Help with game settings - Nividia 9800m GTS

Hi Guys,

I just posted this in the Sager forums, but wanted to see what everyones opinions were on it. I have Sager 5793 with 9800m GTS gpu.

How you set your machines to run high end games? Im new to vista and laptop gaming so im feeling kinda lost. Sorry for the laundry list of questions, if these have already been covered can you link the thread?

I just got the new drivers version 180 or something like that and i have windows power set to high performance.

Do you set the nvidia contral panel to custom settings or let the application decide?

Do you use vertical sync in games. I go back and forth on this one. Sometimes it seems to help and other times it lowers framerates.

Do you use 1650 res to game? I have been going down to 1440. 1650 seems to have lower frame rates. Im not sure whats better 1650 with medium settings or 1440 with max settings. I need to get fraps to really test it out and see how it runs.

I got nvidia ntune 6.03 (i think thats the latest) to overclock my card. Do you recommend overclocking and what settings do you use?

Thanks again and sorry for all the questions!!

 

1. One there is not really guide to set your games. since everyone see's lag different.

2. You can mess with nvidia control panel if you feel that you need more graphic control. (Mess with the nvidia control will gain like maybe 5% difference for good or bad.)

3. Vertical sync is good if you see tearing in the screen if you don't than no need for it.

4. Resolution again comes to fact of you. if you like the way it looks at 1650 than play there if you don't change.

5. Stay away from ntune it will cause BSOD's go google Rivatuner.

6. Question for you what games are you having tough times with also we need all your specs to really help.

There you go.

 

Thanks!

Heres what i got (stole your formatting )

Sager 5793
C2D T8300 2.4 ghz
4GB DDR2
320 GB 7200RPM
NVIDIA 9800M GTS (1680x1050) Glossy
Windows Vista Home 64 bit

Right now im playing

Gears of War
Call of Duty 4
Bioshock
Devil May Cry 4
Wow (no problems there)

I going to be getting very soon
Crysis and Warhead
Mass Effect
Unreal 3
anything else thats new an kickass

 

With the exception of Crysis and Warhead, all of those games should run great on 1650 with max settings on a 9800GTS. Its true that you will lose frames when gaming in 1650, but I still think those games should stay well over 30fps.

For Crysis games, you might have to play on a 1280x800 resolution with a custom config file. There are some floating around the forums.

I never played Gears of War on a PC, so I'm not sure how that will perform.

 

You also want to be playing at native.
For best picture.

So stay with in that res and low anything else.
And doing so you less like to have tearing meaning no need for vsync.

COD4 should play well
Bioshock (Shader are harsh in this game so consider lowing shadows or lighting)
DMC4 (IDK i hate the game)
WOW (Really>?)

Crysis. (The only you are going to play that nicely is about 2 or more cards with 1GB of memory on them or 2GB of memory.

Mass Effect Easy as pie
UN 3 Anti Aliasing will hurt video memory alot on the un3 engine.

2 cents

 

You can max out Gears of War on a 9800m GTS and that too on higher resolutions

 

It's all about graphical settings, and screen resolution.

Personally:

-I never use Anti-Aliasing or Vertical Sync with new games because they can cut your fps down by 60%, always run with out them for starters (if the game is a bit older, Valve - Source engine, then you can start enabling these extras...

- download fraps and learn how to use it

-Try running max (no AA, no vertical sync) at your native resolution at the highest settings, while running fraps (or a built in fps counter), if your FPS counter constantly dips below 20, you need to lower your settings or resolution.

- Crysis for example, you may want to lower your resolution down to 1280*1024 and play at all high, or 1680*1080 all medium, some high. It depends on if you want graphical enhancements or a sharp picture quality...

- If your running Call of Duty 4 for example, and your running maxed out, resolution at 1680*1080, with 40+ fps, you have the opportunity to add a bit of Anti Aliasing...

- Once you find out what works, get rid of FRAPS (it hurts performance a bit), forget the game has 'settings' and enjoy

Improve Performance:
1. Get rid of Anti-Aliasing, Vertical Sync
2. Lower Resolution until you find a stable resolution with a sharp enough quality
3. Lower Settings (trying to keep texture/object quality as high as possible, lower soft shadows, or shadow options)

Alternatively if your running a game very well:
1. Raise some extra settings you may have missed (soft shadows for example)
2. Raise Resolution
3. Apply Anti- Aliasing if you can 'afford it'
4. Apply V-sync if you can 'afford it' (usually not necessary)

Gamespot also has some pretty good hardware performance guides you should take a look at.

 

Thanks for all the great info guys!!

I got fraps. With max settings in heat of battle im doin around 30-45 fps. Everything seems to be running great. Just curious what do you consider to be good playable fps?

One thing i noticed on one game. It had a setting to choose direct x 9 or 10. I didnt catch this before and was using 9. Once i set it to 10, i got a real boost in performance.

 

It's strange that you got a boost going up to dx.10, what game what that?

To answer you question, 30+ FPS should be what your aiming for. Crysis (crytek engine games I guess) run well at lows of 23,24,25-49+ fps as you may have noticed