I have a GTS250 and have the config.ini maxed out to 'perfect' with Anisoptric filtering, no texture compression, etc (pretty much as recommended for Nvidea cards from examples I have seen on this forum).
Some of the Nvidea Control Panel settings are fairly straightforward but not sure about the ones I have marked in red:-
Anisoptric Filtering -----(x2)
Antiliasing - Gamma Correction off
Antiliasing - Mode Enhance the application setting
Antiliasing Setting ----(x2)
CUDA - GPUs ----( All)
Extension Limit Off
Maximum Pre-rendered frames 3
Multi-display/mixed -GPU acceleration (Single Display Mode)
Texture Filtering - Anisoptric Sample Optimistion Off
Texture Filtering - Negative LOD Bias ---- (Clamp)
Texture filtering -Quality -----(Quality)
Texture Filtering -TriLinear optimisation Off
Threaded Optimisation -----(Auto_
Triple Buffering On
Vertical Sync -----(Forced On)
Any info or suggestions would be much appreciated.
Here's some cut and paste taken from the nHancer website - http://www.nhancer.com/?dat=d_start
I have a GTS250 and have the config.ini maxed out to 'perfect' with Anisoptric filtering, no texture compression, etc (pretty much as recommended for Nvidea cards from examples I have seen on this forum).
Some of the Nvidea Control Panel settings are fairly straightforward but not sure about the ones I have marked in red:-
Anisoptric Filtering -----(x2)
Antiliasing - Gamma Correction off
(This option only changes the selection of the in-between colors, that are used to smooth the transition at the edge of a polygon. The reasoning is that monitors are not linear in their display of colors and brightness, and the standard, linear way of selecting in-between colors is therefor not ideal.
If you enable gamma-corrected anti-aliasing, the result is that the edges are usually slightly less visible than without this option. But the effect depends on the monitor you're using and how this monitor is configured (brightness, contrast, etc.).
This option doesn't cost any performance.)
Antiliasing - Mode Enhance the application setting
(Usually, if you force an Anti-Aliasing mode through the driver, all rendering is done with the AA mode selected, regardless of what the application itself tells the driver to do.
This works with most games. But especially more current games have an option to enable AA within the game itself and give the driver very specific information where to apply AA and where not.
Enabling AA from within the game is more compatible and more efficient than forcing the AA mode through the driver, but has the disadvantage, that you're limited to the AA modes available in the game's options.
If you enable the option "Enhance in-game AA setting", AA will only be applied as defined by the game - so you have to enable AA in the game as well. But the driver still controls which AA mode is applied, which gives you the best results: optimal compatibility and efficiency while still being able to use all the new modes offered by nVidia.
For some games, nVidia set a flag in the profile so you have to use this option, since the game wouldn't work correctly otherwise. Those profiles are marked with AA:EnhanceOnly in the summary. You can still select an Anti-Aliasing mode in those profiles, but the "Enhance in-game AA setting"-option will always be active.)
Antiliasing Setting ----(x2)
CUDA - GPUs ----( All)
Extension Limit Off
(In OpenGL, a so called Driver Extension String is used to describe all the features the graphic card is supporting.
Unfortunately, this string has grown really huge on the latest generation of graphic cards. Some games can't cope with the length of this string and crash.
You can use this setting to limit the extension string.)
Maximum Pre-rendered frames 3
(During the rendering of scenes, the driver usually accepts commands for more than a single frame. This way the GPU doesn't stall the CPU until it's absolutely neccessary.
If the GPU accepts the command for too many frames ahead, additional mouse lag can be introduced, though. That means that there is a very slight delay between the moving of the mouse and the actual reaction on the screen.
Using this setting, you can limit the amount of frames the driver accepts ahead of the currently displayed frame. This should be left at the default value (3) to get the best performance.
You can get a faster reaction on your mouse movements in some games by lowering the limit. This might also cause a loss in framerate, though.
This setting doesn't work in automated profiles if used for a Direct3D game. You have to set it globally if you want to use it for a Direct3D game.)
Multi-display/mixed -GPU acceleration (Single Display Mode)
Texture Filtering - Anisoptric Sample Optimistion Off
(If the Anisotropic Sample optimization is enabled, the driver applies certain optimizations on all but the first texture stages.
In most games, these optimizations don't cause any visiable artifacts. But in some cases, some textures are "underfiltered", i.e. they tend to shimmer while you're moving. If you experience shimmering textures, you should first try to enable the Negativ LOD BIAS Clamp. If that doesn't help, you can try to disable this optimization.
But note that there are many games where texture shimmering is just the result of the selection of textures and geometry used. The only - very costly - way to reduce this shimmering is to use a Supersampling Anti-Aliasing mode.
In the current drivers, this optimization is always disabled if you're using the High Quality setting.)
Texture Filtering - Negative LOD Bias ---- (Clamp)
Texture filtering -Quality -----(Quality)
Texture Filtering -TriLinear optimisation Off
(A trilinear filter creates a smooth transition between two texture mip map levels. With a bilinear filter, i.e. if you're not using a trilinear filter, you'll see a visible breaking line between each mip map level, a sudden switch to a blurrier texture. These horizontal lines have a fixed distance from the point of view, so as you move, these lines appear to move together with you.
Refer to the chapter about the Anisotropic Filter for more information about mip maps and filtering.
The trilinear optimization is a compromize between a full trilinear filter, which reduces the framerate noticeably, and a bilinear filter which just looks ugly. This optimized trilinear filter has also been nicknamed "brilinear filter".
In some games, the trilinear optimization can cause a visible "bow wash" effect while you're moving, i.e. an area with a constant distance from the view point, where the textures seem to morph somehow while your moving forward and backward. If you see this effect and if you don't like it, disable this optimization.
In the current drivers, this optimization is always disabled if you're using the High Quality setting.)
Threaded Optimisation -----(Auto_
Triple Buffering On
(Each scene is rendered in the background in a separate buffer. As soon as its rendering is completed, the background buffer is switched to the foreground so you can see its contents.
If this switching takes place while the monitor is just displaying a frame, you have the effect that one part of the image is still showing the previous frame, while the other part is already showing the new frame.
As long as the scene doesn't change, this effect does not matter at all. But as soon as the player moves, especially if you make a horizontal pan, you will see a "tearing" effect, i.e. parts of the image seem to move separately.
This tearing effect makes the moving scene hard to look at, some people even get a headache because of it. Also, it makes the movement seem unnatural and somewhat uneven.
To avoid this tearing effect, you can enable the Vertical Synchronisation or VSync. VSync means that the switching between the background buffer and the foreground buffer can only take place, after the monitor has completed displaying one complete frame.
The disadvantage of VSync is, that the total frame rate can never exceed the refresh rate of the monitor. So if your system is set to use 60 Hz in the given resolution, the frame rate can never exceed 60 frames per second. But since the monitor isn't capable of displaying more than 60 distinct images per second, a higher frame rate doesn't do much good anyway.
Another disadvantage is, that if the game doesn't use three buffers for rendering the scene (a so called triple buffer), the frame rate cannot fluctuate freely. Only integer fractions of the monitor's refresh rate (i.e. 1/1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5 etc.) are possible. In the case of the refresh rate of 60Hz, the only possible framerates would be 60fps, 30fps, 20fps, 15fps, 12fps...
So in many cases the framerate will "jump" from 60 to 30 frames per second, which can be quite noticeable. As long as the graphic card can maintain the 60 frames per second at all times, this doesn't hurt at all, but every drop below 60 fps will reduce the actual framerate to 30 fps. Again, this effect can avoided completely, if the game uses triple buffering. Unfortunately, the game itself has to request a triple buffer, there is no way of forcing them through the driver.
Still, most people prefer to play with VSync enabled, even without a triple buffer, because the movement of the images are much much smoother than without VSync.
A triple buffer can be forced in OpenGL games by checking the Force OpenGL Triple-Buffer option. Note that this option has no effect for Direct3D-games. In Direct3D, each game has to request a triple buffer by itself.)
Vertical Sync -----(Forced On)
Any info or suggestions would be much appreciated.
Many thanks (and for the link), very useful to have an explanation of these options.
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