texture Clamping refers to a method the Forceware drivers use to determine the way texture boundaries appear, but only in OpenGL games. Initially set Conformant Texture Clamping to 'Use Hardware' for optimal visual quality and performance. Then if in a particular OpenGL game you notice laggy behavior or strange lines in textures for example you can set this option to 'Use OpenGL Specification' to see if things improve. If this is still not the case, then finally set this to Off. This control panel option has been removed from recent Forceware drivers.

Error Reporting: Can be set to On or Off. If set to Off, errors will be ignored. By turning off the checking of error reporting, particularly in OpenGL games, you will get increased performance, so this should be left at its default of Off. Only enable it for troubleshooting purposes. This control panel option has been removed from recent Forceware drivers.

Extension Limit: This option is usually set to Off by default. It indicates whether the driver extension string has been trimmed for compatibility with a particular application (On) or not (Off) for optimal performance and minimal problems. The main use for this setting is in the pre-defined Application Profiles included in the Forceware drivers, in that some games require this to be set to On to prevent problems. In general you shouldn't change this option unless specifically directed to do so. Off is the default and best setting in most cases.

Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames: If available, this option - previously known as 'Max Frames to Render Ahead' in old Forceware versions - controls the number of frames the CPU prepares in advanced of being rendered by the GPU. The default value is 3 - higher values tend to result in smoother but more laggy gameplay, while lower values can help reduce mouse and keyboard lag. However extremely low values such as 0 may hurt performance, so I recommend this option be kept at its default of 3 globally, and only adjusted downwards in specific game profiles. Remember, in most cases mouse lag is due to low framerates, so adjusting this option is not an automatic cure to lag issues, nor should it be the first thing you try. Finally, it only works in DirectX games, not OpenGL games.

Multi-display/Mixed-GPU Acceleration: The possible options for this setting are 'Single Display Peformance Mode', 'Compatibility Performance Mode', and 'Multiple Display Performance Mode'. This setting is not relevant to SLI multi-GPU rendering. If you have only one display, the Single Display Performance Mode option is set by default and should be used. If you are using the nView Clone mode or an nView Span mode, the nView Clone/Span Mode will be activated by default. If you are using multiple displays in nView Dualview mode and/or two or more Nvidia graphics cards you can set either the 'Compatibility Performance Mode' or 'Multiple Display Performance Mode'; the difference between the two is in OpenGL games - the 'performance' mode is faster but may result in more graphical glitches.

Power Management Mode: Available only for the GeForce 9 series and above, this feature makes use of these graphics cards' abilities to support different performance levels depending on how much power is required by a 3D application. The available options here are Adaptive and 'Prefer Maximum Performance'. Adaptive is the default, and when chosen the graphics card automatically steps down in clock speed in 3D applications if they are not drawing much GPU power. Adaptive is the recommended setting for all users because it ensures that the GPU steps down its clock speed and hence power usage when it is not required. In 3D gaming the Adaptive setting should not cause any problems, as the GPU will always run at full speed when required without interruption. Typically only very old games and very basic 3D applications may see the graphics card reduce its power, and even then this may be desirable. However if you are concerned that a game is not performing properly, particularly for troubleshooting purposes, then you can change this setting to 'Prefer Maximum Performance' to ensure that the card is always running at maximum clock speed. Remember that this setting only relates to 3D applications and games, not to the Windows desktop for example.

Texture Filtering - Anisotropic Sample Optimization: If your 'Texture Filtering - Quality' setting (see further below) is not set to High Quality, this option can be set to On or Off. If set to On, it uses an optimized texture sampling technique resulting in a slight drop in image quality in return for faster performance. If you want the highest quality graphics set this option to Off, otherwise set it On for best performance. This control panel option has been removed from recent Forceware drivers.

Texture Filtering - Negative LOD Bias: LOD is the Level of Detail, and in some games you can alter the LOD Bias using various settings to sharpen details on screen. In such cases, you should set this setting to Allow, however note that altering LOD Bias can introduce aliasing (jaggedness to lines and edges) and shimmering. Since Anisotropic Filtering can also improve the sharpness of images without adding to aliasing, I recommend that you change this setting to Clamp for games in which you use any level of Anisotropic Filtering to give you better overall image quality.

Texture Filtering - Quality: The available options are High Performance, Performance, Quality and High Quality. This setting determines among other things the level of Anisotropic and Trilinear texture filtering optimizations applied by the Forceware drivers. Generally speaking, the High Performance setting enables all optimizations, meaning slightly lower image quality but the highest level of performance. If you select Performance, some optimizations will be disabled, progressively more if you choose Quality. If you choose High Quality you are assured the highest image quality at the cost of some performance. Unless you have a high-end graphics card and/or want the best possible graphics, Performance mode should be a good balance without any major degradation in image quality.

Texture Filtering - Trilinear Optimization: If your 'Texture Filtering - Quality' setting (see above) is not set to High Quality, this option can be set to On or Off. Enabling Trilinear Optimization will result in better performance, but can reduce the quality of textures slightly. In general it is recommended that you enable Trilinear Optimization (set it to On), however if you want the highest quality graphics and/or you are experiencing texture glitches you should set this option to Off.

Threaded Optimization: Controls the use of multithreaded optimization for all 3D games on systems with multi-core/HyperThreaded CPUs. The available settings are Auto, On and Off. I would strongly recommend the default option of Auto, allowing the drivers to set this appropriately for various games based on your hardware. Only turn Off for troubleshooting purposes if you believe a particular (older) game is not compatible with multi-core CPUs, and only set to On if troubleshooting to see if it improves performance in a recent game.

Triple Buffering: This setting is covered in detail on this page of the Gamer's Graphics & Display Settings Guide. If set to On, this setting allows your overall performance to improve when Vertical Synchronization (VSync) is enabled in games. Therefore if you want to enable VSync - whether in the in-game settings or in the Nvidia Control Panel, it is recommended you enable Triple Buffering as well. However note that using Triple Buffering may cause problems for graphics cards with lower Video RAM, so disable this option if you’re experiencing problems such as mouse lag in games. Note further that this option only works for OpenGL games at the moment, so to force Triple Buffering in Direct3D games (which is the majority of recent games), see the Advanced Tweaking section.

SLI Performance Mode: If you are running two or more Nvidia graphics cards in SLI Mode, you can select a specific SLI rendering mode here. This option will not be covered in detail as I do not have access to an SLI setup to test or describe these options properly. If in doubt, select the default Recommended option.

Vertical Sync: Vertical Synchronization (also called Vertical Sync or VSync) is the synchronization of your monitor and graphics card's abilities to draw a certain number of frames per second (or FPS) on the screen. It is covered in detail on this page of the Gamer's Graphics & Display Settings Guide. If Vertical Sync is disabled, your FPS will improve, and it can now also exceed the refresh rate cap, however you may notice some screen "tearing" – portions of the screen being slightly out of alignment during fast motion. This causes no damage to your monitor, and in general it is recommended that Vertical sync be disabled in strenuous games to improve performance. Since almost every current game has the option to enable or disable VSync in the in-game settings, I recommend you select the 'Use the 3D application setting' option here, and manually set the VSync in each game. This prevents conflicts between games and the Forceware drivers. Note that if you enable VSync in any game, also enable Triple Buffering to improve overall performance when VSync is used.

Manage 3D Settings - Program Settings

While the changes under the Global Settings tab usually impact equally on all games and 3D applications you run in Windows, you can also set individual applications and games to use particular unique settings by clicking the 'Program Settings' tab. Here you can select the relevant application/game profile from the list shown and then change the specific graphic settings below it, and they will only apply to this particular game when it is launched.

To change an existing application-specific profile, first look through the list provided under the Program box. If the game you want to assign specific settings to is there, select it. If you've ticked the 'Show only programs found on this computer box' (if available), the list will be abbreviated to only the games detected on your system; if you untick the box the list will be as complete as possible. If a profile for a game or 3D application you wish to adjust doesn't exist on the full list, you can create one at any time by clicking the Add button, going to the game's main directory, finding the main game executable, then adding it to the list. Highlight the relevant program item in the list, and you can now examine its specific settings under the box further below. They are identical to the settings described further above in the Global Settings section. If you make any changes, make sure to click the Apply button and the changes will be saved for that particular game profile and used each time that game launches.

Set PhysX Configuration

This section allows you to configure the use of PhysX advanced physics processing. Nvidia has incorporated GPU-accelerated PhysX capabilities into all CUDA-ready GPUs - specifically that means all GeForce 8 and newer cards with 256MB or more of onboard memory; previously PhysX effects were only possible when using a standalone Ageia PhysX PPU. PhysX is only of benefit in games and software which support its use, such as those listed here. The use of PhysX allows more realistic physics-based effects in supported games, but depending on the specific models of your GPU and CPU, you may get higher or lower performance as a result.

Note that to successfully use GPU-based PhysX you should install the latest Forceware drivers (i.e. 177.83 Forceware or newer), and the latest PhysX drivers (i.e. 8.08.01 or newer) - the PhysX drivers are now incorporated into the Forceware package and install automatically as part of the graphics driver installation process, so you do not need to download and install them separately.

The PhysX options in the latest Forceware are as follows:

Auto-Select - This allows the Forceware driver to automatically determine whether to select your GPU or CPU for processing PhysX effects. This is the recommended setting, as in most cases the drivers should be able to determine based on your GPU models and CPU specifications which hardware to use for processing PhysX for optimal performance.

[GPU Name] - If selected, this option allows you to force PhysX processing onto a specific Nvidia GPU on your system. Use this if you want to experiment to see if shifting PhysX load to a particular GPU can improve your performance.

CPU - If selected, this option forces all PhysX processing to occur on your CPU, which is the default for systems which don't have an Nvidia GPU, and similar to turning GPU-based PhysX off. This may even help performance if you have a low-end GPU and a high-end CPU for example, or for particular games which are so strenuous on your GPU that offloading PhysX performance to the CPU can improve performance.

Depending on the option you select, the diagram displayed in this section will change to show which of your display(s) is utilizing what form of PhysX. In general I recommend choosing 'Auto-select' as this will allow the Forceware drivers to determine the best processing hardware on your system to use for any supported PhysX effects. Advanced users can then experiment on a game-by-game basis to see if forcing PhysX onto a specific graphics card or even shifting the load to the CPU improves their overall performance. Also keep in mind that the 'CUDA - GPUs' setting in the Forceware Control Panel (as covered on the previous page) determines whether PhysX is allowed to be used on a particular GPU on your system, as PhysX is a CUDA-reliant process.

To see if PhysX is correctly enabled and being used in a game, you can enable a PhysX Visual Indicator by selecting the setting of the same name under the '3D Settings' menu at the top of the Forceware Control Panel.

If you don't have a PhysX-capable game to test and utilize the capabilities of GPU-based PhysX, you can download one of the free GeForce Power Packs which contain a range of demos and games that further demonstrate GPU-based PhysX effects. You can also view a range of PhysX videos on the main PhysX Site if you just want to see the types of effects which PhysX is capable of. When PhysX is enabled in a game which supports it, you will see enhanced physics effects such as additional debris, more detailed explosions and smoke (particle effects), greater destruction of the environment, better physics animations on objects, better water effects, improved cloth and paper effects, and so forth. However it is important to note that although GPU-based PhysX makes these additional effects possible with improved performance in many cases, in some cases it may also result in reduced framerates. What is happening is that your GPU is carrying an extra workload in calculating these additional physics effects, and depending on the game, your GPU, and the rest of your system, the FPS impact can be noticeable.

The bottom line is that for a system with a single PhysX-capable GPU, in some cases you will see a noticeable FPS rise, in other cases you may see a noticeable FPS drop. It all depends on whether the additional PhysX effects are set to be always on in the game, or whether they can be enabled or disabled. Furthermore the degree to which your FPS increases or falls also depends on how powerful your GPU is compared to your CPU. If you have a high-end CPU and a low-end GPU for example, then shifting the PhysX load to the GPU may have a negative impact overall.

On systems with multiple PhysX-capable Nvidia GPUs the story will be different - particularly on a non-SLI setup where you can set your most powerful Nvidia GPU as the primary graphics card, and add a second weaker Nvidia GPU and set it to just process the PhysX effects. In such a scenario you should usually get the benefit of both optimal FPS and additional PhysX effects. So for example if you have an unused GeForce 8 PCI-E card, you can slot it into a spare PCI-E port and utilize it for faster GPU-based PhysX in Multi-GPU (not SLI) mode.

In any case by default since most games do not support PhysX, this setting has no impact on performance or image quality. Even in games which do support PhysX, the 'Auto-select' option should be optimal unless you are troubleshooting or experimenting.

Performance

As noted on the previous page, this section may be in a category of its own, not under the 3D Settings category, if you've installed the nTune or System Tools Utility. Furthermore you can also enable a hidden Overclocking setting in this section - see the Overclocking chapter for details. The performance options won't be covered in this guide in detail, as technically they are not part of the regular Forceware Control Panel. Indeed you can access all the features in this section such as temperature monitoring by using GPU-Z and other handy free utilities listed in the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion.

Display

This section has settings which affect the way the image is displayed on your screen.

Change Resolution

This section allows you to change the screen resolution, color quality and refresh rate. These are detailed in the Windows Control Panel section of this guide and have exactly the same functionality.

Adjust Desktop Color Settings

This screen allows you to customize the brightness, contrast, vibrance and color balance of images on screen. For the first section ('Choose how color is set'), I recommend selecting the first option, which is 'Other applications control color settings' - this allows any application to set it owns colors if it needs to, which is usually best. If at any time you wish to override them and manually force your own color settings, select the second option ('Use Nvidia Settings'). In any case adjust the various settings as covered below, as at the very least these impact on the normal Windows desktop:

Color Channel: This drop down box lets you specify whether you want the changes you make on this screen to only be applied to a specific color, or to all colors. There is no reason to change this from its default of 'All Channels'. If for some reason you want to alter a particular color channel, for example if you want to make reds on your desktop a little brighter, select the Red color channel from the box. Now move the Brightness slider slowly to the right. You will notice that all reds on the screen will become brighter. This is useful for compensating for the way some displays over-represent a particular color by default.

There are a range of sliders you can select under the Slider tab here, or if you are more advanced you can use a graph to change the color curve. The Sliders are recommended to all but the most advanced users. Note that there are several images you can use to judge the impact of your changes while calibrating your settings here - click the 1, 2 or 3 options under the image to the right to select a different calibration Preview Image.

Brightness: This slider determines the overall level of light or dark for the display. 50% is the neutral and default point. You should ideally adjust your monitor's Brightness setting first if you feel it is too dark, then use this slider for fine tuning as required.

Contrast: This slider determines the difference between light and dark. The higher the contrast the whiter whites will be and the darker blacks will be in relation to them. Some display types actually benefit from a slight reduction in contrast as this reduces glare and harshness, while others require a slight increase in contrast to reduce a muddy washed out greyness. Set to suit your taste.

Gamma: This slider determines the brightness of most images, but in a more subtle way than Brightness. It requires a bit more experimentation to reach an appropriate level which does not result in a washed out screen image, but also doesn't make the screen look too dark.

The settings below apply to all 2D and 3D graphics regardless of their own settings, so be aware that changing them will affect all your graphics:

Digital Vibrance: This slider can increase color richness in an image so that all images - including 2D, 3D, and video - appear brighter and crisper. The use of Digital Vibrance depends on your particular tastes and your particular display device(s). For most people I recommend only a slight increase if you want to use this slider, otherwise everything will appear neon bright and highly unnatural. There is no performance impact from using Digital Vibrance, so find a level which suits you and you can see the impact of any changes immediately on your Desktop and in your games, so experiment to find the right color level.

Hue: This setting controls the overall hue of colors, namely how saturated and the general tone of colors the image on screen appears to take. In general it shouldn't be altered - if you find your monitor's color is too warm, or too blue-tinged, or too pale, then consider changing the monitor's own 'Color Temperature' (or similar) setting instead.

Once done adjusting these, click the Apply button to save them.

Adjust Desktop Size and Position

If you have a digital flat panel - most commonly an LCD display - connected via a digital connection like DVI or HDMI, then this section allows you to determine how various resolutions appear on your screen. Basically since an LCD display consists of a fixed number of separate pixels, it has a 'native' resolution at which images display at their sharpest. This native resolution (e.g. 1920x1200) is the number of pixels in width x number of pixels high in the panel, and any time your software resolution is different to this native resolution (e.g. when a movie or game is using a different resolution) the LCD panel will do one of the following depending on your choice:

Use Nvidia Scaling - The scaling unit on your graphics card will rescale the image before it reaches your monitor. If you have a relatively normal middle-to-low end monitor, this option results in good image quality, but may result in a distorted image.
Use Nvidia Scaling with fixed-aspect Ratio - This option will maintain the original aspect ratio of the chosen resolution and display it with black bars to the sides/above/below the on-screen image as required. This is the recommended option for most users as it provides optimal image quality and correct aspect ratio without distortion.
Use my display's built-in scaling - If you have a high-end monitor, try this form of scaling to see if it improves things. Otherwise usually the scalers in monitors are not as good as those on high end graphics hardware and may result in less than optimal image quality as well as aspect ratio distortion.
Do not scale - The image isn't scaled at all, but instead your monitor will run at its maximum resolution and the image will typically display in the center of your monitor. This may result in a black border around the sides of the image.

Switching between these modes will not damage your monitor so try them all out and see which suits you best. The 'Nvidia Scaling with fixed-aspect-ration' option is recommended. In Windows XP remember to also use ClearType to help smooth out text in scaled images for best results. Under Vista enable ClearType under Control Panel>Personalization>'Window Color and Appearance'>'open classic properties for more color options'>Effects. Under Windows 7 go to Control Panel>Display and select the 'Adjust ClearType text' link in the left pane.

Rotate Display

This section allows you to rotate the onscreen image through a series of preset angles. If you want to rotate the onscreen image through a set angle of either 90 degrees right or left, or 180 degrees (upside down), use one of the relevant options at the bottom of this box. Alternatively you can use one of the small arrow icons to the left and right of the small screen representation, or the one inside it. Once you've chosen the angle of rotation you require, click the Apply button and the change will be immediately visible. Note that only games or 3D applications which support rotation will work in rotated modes. Also note that rotation requires additional video memory, and as such if you have one or more displays rotated, you may experience reduced performance.

View HDCP Status

HDCP is the High-Bandwidth Digital Content protection system designed to ensure that copyrighted content streamed over a digital connection cannot be altered or copied without permission. This section allows you to see if your graphics card, digital connection, OS and monitor all support HDCP. If you see the fact that your graphics card and display are HDCP capable, you will be able to view HDCP-protected content such as Blu-Ray movies. If they are not HDCP capable you may not be able to play back such content or may face certain restrictions. Check your hardware specifications and cabling to ensure they all comply with HDCP requirements. see the Digital Rights Management section of the Windows Media Player chapter of the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion for more details.

Set up multiple displays

If you have two or more display devices connected to system, this section allows you to configure how they are used.

Video

The settings under this section only apply to video and TV playback on your PC. They do not affect your Desktop or games. Therefore it's recommended that you play a video while adjusting these settings to see the impacts of any changes you make.

Adjust Video Color Settings

You can choose whether to adjust video playback settings using the settings in your default media player, or select the 'With the Nvidia Settings' option to allow access to a range of settings which can override the media player:

Color: The sliders under this tab include Brightness, Contrast, Hue, and Saturation. Most are already described above, but to add to these descriptions, the Hue slider determines the particular shade that colors take, while Saturation determines the richness of colors.

Gamma: You can adjust the overall gamma using the top slider, or if you select the second option, you will then have access to separate Red, Green and Blue sliders you can use to individually adjust colors to correct any color flaws or over/under saturation of a particular color on your screen, or certain video sources.

Advanced: Under this section, there is a Dynamic Range setting which can be accessed if 'With the Nvidia Settings' option is selected. You can switch between Limited and Full range, and the setting will affect the richness and detail in dark scenes. The 'Full (0-255)' setting should be optimal for seeing greater detail in blacks, but experiment to see how it looks on your display.

Adjust Video Image Settings

This section provides additional video playback image enhancement/adjustment options:

Edge Enhancement: Here you can set the level of 'Edge Enhancement', which is a form of image sharpening that can help make blurry videos seem sharper. It can however also increase ghosting, so it needs to be used in minimal amounts.

Noise Reduction: The 'Noise Reduction' slider can be used to remove film grain and other forms of 'visible noise' in the image, but can make the picture appear more blurry as a result.

When done, click the Apply button, and once again, these changes only apply to Video/DVD playback.

There will be other settings under this section depending on the device you've hooked up to your graphics card. They cannot all be covered here, most should be self explanatory.

 Nvidia Forceware Tweak Guide
[Part 6] NView Desktop Manager

nView Desktop Manager

The nView Desktop Manager is a utility of the Classic Forceware Control Panel which allows you to configure and use advanced features for both single and multi-display systems, although it is primarily aimed at multi-display systems. There are three main ways to access the nView Desktop Manager: Right-click on your Windows Desktop and select 'nView Properties'; go to the Desktop Management menu in the Classic Forceware Control Panel; or go to the Windows Control Panel and click the nView icon. At present full nView functionality is not available in Vista, so this section is for XP users.

Importantly, for nView to function you will need to have the NWiz.exe item in your Windows startup. If you've removed this item, you can still access nView features simply by opening nView as covered above, then on the main nView Desktop Manager screen selecting the 'Enable' button. If enabled, the various features of nView can and will use up system resources of various amounts, depending on the function(s) enabled, how many displays are involved, and what particular actions you undertake. cllearly if you have multiple displays and/or you like certain nView functionality, you should weigh up the convenience benefits against the resource usage of this utility and decide which suits you best.

Important note: Almost all nView functionality will come immediately into effect only after you tick/change the appropriate options and then click the Apply button. Make sure you click the Apply button after each and every change if you want to see the effects of an option straight away.

nView Desktop Manager Wizard

On the main nView screen there is an option to run the nView Desktop Manager Wizard. The wizard helps you quickly configure a range of nView settings by running through a sequence of options. To use start the wizard, click the 'Setup Wizard' button. I recommend manually going through and configuring all the nView settings instead. Note that if you open nView from the Windows Desktop or the Windows Control Panel, you will see a third section on the main nView screen - a button which labelled 'Properties' which brings up the Display Properties box.

If you have more than one display, you will find another button available called the 'Display Wizard'. The Display Wizard guides you through the process of setting up your multiple displays. Typically once you connect more than one display and it is detected by Windows, the Forceware drivers will automatically launch the Display Wizard, so you may have already gone through the wizard. However once again, it is recommended that you manually (re)configure all of the different settings in nView by going through each of the tabs/menus in the nView utility.

Important Note: Some options of nView may not be available to you, either due to lack of support by your particular Nvidia graphics card and/or because of the number of displays you are using. Bear this in mind if you see an option listed below which is not listed in your nView control panel.

Each of the nView sections are covered below:

Profiles

Profiles save your individual nView and Control Panel settings. The Default profile is the initial profile you can save changes to, however if there is more than one user on your computer, or you want to set up different settings for different situations, use the New button to create a new profile(s) and use them to save your changes as relevant. To load up the settings from a pre-saved profile, highlight the profile under the 'Current Profile' list and click the Load button. I recommend the 'Prompt to save changes before loading new profile' option is ticked so you don't lose all your changes accidentally if you switch profiles.

The profiles feature also has another very important role - it can save all your settings prior to upgrading your Nvidia Forceware drivers. These settings are typically saved using your profile's name under the \Windows\nview directory, and may also be saved in the \Documents and Settings\All Users\ Application Data\nView_Profiles directory as well. By saving your settings to a profile, you can uninstall your existing drivers and install new Forceware drivers without losing these important settings. However by the same token, if you're experiencing problems and want a complete 'clean' installation of the Forceware drivers as covered earlier in this guide, you will need to delete the two directories above and all of their contents.

Windows

Prevent Windows from Opening Off-Screen: Ticking this option prevents any windows from opening off the visible portion of the screen, and thereby being inaccessible or hard to access.

Limit taskbar to a single display: Only available on multi-display systems when using nView Horizontal or Vertical Span mode. If ticked, this option restricts the Windows Taskbar (the bar on which the Start button sits) to being displayed on only one of your displays, not stretched across them.

Enable window spanning across multiple displays: If ticked, this option allows individual windows to cross over (span) multiple displays. If unticked, each window will remain restricted to its own display.

Enable child window spanning across multiple displays: If the 'Enable window spanning across multiple displays' option is ticked, this option becomes available. If ticked, this option allows child windows - windows which are created as the result of actions in other windows - to also span multiple displays.

Open windows on: This option lets you select where a new window (for a launched application for example) will open each time. The available options here are 'Default display', 'Start button display', 'Next display', 'Last Display', 'Display number'. Both the 'Default display' and 'Start button display' options refer to the display which shows your Start button and taskbar. The 'Next display' option opens the window in the next available display, while the 'Last display' option opens the window in the same window as it opened the last time it was launched. You can specify a particular display by selecting the 'Display number', e.g. 'Display 1'. To work out the display numbers, see the 'Identify Displays' option below.

Snap window edges by: If you want your windows to 'snap' to the edges of another window, or any visible borders on the Desktop, you can select a pixel value in this box. Then whenever you move a window to within the pixel range specified of another window or desktop border, it will 'snap' to that edge, lining up with it perfectly. The higher the pixel value, the further away a window can be from an edge before snapping to it when released. Select 'No window snapping' if you don't like this behavior.

Reposition dialog boxes on: This option allows you to choose where dialog boxes (e.g. boxes which contain 'OK' and 'Cancel' buttons) appear. The options are 'No respositioning' which results in dialog boxes opening wherever the system determines appropriate. The 'Move to application display' option forces dialog boxes to open in the same display as the application from which they are generated. The 'Move to cursor display' option opens the dialog box in the same display as your mouse cursor is currently located. The 'Move to Display number' option forces the dialog box to open in the display number chosen, e.g. 'Move to Display 1'.

Center dialog box on display: If you choose any option other than 'No repositioning' in the 'Reposition dialog boxes on' option, this option will become available. If ticked, this will force all dialog boxes to be displayed in the absolute middle of the relevant display.

Identify Displays: When this button is pressed a large number will appear on each connected display, showing the display number assigned to it by the Forceware drivers.

Applications

You can configure different nView settings for different applications and/or different classes (types) of windows. For example, if you want Internet Explorer to have nView specific settings which are different to those of Windows Explorer or other application windows, you can add Internet Explorer to the list of applications displayed in the main box, then edit its individual settings.

Add: To add an application or window class, click this button. In the new dialog box which opens, you can select a specific application either by entering its name, clicking the Find button and dragging the target over the open application (not its icon), or by using the Browse button to find the location of the application's main executable file. Alternatively, you can click the Find button and drag the target cursor over the window class which you want to assign individual settings. Note that window classes are categories of windows, such as explorer windows, dialog boxes, even Buttons themselves. Once your application or window class has been chosen, click OK.

Remove: If you want to remove an application from the list, highlight it and click the Remove button. This will delete all the individual settings for that particular application or window class from nView, but will not delete the application or window class itself from Windows.

Disable: If you want to temporarily disable the individual settings for a particular application or window class, highlight it and click the Disable button. On the dialog box which opens, select which effect(s) to disable. A large red cross will appear next to the application, indicating it has disabled nView functionality. If you want to reenable any such functionality, simply follow the steps above but this time retick the disabled functions and click OK. The red cross will disappear.

Individual Settings: When an application or window class is highlighted in the Applications box, click the 'Individual Settings' button and a new dialog box will appear, allowing you to select or edit particular nView settings for this application/window class. Click on the box at the very top (next to 'NOTE:') several times - this shows you what the symbols in the boxes mean. A solid box means global nView settings are used for a specific setting. A tick in a box means the option is enabled, an empty box means the option is disabled.

Globally disable all individual settings and window memory: If this option is ticked, all individual settings will be disabled, including those for window classes.

Application Enhancements: Clicking the Enhancements button brings up a list of enhancements for Internet Explorer and PowerPoint which you can enable. The 'Add Internet Explorer double-right and Shift-left click extension' option if ticked allows you to open Internet Explorer web links in a display of your choice (if you have multiple displays). The 'Add Internet Explorer popup preventer extension' option if ticked allows you to block popup windows in Internet Explorer - note however the built-in Popup blocker in Windows XP SP2 already has similar functionality, and is the recommended method for blocking popups. The 'Add PowerPoint slide show extensions' option if ticked allows you to send PowerPoint slideshows to a display of your choice (if you have multiple displays).

Desktops

This section provides you with the ability to have up to 32 different Windows Desktops, which you can switch between quickly, whether on a single or multi-display setup. This allows you to use different desktops for different applications for example, increasing the amount of space available to you. Note that for this to work, you need to make sure the 'Enable multiple desktops' option at the bottom of this page is ticked.

Available Desktops: This box contains a list of currently available Desktops. The Default desktop is the main desktop which you normally see in Windows. You can quickly and easily add another desktop by using the Add button. When you click Add, you will then get the opportunity to change the new desktop's name, background wallpaper, as well as the icon which is used to represent the desktop in the system tray. Note that the larger the file size of the wallpaper image you choose, the longer it may take to switch between desktops. Once done, click OK and this desktop is added to your list of available desktops. If at any time you want to remove a desktop in the list, you can highlight it and click the Remove button. Note that you can't delete the Default desktop.

Options: Click this button to configure the way in which you can switch between desktops, among other things. The 'Show desktop name when switching' option if ticked will briefly show the name of the desktop being switched to, and then may leave a faint desktop name showing - untick if this bothers you. The 'Show desktops in Windows Explorer' adds your desktops to the Windows Explorer as separate subdirectories with the relevant desktop names. The 'Show active desktop in the Windows taskbar notification area' is an important setting, because if ticked it places a small icon in the system tray area, which you can then click to select which desktop you want to switch to. The 'Maximize desktop switching speed' option if ticked will increase desktop switching speed by using the same background wallpaper on all your desktop as well as the same resolution. The 'Show command prompt windows on all desktops' option if ticked shows any opened command prompts on every desktop, instead of simply on the desktop on which it was opened. The 'Force desktop to redraw in one step' option forces all desktops to refresh their image in one step, but can lower desktop switching speed. The 'Allow desktops to use different resolutions' option if ticked allows each desktop to have a different resolution if required, however this slows down desktop rendering. Once you've chosen the appropriate settings, click the Apply button then OK to use these settings.

User Interface

This section allows you to configure the user interface for nView functions. Most of these increase the convenience of accessing nView functionality, but they alter the look of Windows in several ways. Each option is covered below:

Enable nView option in the Windows desktop right-click menu: if ticked this option places 'nView Properties' and 'nView Desktops' entries in your Windows context menus (also known as the right-click menus). If you right-click on an empty area of your desktop, you will see this context menu. If you want to remove these items from the context menu, untick this option. The other methods for accessing the nView control panel are covered at the top of this page.

Show notification messages on taskbar: if ticked, this option shows little popup messages on the Windows taskbar which tell you about changes to nView functions and/or any nView incompatibilies or errors which may occur.

Enable nView task switcher: if ticked, this setting enhances the standard Windows task switching functionality (i.e. when you press ALT+TAB or ALT+~) by providing more information about which display the application is on, along with the ability to switch between tasks on different desktops and switch the desktops themselves as well.

Enable nView toolbar: if ticked, this option brings up an nView toolbar, complete with a range of icons which provide easy access to common nView functionality. To add, remove or rearrange any icons, right-click on any nView toolbar icon, select Actions>Customize, and edit the available icons in the right panel accordingly. To attach the toolbar to a section of your desktop (top, bottom, left or right of the screen), right-click on the toolbar and under the Attach menu select the section of the screen to attach it to.

Enable display gridlines: if ticked, this option allows you to set up and configure up to 4 sections on each display in a "grid". This grid can then be used to control functionality like window spanning, window maximizing and dialog box positioning.

Title bar buttons: These options change the way in which the title bar on windows (the thick bar at the top of each open window) behaves. If ticked, each option places a unique icon of its own in all window titlebars allowing quicker access to their special functions. The 'nView options' setting if ticked allows quicker access to the nView Desktop Manager. The 'Full-Desktop maximize' option if ticked allows you to maximize a window to the point where it takes up the entire screen. Clicking on the icon again restores the window to its original size. The 'Next display' option if ticked gives the user the ability to move the current window to the next availabe display in multi-display setups. The 'Collapse to title bar' option if ticked lets you quickly collapse the window to the titlebar leaving only the titlebar itself visible, much like the way in which a scroll closes or opens.

Add nView options to the system menus: if ticked, this option places a range of items in all your windows context menus under the 'nView Options' main menu item. These options are configurable, and to see and change the full list, click the Options button.

Effects

This section contains some effects which can improve the appearance of Windows

Make windows minimize and maximize faster: if ticked, this option speeds up the default maximization and minimization of windows. There is no reason why this option should be unticked.

Make windows transparent when dragged: if ticked, this option makes windows transparent when they are dragged around the desktop(s), allowing you to see behind the window while it is moving. Note that this functionality may not be supported on some systems due to the resource-intensiveness of the task. If you want to only enable this functionlity on certain occasions, tick the 'Require Shift key to be held down' box as well, and then you can only trigger transparent windows when you hold down the SHIFT key while moving a window.

Enable taskbar transparency: if ticked, this option makes the Windows taskbar transparent at all times. The degree of transparency can be set in the 'Transparency level of x percent' box. The higher the percentage chosen (up to a maximum of 80%), the more see-through the taskbar becomes. Once again note that this functionality can take up extra resources and may not be supported on all systems.

Zoom

This section allows you to zoom in on portions of the desktop in various ways.

Zoom Window Style: The available options here are 'Magnifying glass', 'Centered on cursor' and 'Fixed frame'. When you select the 'Show Zoom Window' button at the bottom of the dialog box a Zoom Window will open and depending on which of the three options you choose under this section its contents will differ. If you choose 'Magnifying glass', the zoom window will only contain a small white box. You can then move the zoom window around, and wherever you drop it, the contents of the area under the white box will be magnified. If you choose 'Centered on cursor', as you move your cursor around the contents of the Zoom Window will show a zoomed image of what's under the cursor. If you choose 'Fixed frame' a small frame will open along with the Zoom Window. You can drag and drop this frame over a portion of the screen, and the zoomed image in the Zoom Window will display that section zoomed in, and will not change regardless of where you move the Zoom Window or the cursor.

Use the mouse wheel to change zoom levels while holding down the following keys: If this box is ticked, you can alter the level of zoom in the Zoom Window by scrolling your mouse wheel while holding down either the SHIFT or CTRL keys.

Show cursor in zoom window: If this option is ticked, the cursor itself will appear in the zoomed image shown in the Zoom Window.

Automaticall move zoom window to the next screen: This option is only available if the zoom method chosen is 'Centered on cursor'. If this option is enabled (only if you have a multi-display setup), whenever you move your cursor over the Zoom Window itself the Zoom Window will be moved to the next available display.

Enable bi-directional editing: Only available if you've chosen the 'Magnifying glass' or 'Fixed frame' zoom methods, if ticked this option allows you to use an application's normal editing methods in conjunction with the nView zoom method.

Invert zoomed image colors: If ticked, this option inverts the colors of the zoomed image displayed in the Zoom Window.

Enable zoom of video playback: If ticked, this option allows any videos opened (after the Zoom Window has been opened) to display as a zoomed image in the Zoom Window. This option only works with the 'Magnifying glass' zoom method.

Hot Keys

This section allows you to assign nView hotkeys - key combinations which speed up access to certain nView functionality. For example, you may wish the keystrokes CTRL and Q (CTRL+Q) when held together to collapse all open windows. To do this, double-click the 'Window Manager' item in the box under 'Select an action', and then double-click the 'Collapse all windows' item. A dialog box will appear, allowing you to assign a key combination to this function. Once the combination is assigned as shown in the 'Hot Keystroke' box, click OK to close the Hot Key Properties box.

The list of all current hot key combinations for nView functions is shown under the 'Active hot keys' box. You can add or remove any by using the appropriate buttons, and you can edit existing hotkeys by double-clicking on the active hot key and reassigning its key combinations.

Mouse

Enable throw window action: If ticked, this option allows you to 'throw' windows to screen edges by dragging them rapidly with your mouse and then letting them go - the thrown window will continue moving until it becomes aligned to a screen edge. You can adjust the sensitivity of the throw (i.e the amount of motion required to throw the window) by using the 'Throw Sensitivity' slider, with the further right the slider, the greater the sensitivity and hence the easier it is to throw windows.

Jump dead screen areas: If you have a multi-display setup, ticking this option will allow you to 'jump over' dead areas (areas with no clickable objects) when moving the mouse rapidly.

Toggle window z-order with middle mouse button: If ticked, this option allows you to use your middle mouse button (if you have one) to change the stacking order of windows. For example, select a window and click the middle mouse button - it will move further towards the back or the front of the window order.

Automatically activate window under cursor: If ticked, this option automatically activates and brings to the front the window on which you rest your cursor.

Kinematics

When the 'Enable mouse gestures' box is ticked, you can use certain mouse 'gestures' to initiate certain actions. There are four types of mouse gestures you can assign a function to: Shaking the mouse side to side ('Shake mouse horizontally'), shaking the mouse up and down ('Shake mouse vertically'), Rotating the mouse in a clockwise circle ('Rotate mouse clockwise') or rotating the mouse cursor in an anti-clockwise circle ('Rotate mouse counter-clockwise). You can determine just how sensitive nView is to your mouse movements before triggering the appropriate action by using the 'Gesture Sensitivity' slider - the further to the right the slider is set, the less gesturing you must do to trigger a function. If you still want to prevent accidental gesture trigger, tick the 'Require shift key to be held down' box, that way the gestures only work when the SHIFT key is also held down at the time.

Assigning and using mouse gestures is simple. For example, if you want to activate the Zoom Window by simply moving your mouse cursor quickly from side to side, go to the 'Shake mouse horizontally' box, select the 'Zoom window' function and click the Apply button. Now whenever you rapidly move your cursor from side to side over a window, the Zoom Window will appear and show a zoomed image of what is under your cursor (See the Zoom section above).

Tools

This section allows you to access tools which help in configuring the image on flat panel and projection displays.

NVKeystone: 'Keystoning' is a form of image distortion which affects projected images, and NVKeystone is a utility which helps overcome this by turning a 2D image into a 3D image, effectively letting you warp and alter the displayed image until it displays correctly. You should not enable NVKeystone unless you need this functionality as it comes with quite a performance hit. However if you need this feature, enable it by ticking the 'Enable NVKeystone display correction' box, and then tick the 'Enable NVKeystone option in desktop right-click menu' option for easy access to NVKeystone functionality. Then right-click on the desktop and under the NVKeystone menu item, select the 'Activate' option first. Then select the Adjust item and you can then alter the shape of the image shown by using the center box or side arrows around the display, as well as inverting the image vertically and/or horizontally using the small icons in the middle of the screen. Experiment with NVKeystone functionality until the image being displayed through your projector appears correct on the surface onto which it is being projected. Make sure that you untick the 'Activate' option in the NVKeystone menu if you don't need NVKeystone functionality as when active it uses a great deal of resources and hence reduces both 2D and 3D performance.

Display Calibration: Clicking the 'Calibration Screen' button brings up a screen on each connected display which has been designed to optimize calibration of analog flat panels when using auto-calibrate/auto-synchronization features on most flat panel displays.

Windows Utilities: If you have a multi-display setup, you can access the two options available here. The 'Align Displays' button will automatically align all your displays. The 'Move to Display' button will move your Windows taskbar to the display you choose.

Nvidia Forceware Tweak Guide
[Part 7] Advanced Tweaking

This section delves into the types of things you can do outside the standard Forceware Control Panel to further improve your graphics performance and/or to alter image quality to suit your tastes and perhaps resolve specific graphics problems. Please note that if you are not confident in undertaking these tweaks then do not perform them - none of them is necessary for you to enjoy full functionality. There is a certain level of risk involved in changing some of these settings. That said, the following tools/methods are safe if used correctly, and all the changes below can be reversed if they don't suit your preferences, or if a particular game has issues with them.

DXTweaker

DXTweaker is a small utility which allows users to forcefully enable Triple Buffering in Direct3D, something which is not possible using the normal Triple Buffering setting in the Nvidia Control Panel (See the Triple Buffering setting in the Forceware Control Panel section). You can download DXTweaker for free from here. Note that you will need to have the DirectX9.0c June 05 update or newer installed otherwise you will get errors. You can get the latest DirectX Update here. You will also need .NET Framework 1.1 in Windows XP for DXTweaker to run - both Vista and 7 already contain the appropriate .NET software.

Update: See the bottom of the next page for a useful utility which comes with RivaTuner that allows the application of Triple Buffering in an easier manner.

Whenever you enable Video Synchronization (VSync) in a game, you will get better image quality due to the removal of "tearing": that is, when the top and bottom halves of the image go out of alignment, especially during fast turning motions for example. However if you enable VSync your average Frames Per Second (FPS) also drops because of the way your graphics card waits for data to be synchronized before displaying it on your monitor. The only way to enable VSync and be rid of tearing, yet at the same time not have to worry about reduced framerates is to enable an option called 'Triple Buffering'. However to further complicate things, this option is often not available in many games, and if enabled in the graphics card control panel only works for OpenGL games, not for Direct3D games. This is all explained in more detail in my Gamer's Graphics & Display Settings Guide.

DXTweaker can force Triple Buffering in Direct3D games, but it is not straightforward to use. To use DXTweaker to force Triple Buffering, do the following: Install DXTweaker, then run the DXTControl.exe file in the main DXTweaker directory. In the window which opens, you can specify the game(s) you wish to add Triple Buffering to by clicking the New button and finding the path to the appropriate game executable. Once you've added the game executable path, highlight the game in the Projects box and at the bottom of the DXTweaker box, click the 'Modules to Load' heading, and below a list of options will appear. To force Triple Buffering in the highlighted game, tick the Present Changer box, and in the options which appear for it, set the Count box to 2 (i.e. it will set two back buffers instead of the usual 1, giving three total buffers). Now to actually force this setting to work in the game you've chosen, you will have to launch the game through DXTweaker by highlighting it in the Projects box and clicking the 'Start' button. The game will now start with Triple Buffering On - but make sure VSync is On otherwise it will have no impact.

However, some very important things to note: firstly, PunkBuster may detect DXTweaker as a hack, so be careful when using it for online games. Secondly, Triple Buffering has the drawback that it uses more video memory to store graphics information, and thus for graphics cards with less video RAM and/or in games which are more graphically intensive, forcing Triple Buffering on will result in laggier mouse movements and increased texture loading pauses. So basically for fastest performance in games, disable VSync and disable Triple Buffering. However if you believe the tearing is just too annoying, enable VSync then check to see if the in-game options allow for Triple Buffering. If so, enable it - or use DXTweaker if it's an offline game - and see if it improves performance without generating too much lag and stuttering.

RivaTuner

The most convenient way to access the graphics-related settings in the Windows Registry and change them is by using a graphical tweaking utility such as RivaTuner. It's completely free and you can download the latest version of it from the Guru3D RivaTuner Page. To install RivaTuner, simply download the file and run the .exe to begin installation. Once you've completed the installation of the program, it may take up to a minute or more for RivaTuner to build a series of Registry databases which hold existing registry values as well as storing any edited values in the future. Once this is done, you can launch RivaTuner at any time by clicking its icon under the programs list in the Start menu, or if you have selected the 'Send to tray on close' function under the Settings menu, you can access RivaTuner by clicking its icon in the System Tray. Note that RivaTuner works under both XP and Vista, but some options may not be available under Vista as yet, or may be slightly different.

Each section of RivaTuner will be covered in detail below. Note that any RivaTuner settings related to overclocking your graphics card are covered in the Overclocking section on the next page.

Main

Target Adapter

This section displays the product name of your current Nvidia graphics card along with the display device(s) that are connected to your system. Underneath the first box is the actual technical name of the chipset for your Nvidia graphics card (e.g. NV31, NV47, G80 etc.) along with the amount and type of Video RAM onboard the card. There is a small grey triangle next to the word 'Customize...' in this section, and when you click on it a series of buttons will appear. These allow access to several important "low-level" (i.e. graphics-card hardware based, not Windows or driver-based) settings which are covered below:

Low-level system settings: This button opens up the AGP, Fan and NVStrap driver pages. The AGP settings page allows you to adjust the 'AGP transfer rate' (AGP Speed), 'AGP sideband addressing' (Sidebanding) and 'AGP fastwrites' (Fast Writes) settings which are all described in detail under the relevant settings on page 2 of this guide, and only appear if you have an AGP graphics card - if using PCI-E it won't be there. Adjust these as advised on page 2, and under the AGP Setting section of the Coolbits instructions above. Note that if you find the settings will not remain as you set them, tick the 'Apply AGP settings at Windows startup box' and click the Save button.

The Fan tab allows you to override the automatic control of the fan on your graphics card if you tick the 'Enable low-level fan control' option. You can then use the slider to manually set the fan speed to a specific proportion of its full potential speed. For example, select 25% on the slider means the fan will run consistently at around 25% of maximum speed. Do not alter this setting unless you have a lot of case cooling, as an insufficient fan speed can result in potential overheating of your graphics card, and in some cases damage.

If you find you cannot alter the Sidebanding or Fast Writes setting, go to the NVStrap driver tab and click the install button. This installs a small driver called NVStrap, which loads with Windows to override your graphics card's built-in BIOS settings. This allows you to do a variety of things, as shown on the NVStrap driver page. For example once you've installed NVStrap you can now alter your Sidebanding setting ('AGP sideband addressing support') by changing it from the default of 'determined by VGA BIOS' to 'force on' or 'force off', whereas you may not have been able to previously. You can also emulate an Nvidia Quadro graphics card and hence gain access to their professional features by choosing to override the hardware graphics adapter ID, but this may not work on some of the most recent Nvidia graphics cards.

If you have an NV4X-based Nvidia graphics card (e.g. GeForce 6800 or 7800 series), then you can choose to alter the number of pixel pipelines and vertex processors available on your card. On some lower-end version of these series graphics cards the additional pipeline/vertex units have been 'software masked' so as to appear non-existent. You can attempt to activate them here by choosing the Custom mode and thereby gain performance. Some pipeline/vertex units are 'hardware masked' which means they are physically marked as being unstable or damaged. You can choose to unlock such hardware masked units for additional performance by ticking the 'Allow enabling hardware masked units' and click the Customize button to configure the units. Note that enabling additional pipelines and/or vertex units, while improving performance, can also increase instability and graphical glitches. If you experience problems disable these options.

Note that if at any time you want to disable the NVStrap driver you can click the Uninstall button here, or if that doesn't work go to \Windows\System32\Drivers\ and delete the NVStrap.sys file and reboot your system.

Low-level refresh rate settings: The refresh rate is described in detail earlier in this guide. This section lets you alter the refresh rates used by your graphics card in Windows. The 'Refresh overrider' tab allows you to implement a refresh rate override, similar to that described on page 4. If you tick the 'Enable refresh overrider' box, you can then click the large '+' button at the bottom of the screen to add "rules" which RivaTuner will use to determine the refresh rate to apply depending on the resolution and color depth of the screen. This method is more complex than it needs to be, and I recommend using Refresh Force instead as detailed earlier in this guide. Note that if you have an LCD monitor I don't recommend using a refresh rate fix/overrider as it is not necessary.

The 'Monitor driver wizard' allows you to alter the basic details of your monitor's capabilities as described by its driver. You can override its maximum possible resolution for example, or select particular refresh rates for each supported resolution, or change the Horizontal and Vertical scan frequencies. This is not recommended for most users as a mistake could result in damage to your monitor - make sure you know exactly what you're doing before messing with this.

Low-level desktop color schemes: This section of RivaTuner is very similar to the Color Correction section of the Nvidia Forceware Control Panel (See page 7 of this guide), hence the descriptions are the same as well. If you wish to change your color settings here, adjust them as required then tick the 'Apply this color scheme at Windows startup' box to apply them each time you load up Windows. If you want to save several different schemes, click the disk icon under the 'Color scheme settings' section of the box and save the scheme under a unique name.

Graphics sub-system diagnostic report: By default this page gives you details of your Nvidia graphics card, its clock speeds, the Northbridge (part of the Motherboard chipset) and the memory ranges in use by the graphics subset. You can however increase the scope of the report by placing a tick mark at the top against any or all of the available categories shown and then clicking the small Camera icon at the bottom of the page to refresh the report data shown. If any of the information is not what you expect, check your BIOS and your hardware settings. The information is accurate since it is being polled directly from the graphics card and motherboard, and not the graphics drivers or Windows, hence changing driver versions or reinstalling Windows is not going to help.

Hardware Monitoring: This option brings up a screen which monitors your graphics card's Core and Memory clock speeds in real time. Note that the clock speeds should be completely stable, and if you have not overclocked your graphics card they should match the specifications of your graphics card. To find out more about these clock speeds and how to alter them, see the Overclocking section of this guide.

Reload display driver: When this setting is selected, the Nvidia display driver is reloaded into memory, causing a momentarily blackening of the screen as it is reloaded. This can help resolve any graphical glitches on the screen, or strange graphical behavior. However if you experience problems again after a short period of time see the tips in the Overclocking and Troubleshooting sections.

Driver Settings

This section of RivaTuner deals with the software Forceware-based settings, not the low-level hardware based settings of the previous section above. As such many of these options are already available to be altered in the Forceware Control Panel, and that is where I recommend you alter them first. You can then use RivaTuner to tweak settings which are unavailable in the Forceware Control Panel, as detailed below:

System settings: The overclocking tab is covered in the Overclocking section on the next page of this guide and is not covered here. Under the Compatibility tab are several settings which can help improve stability and performance on certain motherboards. The VIA/Super Socket 7 and AMD Irongate motherboards are no longer in common usage, so these options can be ignored. If you wish however you can tick the 'Enable motherboard chipset compatibility mode' option at the bottom of this box, and RivaTuner will automatically configure a range of settings for maximum compatibility, stability and/or performance on your particular motherboard chipset. This is not recommended as instead you should manually configure all relevant RivaTuner settings yourself, however if you want to try this option to see if it resolves any problems you may have, tick this box.

The Fan tab is similar to that of the Fan tab in the hardware section above, and allows you to manually configure the fan speeds for the 2D, low power 3D and performance 3D (i.e. gaming) modes. The AGP tab may allow you to change your AGP rate, Sidebanding and Fast Writes settings if you run an AGP graphics card, however typically these are inaccessible here and best changed either at the hardware level (see above) or using the AGP Settings section of the Forceware Control Panel (See the previous page of this guide). The Overlay tab is similar to the Video Overlay Settings section of the standard Forceware Control Panel, so see that section of the guide. The 'Force hardware overlay support on spanning modes' setting only works on GeForce2-based graphics cards, while the 'Use busmastering mode for video' only works in Windows9X, and hence these are not covered here.

DirectDraw and Direct3D Settings: Note that all the settings below apply to Direct3D games only, and have no impact on OpenGL-based games. The Mipmapping tab allows you to manually adjust the Level of Detail (LOD) of MipMaps, which are texture overlays. The higher the LOD Bias slider is set, the blurrier textures become but the greater your performance may be in Direct3D games. If you want to improve image quality at the cost of performance, move the Mipmap LOD Bias slider to the left of 0 instead. Make sure the 'Enable user mipmaps' option is ticked for maximum performance and compatibility in games. The remaining Mipmap options are for TNT-based graphics cards, and are not covered here.

The Intellisample tab is identical to the Image Settings option and associated optimization-related settings available under the Performance & Quality tab of the normal Nvidia Forceware Control Panel (See page 6). As such, these options should be adjusted there.

The LMA tab provides access to the 'Enable lossless Z-buffer compression' option, which should be ticked for maximum performance. The Z-Buffer controls the rendering of depth in 3D games, such as which objects are hidden behind others when viewed at a distance. Z-buffer compression makes this process much more efficient, and this option should only be unticked for troubleshooting purposes if you notice issues with objects showing through each other or other distance-based graphical glitches. The 'Enable early Z-occlusion culling' option is similarly strongly recommended as being left ticked. Only untick for troubleshooting purposes, as unticking it will reduce performance.

The Shaders tab allows you to alter the Pixel and Vertex shader support of your Nvidia graphics card. Shaders are complex graphics functions supported by your graphics card's hardware. You cannot raise the maximum shader version your graphics card supports, as that is limited by the hardware on the card. However you can lower the shader versions to increase performance, perhaps at the cost of image quality depending on how low you force the shader version support. For example, if your card supports up to Version 3.0 Pixel Shader, but you force the version 2.0 shader, you will get a slight performance boost in some games with minimal image quality loss. If you then choose to force 1.1 or even disable shaders, you may find the game will have many glaring graphical glitches. You will have to experiment with the shader versions to see which give you better performance without a dramatic drop in image quality - this depends on how recent the Direct3D game you are playing is.

The Blitting tab controls are primarily for configuring blitting - a memory data transfer method called 'bit block transfer'. These options manually force games to wait between blitting functions, which can help resolve problems in older games, such as strange crashes. However ticking these boxes will also reduce performance, so make sure they are all unticked and only enable the first two when troubleshooting problems with older games.

VSync has been covered in detail under the Vertical Sync setting on page 6 of this guide. Auto is the recommended setting, as this allows you to determine whether VSync remains on or off in each individual application. However for the fastest performance you can set it to 'Always off' here, but with the possibility of noticeable image tearing in some games. If forcing VSync on or off, always make sure that the setting you choose for VSync here or in the Forceware Control Panel matches the one you choose in games, otherwise you may get problems or not the result you intend. The 'Prerender limit' setting is the same as the 'Max frames to render ahead' setting under the NVTweak section of this guide - lowering this setting can improve performance and reduce mouse lag, however the default of 3, or 2 at the lowest is recommended for most people.

The Textures tab contains a box at the top right which lets you choose firstly whether you're going to change settings for DirectX7 or DirectX8+ games. Once the DirectX format is chosen, you can tick or untick support for various texture surface functions. For example, if you choose DirectX8+, you can disable support for bump mapping by unticking the 'Enable 16/32-bit bump map surfaces' option. This can improve performance in games which use bump mapping, but will obviously not show bump mapping and/or may result in visual glitches. Therefore for the most part these options are to be used in troubleshooting problems with textures in games, or by allowing you to run certain games at reasonable speed but with missing effects or visual anomalies. The 'Amount of system memory for PCI textures' box is the same as the 'Maximum system memory for PCI mode textures' option in the Coolbits 2 section - it has no impact on AGP graphics cards unless you are running in PCI mode, which is not recommended. The 'Texture filtering preferences' box allows you to change the quality of texture filtering - this is similar to the Bilinear and Trilinear texture filtering settings in the Forceware Control Panel - the higher the quality level chosen, the lower the performance but the better the image quality of textures in games, with the Quality setting being Bilinear and the High Quality mode being Trilinear Filtering. Degree of Anisotropy is the same as the Anisotropic Filtering settings in the Forceware Control Panel.

The Compatibility tab has three relatively minor settings. The 'Texel origin adjustment' setting allows pre-GeForce 3 graphics cards to specify where Texels (texture data) are mapped to on surfaces. Changing this setting on some games can help improve image quality if the images or onscreen text appear blurry. The 'Enable table fog emulation' option is only used for some Direct3D games which require fog table emulation in order to display graphical effects correctly. If you find that certain games - particularly older games - are not displaying correctly, tick (or untick) this option to see if it resolves graphical problems. Otherwise leave this setting at its default. The 'Show Nvidia logo when running Direct3D applications' option simply shows an Nvidia logo in a corner of the screen when a game is running, and hence has no value at all and should not be ticked.

Finally, the Antialiasing tab allows you to specify the exact level of type of Antialiasing - as covered in the Forceware Control Panel section on page 6 - and should be adjusted there.

OpenGL Settings: Similar to the DirectDraw and Direct3D settings section above, this section covers OpenGL-related graphics tweaks and settings. Note that all the settings below apply to OpenGL games only, and have no impact on Direct3D-based games. The Mipmapping tab here works precisely the same as the one under the DirectDraw and Direct3D section above. The Intellisample tab is identical to the Image Settings option and associated optimization-related settings available under the Performance & Quality tab of the normal Nvidia Forceware Control Panel (See page 6). As such, these options should be adjusted there. If you don't want the Intellisample options to affect your trilinear filtering quality, tick the 'Override Intellisample trilinear filtering quality control' box instead and use the Trilinear Filter Quality slider below it to select your level of trilinear filtering quality/performance. Furthermore, if you want to independently control the texture compression level from Intellisample, tick the 'Override Intellisample texture compression control box' and you can then manually force texture compression on for all games as opposed to the (recommended) default of 'determined by application'. This can improve performance at the cost of some image quality, since compressed textures are easier to load into Video RAM but can show some minor signs of image quality loss due to compression.

The options under the VSync tab here functions exactly the same as those under the DirectDraw and Direct3D tab above. Note that the 'Prerender limit' here is 2 by default as opposed to 3 for Direct3D games. My recommendations for OpenGL VSync and Prerender limit remain the same as those for Direct3D.

The Back/Depth Buffering tab allows you to alter the buffer flipping mode. Buffer flipping controls the way in which buffered images are changed over from being undisplayed to being displayed. The Forceware drivers can detect the optimal buffer flipping mode when the 'Auto select' option is chosen here. However some (mainly older) games may require that you manually set this option to use 'Block Transfer' to change the buffer flipping method. You can also experiment to see if you gain some FPS in your favorite OpenGL game by changing this option, however the 'Auto select' setting is recommended for most people. The 'Force Triple Buffering' option is the same as the Triple Buffering option in the Performance & Quality Settings section of the regular Nvidia Forceware Control Panel. The 'Force 16-bit Z-Buffer' option can improve performance on older graphics cards at the cost of some image quality loss, but is not available for newer Nvidia graphics cards.

The Rendering Quality tab has several texture quality settings. The 'Default bit depth for textures' option can be used to force a specific color depth for textures in OpenGL games. The default of 'As desktop' is fine, however if you want better performance in OpenGL games, you can set it to '16 bits per pixel'. If you want to guarantee the highest image quality instead, choose 'Use 32 bits per pixel' and make sure the game's color depth settings match. Lower bits per pixel result in more color banding (visible color gradations) and can also be considered a cheat by PunkBuster anti-cheat software in some online games. The S3TC (S3 Texture Compression) quality settings section allows you to specify different forms of texture compression depending on your hardware. This can result in better performance and/or image quality. The 'Compress to DXT3 instead of DXT1' option is recommended for those who want a better image quality at the cost of a slight performance decrease. The 'Disable dithering when decompressing DXT1 textures' option is only available for the GeForce4 series, and if ticked improves performance at the cost of a slight drop in image quality. The 'Force fast trilinear filtering' option is only available for TNT series graphics cards, not GeForce cards, and should be ticked for such cards. The 'Degree of Anisotropy' setting is the same as the Anisotropic Filtering setting under the Forceware Control Panel.

The Compatibility tab lets you select options which can improve compatibility at the cost of some performance. The 'OpenGL hardware acceleration mode' should be set to 'Max acceleration mode' for optimal performance, however if you are having problems in OpenGL games, select another mode from the list. For example, you may wish to emulate a lower-end graphics card than your own to ensure better compatibility with older OpenGL games. The 'Disable support for enhanced CPU instruction sets' is the same as that covered under the Coolbits 2 section, and should remain unticked. The 'Enable GL_SGIS_MULTITEXTURE in 16-bit modes' setting is only available for TNT class cards and should only be ticked for older games running at 16-bit color depth. The 'Amount of system memory for PCI textures' is the same as the equivalent Direct3D setting above, and has no impact on recent AGP and PCI-E graphics cards.

The Professional tab has a range of features which can only be accessed if you run an Nvidia Quadro graphics card, or if you have altered the 'Graphics Adapter Information' setting to make your non-Quadro card appear to be a Quadro in the NVStrap driver tab of the low-level system settings section. You will also need to tick the 'Unlock Professional capabilities' box further down that page, and even then this option only works on NV40 (i.e. 6X00 series) Nvidia graphics cards or newer.

The Antialiasing tab allows you to alter the level of forced Antialiasing in OpenGL games in precisely the same way as the regular Peformance & Quality Settings options of the same name do in the regular Forceware Control Panel (See page 6), and are best altered there.

Color Adjustment: The Desktop and Overlay tabs here function exactly the same as the Color Correction and Video Overlay Settings sections of the standard Forceware Control Panel, so see those sections of the guide for further details. Note that just like the Forceware settings, these tabs affect all applications and games, whether Direct3D or OpenGL.

Custom Display Modes/ Refresh Rate Wizard: This tab allows you to either specify a custom resolution (width by height in pixels) or choose a standard resolution by clicking the Standard button. You can then set the Aspect Ratio for this resolution, the color depths (Bit depth) supported by this resolution, and the list of refresh rates it can support by pressing the Standard button, or manually entering a list. This mode can then be added to the list of resolutions by clicking the Add button at the bottom of the screen. Generally speaking unless you are certain your monitor supports the new resolution and refresh rate, it is wise not to add or alter these settings as an incorrect setting can result in damage to your monitor.

Reset all the driver's settings to their default values: If after making a range of changes in RivaTuner you wish to revert all the Forceware driver settings to their defaults, click this button. It will remove all the changes that have been made in the Registry, and prompt you to reboot which is recommended. It is also useful for removing any Registry changes made by NVTweak for example, however note that if NVTweak was installed prior to installing RivaTuner, this option may not remove the changes it has made. In that case, if you feel those tweaks are causing you problems you will need to follow the procedures in this guide for doing a full clean reinstall of the Forceware drivers to remove all non-standard Forceware settings.

Settings

The Settings tab of RivaTuner allows you to configure the appearance and function of RivaTuner itself. The 'Send to tray on close' option keeps RivaTuner in memory during your current Windows session by minimizing it to your System Tray whenever you close RivaTuner. This is handy if you are going to make a lot of changes and need constant access to RivaTuner, otherwise it is not recommended since it uses memory resources. The 'Always on top' option if ticked simply ensures that RivaTuner always stays in front of all other open windows on the screen. The 'Run at Windows Startup' option is only recommended if you require constant access to RivaTuner's functionality in each Windows session, otherwise it should be unticked to reduce resource usage at startup. If you do wish to tick this option, the two modes available for startup (Registry key or Startup folder) are both fine, however if you have problems change the startup mode. The 'Emulate hotkeys handler' is only recommended for those running in Windows9X.

Power User

The first time you click on this tab you will be prompted to confirm that you are aware of the potential danger of using this section. It is indeed for advanced users, and the complex nature of it means I can't cover it in full detail here. The basic premise of this section is that it allows you to directly alter the Registry entries which affect graphics card and 3D application functionality in Windows. Fortunately RivaTuner holds all the relevant Registry entries in a database it creates when first installed, storing the default values along with any of the edited values. If you run into problems, this database can be used to restore the original Registry values, preventing any significant harm. However you should still exercise caution if editing any of these values.

To view and/or alter a value, click on the relevant category, then for the name of the registry entry you wish to edit, double-click on the value column next to it. You can now enter values as appropriate, however they need to be in the format the Registry key requires. Most of these values can be changed using the Forceware Control Panel, NVTweak and/or RivaTuner's graphical user interface, so generally speaking you should not need to edit the Registry entries directly, however the option is here if you wish to do so.

The remaining Launcher, About and Links sections of RivaTuner are not covered in any detail here as they do not have any significant performance or image quality functionality.

Triple Buffering

As of RivaTuner 2.0 onwards, a neat program is included with RivaTuner which allows you to easily force Triple Buffering in Direct3D games, whether you use an ATI or Nvidia graphics card. The importance of Triple Buffering is explained in the link above, but in short enabling Triple Buffering in D3D is not normally possible in the graphics card control panel, so it requires the use of a special utility such as this one.

The utility which now comes bundled with RivaTuner is called D3DOverrider. You can launch it by going to your \Program Files\RivaTuner [Release version]\Tools\D3DOverrider directory and launching the D3DOverrider.exe program. By default this utility will simply sit in your system tray whenever it is launched and while it is active any Direct3D game you launch will automatically have Triple Buffering force-enabled. To configure it further, you can right-click on the system tray icon (a small green DirectX 'X' logo) and select Setup. From there you can select whether the program automatically launches at each Windows Startup for example - not necessary of course, but convenient if you always want to force-enable Triple Buffering in your games. For the most part you should leave the 'Active Profile' setting at Global to allow the utility to work properly in all games, and only change it if you want to create and apply particular settings for specific programs. The Application Settings section at the bottom allows you to alter the application of Triple Buffering, though these are best left at their default settings.

 Nvidia Forceware Tweak Guide
[Part 8] Overclocking

Overclocking

The modern graphics card is a lot like a small computer by itself. It has a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) which is the graphics equivalent of a Central Processing Unit (CPU), it sits on a motherboard-like Printed Circuit Board (PCB), and has its own Video RAM. And just like a computer system, the components on a video card can be overclocked to increase performance. Overclocking a graphics card involves increasing the frequency at which particular video components perform their functions. For more details on basic overclocking theory, including a discussion of the benefits and potential dangers, I strongly suggest you read the Overclocking chapter of my TweakGuides Tweaking Companion.

The two components of a video card which can be overclocked are the GPU (also called the Engine or Core), and the Video RAM (also called VRAM or just Memory). You can overclock one or both of these components, with varying results based on a number of factors, but generally resulting in an increase in performance the higher you overclock each component. To overclock your video card, you'll need a method of accessing and altering the clock speeds of the Core and the VRAM. The three reliable methods I suggest you can use are:

Built-in Clock Frequency Settings: There are three main ways you can use the built-in Nvidia Overclocking utility in the Forceware drivers, depending on which version of the CP and which version of Windows you use:

Classic CP: If you're using an older Forceware driver under Windows XP, see the Advanced Tweaking section for details of how to use NVTweak to enable the built-in overclocking functionality in the Classic Forceware Control Panel. It requires that you enable the 'Clock Frequencies' item in NVTweak, and once enabled, you can access the new overclocking settings in the classic CP by by going into the Forceware Control Panel and selecting the 'Clock Frequency Settings' menu. By ticking the 'Manual Overclocking' option you can now access the Core and Memory clock speed sliders. Note that for many Nvidia graphics cards you can select the clock speeds for 2D and 3D applications separetely. Since 2D performance is always fine, you should select the 'Performance (3D)' option and adjust 3D graphics clock speeds using the sliders, as detailed further below. Note that if you don't like the way in which the fan on your graphics card may alter in speed and hence noise, you can tick the 'Fan always on' option to maintain consistent fan speed. Once you've reached an appropriate overclock following the instructions below, click 'Test Changes' to allow your new clock speeds to be implemented, then tick the 'Apply these settings at startup' option to apply your overclocks each time Windows is started up. Note that you must have the NvCplDaemon startup item enabled for your overclocked settings to be kept and applied at each Windows startup. If you've removed this item, you can re-enable it by setting the Nvidia Display Driver service to Automatic, rebooting, and then resetting the Nvidia Display Driver service to Disabled again. Or you can just reinstall the graphics drivers again.

Current CP: For most people who are using the current Forceware Control Panel, you can enable the overclocking utility by installing the latest Nvidia System Tools utility, available for download from the relevant link at the bottom of this page. Once installed the utility provides access to a new component in the Forceware Control Panel called Performance in the main menu. Open this category and you can select the 'Adjust GPU Settings' option to access the overclocking and fan settings, which are similar to those described above.

For Windows XP users who don't wish to install Nvidia System Tools, you can manually edit a setting called 'Coolbits' in your Windows Registry to enable the built-in overclocking functionality. If you're not familiar with how to use the Registry Editor, see the Windows Registry chapter of the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion. First close the Nvidia Control Panel, then open the Registry Editor and go to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\NVTweak

Underneath this key, double-click on the Coolbits DWORD (or create it if it's missing) and enter a value of 3, then click OK. Now go back to the Nvidia Control Panel, and under the 3D Settings section there will be a new option called 'Change overclocking configuration'. Click this and once again refer further above for details of how these settings work.

RivaTuner: An easy way to overclock your system is to use RivaTuner - see the RivaTuner area of the Advanced Tweaking section for details on how to install and access the overclocking functionality.

PowerStrip: You can download this utility from the PowerStrip Website. It is a fully functional free trial version, however you will need to purchase the software to keep using it after 30 days. Once installed and run, PowerStrip sits as a small monitor icon in the System Tray. To access the overclocking functionality, right-click on this system tray icon and select Performance Profiles>Configure. In the Performance Profiles dialog box, you can use the two sliders to adjust your clock speeds, with the left one affecting Engine (Core) clocks, and the right Memory clock speed.

There are plenty of other utilities out there which allow overclocking (and more) that you can try, however for the most part the three methods above are the most popular and in particular the use of RivaTuner or Nvidia System Tools is the simplest way of accessing the built-in overclocking functionality in the Forceware drivers.

The Warnings

Whenever the word 'Overclocking' is used, you have to get used to seeing the following facts:

Overclocking can introduce significant instability and graphical anomalies to your games and general system usage. One of the most common causes of a wide range of problems in Windows is overclocking of various components. Overclocked components can and do behave erratically and may appear stable under testing but become unstable in particular games or different environments.
Overclocking can damage your video card. The way it does this is through excessive heat and stress on the component you are overclocking, and this can effectively kill that component or permanently impair its functionality. It can sometimes happen almost instantly, sometimes after days, sometimes after many months. Overclocking is not risk-free, and damage to components happens more often than you think.
Overclocking instantly voids the warranty on your graphics card, as does any physical modification to the card. It can be difficult to prove that overclocking caused the damage, but if any damage is done to the card due to overclocking then the place where you bought the card and/or the card's manufacturer may discover this and deny you a warranty repair/replacement.

If overclocking scares you, or you simply cannot afford to replace your video card on the off-chance it gets damaged, it's best to steer clear of it. Everyone these days seems to flippantly recommend that you overclock your components the second you have them installed in your machine, but the truth of the matter is that there is a risk of destabilising and even damaging your system, and some people do not want to take such risks - and that's fair enough. The performance gains are often not worth the risk of losing your graphics card in the process, or experiencing a whole range of system problems, some of which are often very difficult to diagnose.

The Procedure

To overclock your video card, make sure you have selected to change the 3D clock speeds (for cards which allow separate 2D/3D clock speeds) and simply increase the clock speed of the Core/Engine/3D component, and/or the clock speed of the Memory, both of which are measured in MHz. The Core generates graphics data, and depending on your CPU and the rest of your system specifications, increasing the core speed can result in a small or large performance improvement. The Memory transfers information to/from the Core, and increasing its speed can once again improve performance either slightly or significantly, in conjunction with your Core speed and the speed of the rest of your system.

As a general rule, if you have a fast graphics card and a slow CPU, then overclocking your graphics card yields less performance improvements. If you have a fast CPU and a slower graphics card, then overclocking the graphics card can show greater improvement. The reason for this is that if the graphics card is the 'weak link' or 'bottleneck' in the equation, and a particular game requires more graphical power and speed, then quite clearly overclocking the graphics card can show more of an improvement than in situations where the CPU or the rest of your system is the weak point.

The whole overclocking procedure is similar to this:

1. Select a component to overclock (Core or Memory).
2. Increase its clock speed by a small increment, e.g. 5MHz.
3. Run a game or a benchmark for a short period (See Benchmarking & Stress Testing further below), testing to see if you get any crashes/freezes, stuttering, or 'Artifacts' (small graphical anomalies, such as white dots, strange color blocks or flickering textures).
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3, until you experience a problem - this means you've reached the current limit of your overclock for that component.
5. Reduce the clock speed by at least 5MHz to provide safe headroom.
6. Repeat the entire procedure for the other component (Core or Memory).
7. Once you believe you have both a stable and fast overclock, do a much longer run of benchmarking and/or play some games for a longer period of time (e.g. 2 hours), paying particular attention to any small artifacts which may appear, indicating the need to reduce the overclock ever so slightly and/or increase cooling.

That is basically how graphics card overclocking is done. It can sometimes provide a very noticeable improvement in performance, but if you have an old or low-end graphics card, or if your graphics card does not have hardware support for the functionality demanded by newer games - like Pixel Shaders, Vertex Shaders or DirectX 10 or DirectX 11, then overclocking cannot surmount this handicap.

Cooling

One of the major factors in obtaining a stable overclock is cooling. As components are taken beyond their original specifications with overclocking, so too are their cooling requirements. Just like a motor vehicle engine requires a radiator system and a fan to draw out the heat from the block and cool things down, so too a graphics card typically has a metal heatsink and fan or is encased in a custom shroud to first draw out the heat from around the GPU and then expel it. Under normal circumstances the cooling on your graphics card does its job relatively well. However in a closed case with other components also pumping out heat, and particularly during warmer months, the temperatures rise to a point where any overclocking can tip the balance from stable to unstable. As soon as you start experiencing freezes and crashes, and strange blocks or lines of colors appearing on your screen, or small white dots, then you know that additional cooling is quite likely. Even if you don't overclock the card, when ambient temperatures are very high and/or airflow is poor in your case, you will need to provide additional cooling. To supply plenty of fresh cool air to the graphics card, try doing one or more of the following:

Take the side off your case to allow fresh air to more easily enter it, and for hot air to more easily be removed from inside it. If this alone increases system stability then you know heat is a problem.
Install more case fans which suck cold air in from the bottom front of the case, and blow hot air out the top rear of the case, or the top of the case. If you do this, leave the sides on your case to allow a 'wind tunnel' effect for maximum expulsion of hot air.
Install additional fans which blow directly on the hottest components, including the CPU, graphics card, hard drive and power supply.
Install a heavy duty heatsink and fan on the hottest components, particularly the CPU and video card. You can get speed-variable fans which are more silent during idle times. Note once again that unless the hot air is expelled from your case, it will simply build up and defeat any heavy-duty cooling, so don't forget the case cooling tips.
Install 'passive' cooling units such as heatpipes and water cooling solutions, although these are more advanced to install and use.

Remember however that beyond a certain point, no amount of cooling can remove all the heat being generated right near the component. The component will simply hit a wall at which you cannot overclock it any more without doing permanent damage and creating constant system instability and graphical anomalies. Don't push to or beyond this point unless you like to spend money replacing the component.

That covers the basics of overclocking a graphics card. Overclocking is not all that hard to do - the trick is in getting a good balance between speed and stability. I urge you to make sure that you err on the side of stability, since a system that crashes, even if it's not often, can be extremely counter-productive to enjoyable gaming. In almost all cases I've seen, overclocking is the cause of, or aggravates, a range of problems. Don't blame the graphics drivers or your hardware when chances are that it's your overclock that's causing the problem. Every single game reacts differently to different levels of overclocking in different systems.

Benchmarking & Stress Testing

Regardless of whether your graphics card is overclocked or not, you will want to measure its performance and also test to see if the card is stable under full load. This is particularly relevant if you have made some adjustments or tweaks, and you want to objectively measure whether they improve overall graphics performance or stability. The process of coming up with an objective 'score' with which you can compare performance with others and yourself is called benchmarking. Benchmarking tools also serve a dual purpose. Because of their system-intensive nature, they are great for use as stress testers. Running them continuously is a good simulation of running a graphically intense game, and can bring out instabilities and problems very quickly, allowing you to detect and diagnose problems more rapidly, and also to determine whether your overclock is too unstable for daily use.

There are several free programs which provide benchmarking functionality and also double as good stress testers. I strongly suggest you read the Benchmarking & Stress Testing chapter (XP version); Performance Measurement & Diagnostics chapter (Vista version); or Performance Measurement & Troubleshooting chapter (Windows 7 version) of my TweakGuides Tweaking Companion for more details and download links. Of course one of the best ways to test for stability and performance is to play your favorite games for quite a while, and if your system crashes, freezes or displays any anomalies then your graphics card, indeed your entire system, may not be totally stable. Once again refer to the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion and take the time to go through it, steadily checking and optimizing all your settings.

awesome posts!

 Just a suggestion on optimizing the post. Copy the URLs of each individual post and use them to hyperlink the ToC for easier and faster browsing. You can nab the URLs off of your profile. ;)

Other'n'that, thanks! I already have ATI Radeon graphics card, but I do need to clean up my pc mucho. Defrag and all sorts of cleaning options have failed me. 3gigs of RAM be damned! They aren't doing anything. @_@

And hell, I remember the days when I couldn't play the sequel to my FAVORITE game because I didn't have 250mb of RAM, lmao

Last Edited on: Jun 27 2010 02:54 AM UTC (Feb 10 2012, 10:55am GMT)