![]() Whether you use in-game settings or the graphics board control panels, you’ll run into problems. When you run the game, nVidia’s driver enables that setting for that game only. However, each setting that is supported is actually a drop-down box that allows you to change the setting. This screen is a little confusing at first–everything seems to read ‘Use global setting’ or ‘Not supported for this application’. This approach is especially useful if you want to set aggressive image-quality settings for older titles that are very fast on your system while allowing newer titles to be managed by their in-game settings.Īdjust your control panel settings only for specific games. It’s like having an in-game control panel, only you set it in the nVidia panel. What you can do here is leave the global settings for stuff like anisotropic filtering and antialiasing to Application controlled, and then set overrides for specific game titles. Click the Program Settings tab, and you’ll be greeted with a drop-down menu that permits you to set parameters for specific titles. NVidia also allows you to set game profiles explicitly. For example, in Crysis, you enable the DirectX 9 mode by reducing the global detail settings to ‘high’ instead of ‘very high’. And with some games, the way to alter the mode is not always obvious. Usually you can use the in-game control panel to change the mode, but sometimes you’ll need a different executable or shortcut, such as with Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. Revert to DirectX 9 modes if you have a low-end GPU, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by higher frame rates. Technically, a Radeon HD 5450 can run DirectX 11 games in DirectX 11 mode–but the results will look like a slideshow. However, graphics board companies do buyers a disservice by advertising cheap versions of cards as being able to run the latest graphics APIs (application programming interfaces). And due to improved multithreading in the DirectX libraries and drivers, installing DirectX 11 can boost performance over DirectX 10 even if the game was developed prior to DirectX 11. ![]() Avoid DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 With Low-Cost Graphics Cardsĭon’t get me wrong: DX10 and DX11 can offer substantial increases in 3D graphics image quality. Turn up this setting only after you’ve pumped up other image-quality settings and are still running at high frame rates. Maxing out shadow levels can often cause a huge decrease in performance. If you’re constantly on the move, you may notice an absence of shadows, but you’ll often not see the difference between medium shadows and high shadows. High shadow levels can seem very immersive–if you’re standing still. When you’re playing a game, you’re always in motion, and you probably won’t stop to gaze at the scenery. Low-resolution textures will still look ugly with antialiasing turned on. Sure, antialiasing removes annoying jaggies, but if you turn it on while the texture detail remains low, you’ll end up with a muddy mess. You may be tempted to start by cranking up the antialiasing. Pump Up Texture Detail and Anisotropy First You’ll often see better performance in the game, along with improved image quality. As an example, if the game allows you to set antialiasing, use that setting rather than the Windows control panel setting. Start optimizing your game performance via the in-game graphics control panels.The settings available in the game you’re playing are often more optimized than the global settings you can enable with the AMD or nVidia control panel. Windows XP users, however, may see differences–and some capabilities (namely, features specific to DirectX 10 and 11) simply aren’t available in XP.īefore we dive into the intricacies of in-game settings and graphics control panels, it’s worth discussing a few rules of thumb for prioritizing which settings to enable. They’ll likely work with Windows Vista too. ![]() Note that all of the following examples work with Windows 7. ![]()
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