GPU Settings Guide

This will be a comprehensive guide for settings on your GPU. I havent decided yet if this will include "recommended" settings for each game for each GPU...that will take a LOT of time to finish. I will try to describe as best as I can what each setting does. This will be good for desktops/notebooks. Enough talk! Shall we get started?

Automatic Settings:
Some games, have a feature to automatically detect settings that are best for your system, (Oblivion, Doom3, etc...) HOWEVER, I find that they either pick settings that are way too low for your system, or way to high for your system. In the case of TES4: Oblivion, it picked settings that were way to high for my system, and as soon as I stepped out of the tutorial sewer, it was a slideshow. I generally do not let the game detect the settings for either of my computers.

Antialiasing:
This option indicates whether the game will try to smooth out the jagged look of diagonals and seams between textures and polygons. You can usually select the level (i.e. 2x, 4x, 8x). The higher the number, the better it looks, and the bigger hit you will take in performance.

Resolution:
The screen resolution determines how large the icons and text look on the monitor and the amount of real estate you have to work with. In games, changing resolution affects how much detail the scenes are drawn with. An object in a game will be the same size at 800 x 600 pixels and at 1024 × 768 pixels. In the latter case, however, it will be drawn with that much more fine detail. Higher resolutions look better but degrade performance.

Filtering (AF and bi/tri linear):
You will most often have the choice between bilinear, trilinear, and anisotropic filtering, and sometimes the anisotropic filtering level. Filtering smoothes the textures and makes them look less pixilated and more lifelike. Anisotropic filtering also smoothes the transitions between detailed, close-up textures and less detailed, faraway textures. Bilinear filtering is the easiest on performance but looks the worst. Trilinear is next best visually. Higher levels of anisotropic filtering look better but deliver big hit to performance.

Texture resolution/detail:
Textures are the paintings on the flat and curved surfaces that make the models look like what they're supposed to look like. As with screen resolutions, textures can be drawn at several resolutions. The higher the resolution/detail level, the more realistic the textures will look, but the worse the game will perform.

Unit/model detail:
Most 3D games have character models or unit models. Like all 3D objects, they are composed of polygons and textures. Changing their detail levels can affect their texture resolutions, the number of polygons they're drawn with (in both cases, higher numbers are visually superior but impair performance), or other aspects.

*NEW* V-Sync:
A method used in computer games make the game to draw to the screen starting at the beginning of a video scan. This limits the frame rate of the game to the monitor's refresh rate and prevents what is commonly known as "tearing". V-sync is often found in applications where frames forming a motion sequence are rendered in real time at a variable rate, including 2D/3D games and audio/data visualizations, but does not apply to video playback (as video has a fixed frame rate).

Some people incorrectly believe that V-sync and refresh rate are NOT related because their framerate does not match their desktop refresh rate. This is because the game being played changes the refresh rate while it is running.

My advice to you:
PLAY THE GAME FIRST. See how you like it. If you think it is stuttering too much or you are not getting enough FPS for your taste, then tweak the settings. Would you rather have a maxed out game at lower resolution, or a higher resolution with settings turned down? These are all decisions that are left up to you.

This will be updated soon. More to follow, this will just start us off.

pb,out.

 

great guide PB!

You should also include a description of Vertical sync too

 

thanks...will update that shortly

pb,out.

 

V-Sync has been updated! enjoy.

pb,out.

 

the Bold text for V-sync came out wrong.

 

fixed!

pb,out.

 

Not to sound negative, but I was kind of disappointed. I thought I would find the best settings for my GPU and not just a description of the settings

But good info, though nothing new

 

That is a nice post there pb. I definately agree with you, it is all up to the user whether or not they want to go for performance or quality. Hopefully this will give people some insight as to how to tweak there GPU, expecially when they have a x300 like me...lol

 

well not to rip your post apart, but how do i know if you like performance or quality? i dont know what game your running, and i dont know if you like AA or not, i dont know if you like V-Sync, or if you like AF..etc....

also, i do not have an x600 so it will be quite difficult to know what is best for it, and lastly, i do not know what is best for you.



pb,out.

 

Great post mate

This is what our forum needs...info about graphic crads...

Charlie-Peru

 

Temporal AA: This uses the same number of samples to smooth the edges as the same number of normal AA but each alternate frame it uses a different pattern. Vsync has to be on and if the framerate goes too low it can cause flickering, however as long as all is well it will appear as though the number of AA is double (2xTAA = 4xAA).

 

No that's true, but I expected something like...in my experience blabla...I mean if I were unsatisfied with my GPU performance I would try to alter my GPU settings. But this is imho not a guide but a GPU settings explanation.

A guide is do this and go there...a guide shows/gives the best possible ways to explore/use things ;-)

 

God your picky, since it has to be taken on a case by case basis and this shows what the options are to do that, then its fine.

 

once again..we cant hand feed you. what you have to do, is find a balance of quality and performance. this is purely up to YOU, and you alone..if you like it so everything looks great while getting .0001 fps, then that is your choice and these settings explain what each setting is for.

it depends on what game it is, and if you want performance or quality...post something like this, and im sure we can get some settings to help you. until then, we really dont know how to help you further....

pb,out.

 

I have no problems at all...I just add a comment. I don't think there is anything wrong in adding criticts to 'articles' like this. I know it's much more fun and nice when people say 'Great post...You are the best'. I just stated my thoughts on the subject and that's it.

And in the case it was a guide - atleast in the way I understand the use of the word guide, I would have tried out some of the tips to see what it would do for me

Kind regards

Bokazoit

 

give me a game, and if you want performance or quality..i will try to help..but until then, every game is different, and needs different settings, and IS different in every case.

pb,out.