Nvidia Profile Inspector
Developers | |
---|---|
Orbmu2k |
Nvidia Profile Inspector ("NPI") is a third-party tool created for pulling up and editing application profiles within the Nvidia display drivers. Much like the 3D settings page in the Nvidia Control Panel, but more in-depth and exposes settings and functionality not available through the normal control panel for the display driver.
The tool was spun off of the original Nvidia Inspector, which featured an overclocking utility and required you to create a shortcut to launch the profile editor.
Useful Links
Compatibility Flags
Related articles
Installation
Instructions |
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Status indicators
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Tweaks
Why force Anisotropic Filtering (AF)?
This is an example of why you should set texture filtering globally and forget it, as some developer's own solutions are not as high quality as they could be.
If any game has a conflict with driver forced texture filtering, Nvidia usually sets a special flag on a profile for texture filtering that disables driver overrides for that game, such as with Far Cry 3 and Doom (2016).
Settings
- Keep changes to the base
_GLOBAL_DRIVER_PROFILE
profile limited, as overrides there are applied to all games and applications.
Compatibility
- Compatibility parameters that allows ambient occlusion, anti-aliasing, and SLI to be used for games, if given an appropriate value.
- Ambient Occlusion/HBAO+ Compatibility Flags
- Anti-Aliasing Compatibility Flags
- SLI Compatibility Flags (German)
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
Ambient Occlusion compatibility | Allows HBAO+ to work with any given game. |
Antialiasing compatibility | Allows various forms of anti-aliasing to work with any given DirectX 9 game. |
Antialiasing compatibility (DX1x) | Allows various forms of anti-aliasing to work with DirectX 10/11/12 games. Often restricted to MSAA and generally sees little use due to its limited capability. |
Antialiasing Fix | Avoid black edges in some games while using MSAA.[1] Related to Team Fortress 2 and a few other games as well, where it is enabled by default. |
SLI compatibility bits | Allows SLI to work in any given DirectX 9 game. |
SLI compatibility bits (DX10+DX11) | Allows SLI to work in any given DirectX 10/11 game. |
SLI compatibility bits (DX12) | Allows SLI to work in any given DirectX 12 game. |
Sync and Refresh
- See Frame rate (FPS) for relevant information.
- The built-in frame rate limiter of the Nvidia display drivers introduces 2+ frames of delay, while RTSS (and possibly other alternatives) only introduces 1 frame of delay.[2]
- AnandTech - Triple Buffering: Why We Love It - Recommended reading about triple buffering/Fast Sync.
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
Flip Indicator | Enables an on-screen display of frames presented using flip model. |
Frame Rate Limiter | Enables the built-in frame rate limiter of the display drivers at the specified FPS. |
Frame Rate Limiter Mode | Controls what mode of the frame rate limiter will be used. |
GSYNC - Application Mode | Controls whether the G-Sync feature will be active in fullscreen only, or in windowed mode as well. |
GSYNC - Application Requested State | Unknown |
GSYNC - Application State | Selects the technique used to control the refresh policy of an attached monitor.
It is highly recommended to change this using the Nvidia Control Panel > Manage 3D Settings > Monitor Technology instead to properly configured this and related parameters. |
GSYNC - Global Feature | Toggles the global G-Sync functionality. It is recommended to change this using the Nvidia Control Panel > Set up G-SYNC instead to properly configured this and related parameters. |
GSYNC - Global Feature | Controls whether the G-Sync feature will be active globally in fullscreen only, or in windowed mode as well. |
GSYNC - Indicator Overlay | Enables a semi-transparent on-screen status indicator of when G-Sync is being used. If G-Sync is not being used, the indicator is not shown at all. |
Maximum pre-rendered frames | Controls how many frames the CPU can prepare ahead of the frame currently being drawn by the GPU. Increasing this can result in smoother gameplay at lower frame rates, at the cost of additional input delay.[3] This setting does not apply to SLI configurations.
|
Preferred Refresh Rate | Controls the refresh rate override of the display drivers for games running in exclusive fullscreen mode. This also dictates the upper limit of the G-Sync range, as G-Sync will go inactive and the screen will start to tear at frame rates above the configured refresh rate, or V-Sync will kick in and sync the frame rate to the refresh rate if enabled.
This setting is only expose in Nvidia Control Panel for G-Sync monitors supporting refresh rates above 60 Hz. |
Triple buffering | Toggles triple buffering in OpenGL games. Enabling this improves performance when vertical sync is also turned on. |
Vertical Sync | Controls vertical sync, or enables Fast Sync. Fast-Sync is essentially triple buffering for DirectX games, and is only applicable to frame rates above the refresh rate when regular V-Sync is disabled. |
Vertical Sync Smooth AFR behavior | Toggles V-Sync smoothing behavior when V-Sync is enabled and SLI is active.
Official description:[5] Smooth Vsync is a new technology that can reduce stutter when Vsync is enabled and SLI is active. When SLI is active and natural frame rates of games are below the refresh rate of your monitor, traditional vsync forces frame rates to quickly oscillate between the refresh rate and half the refresh rate (for example, between 60Hz and 30Hz). This variation is often perceived as stutter. Smooth Vsync improves this by locking into the sustainable frame rate of your game and only increasing the frame rate if the game performance moves sustainably above the refresh rate of your monitor. This does lower the average framerate of your game, but the experience in many cases is far better. |
Vertical Sync Tear Control | Toggles Adaptive V-Sync when vertical sync is enabled. Not available when G-Sync is enabled.
Official description:[6] Nothing is more distracting than frame rate stuttering and screen tearing. The first tends to occur when frame rates are low, the second when frame rates are high. Adaptive VSync is a smarter way to render frames using NVIDIA Control Panel software. At high framerates, VSync is enabled to eliminate tearing. At low frame rates, it's disabled to minimize stuttering. |
Antialiasing
- See Anti-aliasing (AA) for relevant information.
- Anti-Aliasing Compatibility Flags
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
Antialiasing - Behavior Flags | These mostly exist as a method of governing usage of AA from Nvidia Control Panel, though they also affect Inspector as well.
|
Antialiasing - Gamma Correction | Gamma correction for MSAA.
|
Antialiasing - Line gamma | Applies gamma correction for singular lines (like wires) as compared to edges.[8] |
Antialiasing - Mode | Determines in what mode the anti-aliasing override of the display driver should function in for an application:
|
Antialiasing - Setting |
This is where the specific method of forced/enhanced MSAA is set. |
Antialiasing - Transparency Multisampling |
|
Antialiasing - Transparency Supersampling |
|
Enable Maxwell sample interleaving (MFAA) |
This enables Nvidia's Multi Frame Anti Aliasing mode. This only works in DXGI (DX10+) and requires either the game to have MSAA enabled in the game or MSAA to be forced.
What it does is change the sub sample grid pattern every frame and then is reconstructed in motion with a "Temporal Synthesis Filter" as Nvidia calls it.
|
Nvidia Predefined FXAA Usage | Controls whether Nvidia's FXAA implementation is allowed to be enabled for an application through Nvidia Control Panel (primarily) or Nvidia Profile Inspector. |
Toggle FXAA indicator on or off | This will display a small green icon in the left upper corner if enabled showing whether FXAA is enabled or not. |
Toggle FXAA on or off | FXAA is a fast shader-based post-processing technique that can be applied to any application, including those which do not support other forms of hardware-based antialiasing. FXAA can also be used in conjunction with other antialiasing settings to improve overall image quality.
|
Enhance application setting
- When overriding the in-game MSAA fails, you can instead replace (enhance) the in-game MSAA with the NVIDIA MSAA technique of your choice.
- These usually require anti-aliasing compatibility flags to work properly in DirectX 9 applications; see Compatibility for details and resources.
- The level of supersampling must match a corresponding level of MSAA. For example, if 4x MSAA is used, then 4x Sparse Grid Supersampling must be used.
- In OpenGL
Supersampling
is equivalent toSparse Grid Supersampling
. Ergo, 4xMSAA+4xTrSSAA will give you 4xFSSGSSAA in OpenGL games that work.
Supersampling
- Inexpensive
- Does not require MSAA to work
- Only works on alpha-tested surfaces
Full-Screen Sparse Grid Supersamping
- Extremely high-quality supersampling
- Works on the entire image
- Requires MSAA to work
- Very expensive
Texture Filtering
- See Anisotropic filtering (AF) for relevant information.
Parameter | Description |
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Anisotropic filtering mode | Toggles the built-in anisotropic filtering override of the display drivers.
|
Anisotropic filtering setting | Controls the level of texture filtering the driver override applies, if Anisotropic filtering mode is set to User-defined / Off .
|
Prevent anisotropic filtering | Similar to AA Behavior Flags, if this is set to On it will ignore user-defined driver overrides. Some games default to this, such as Quake 4, RAGE, Doom (2016), Far Cry 3, and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.
|
Texture filtering - Anisotropic filter optimization | Anisotropic filter optimization improves performance by limiting trilinear filtering to the primary texture stage where the general appearance and color of objects is determined. Bilinear filtering is used for all other stages, such as those used for lighting, shadows, and other effects. This setting only affects DirectX programs.
|
Texture Filtering - Anisotropic sample optimization | Anisotropic sample optimization limits the number of anisotropic samples used based on texel size. This setting only affects DirectX programs.
|
Texture Filtering - Driver Controlled LOD Bias | When using SGSSAA with this enabled will allow the driver to compute it's own negative LOD bias for textures to help improve sharpness (at cost of potential for more aliasing) for those who prefer it. It's generally less than the fixed amounts that are recommended.[citation needed]
|
Texture Filtering - LOD Bias (DX) |
The level of detail bias setting for textures in DirectX applications. This normally only works under 2 circumstances, both of which requires Driver Controlled LoD Bias set to
Notes:
|
Texture Filtering - LOD Bias (OGL) | Identical to Texture Filtering - LOD Bias (DX) but applies to OpenGL applications instead. |
Texture Filtering - Negative LOD bias | Some applications use negative LOD bias to sharpen texture filtering. This sharpens the stationary image but introduces aliasing ("shimmering") when the scene is in motion. This setting controls whether negative LOD bias are clamped (not allowed) or allowed.
|
Texture Filtering - Quality | This setting allows you to decide if you would prefer performance, quality, or a balance between the two. If you change this using the Nvidia Control Panel, the control panel will make all of the appropriate texture filtering adjustments based on the selected preference.
|
Texture Filtering - Trilinear Optimization | Trilinear optimization improves texture filtering performance by allowing bilinear filtering on textures in parts of the scene where trilinear filtering is not necessary. This setting only affects DirectX applications.
|
Common
Ambient Occlusion setting
This setting determines what kind of Ambient Occlusion is used in games which do not support it.
- Has three modes:
Performance
Quality
High Quality
Quality
and High Quality
are nearly identical, while Performance
noticeably lowers the resolution and precision of the effect in many games with less-accurate and stronger shading.[citation needed]
- Certain games need
Performance
to support forced Ambient Occlusion, such as Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty!.[citation needed]
Ambient Occlusion usage
When using forced Ambient Occlusion, set this to On
.
Extension limit
"Extension limit indicates whether the driver extension string has been trimmed for compatibility with particular applications. Some older applications cannot process long extension strings and will crash if extensions are unlimited.
If you are using an older OpenGL application, turning this option on may prevent crashing. If you are using a newer OpenGL application, you should turn this option off"[citation needed]
Multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration
This controls GPU-based acceleration in OpenGL applications and will not have any effect on performance on DirectX platforms.[11]
Power management mode
"Setting Power management mode from "Adaptive" to "Maximum Performance" can improve performance in certain applications when the GPU is throttling the clock speeds incorrectly."[12]
Adaptive vs. Max Performance power setting
Adaptive
- Automatically determines whether to use a lower clock speed for games and apps.
- Works well when not playing games.
- Frequently causes problems in games[citation needed]
- Nvidia GPU Boost GPUs tend to incorrectly use a lower clock speed.[citation needed]
Prefer Max Performance
- Prevents the GPU from switching to a lower clock speed for games and apps.
- Works well when playing games.
- Wasteful when not using GPU-intensive applications or games.
So, if you want to use Adaptive by default, remember to set Prefer Maximum Performance
in each profile for each game you play.
First steps for tweaking driver settings
- The first thing you will always want to do for any given is search to see whether Nvidia has already made a profile for your game.
To do this, left click in the white "Profiles" box, and start typing in the name of the game. The application will search through the list and narrow the list down the more characters you type.
- If your game does not have a profile, you will need to create one by clicking on the Sun icon.
It will prompt you to name the profile.
- You then will need to add the game
.exe
to this new profile by hitting the folder with the green + icon.
- If you attempt to add an executable to a profile and it prompts you with a message that the
Insert Here.exe
already belongs to a profile.
Pay attention to the name of the profile/s it gives you. For example if the game you were looking for didn't show up in a search, it's possible you may have worded it differently than they have it set in the driver.
HOWEVER, if the profiles it mentions to you aren't related to the game at all in any way we will need to set up the profile to use an .exe
based on directory.
When you go to select an .exe
click the drop down box in the right hand corner and set to "Absolute Application Path"
- Now you are ready to change settings on the profile. Don't forget to hit Apply Changes to any changes you make!
Shader cache
Enables or disables the shader cache, which saves compiled shaders to your hard drive to improve game performance.[13]
- Added in driver 337.88
Threaded optimization
- Unknown feature which works in both DirectX and OpenGL games
- Can cause issues in certain games.[citation needed]
SLI
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
Antialiasing - SLI AA | This determines whether a Nvidia SLI setup splits the MSAA workload between the available GPUs.[14] |
Disable SLI (Explicitly set through NVAPI) | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Number of GPUs to use on SLI rendering mode | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
NVIDIA predefined number of GPUs to use on SLI rendering mode | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
NVIDIA predefined number of GPUs to use on SLI rendering mode on DX10 | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
NVIDIA predefined SLI mode | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
NVIDIA predefined SLI mode on DX10 | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
SLI indicator | Enables a semi-transparent on-screen status indicator of when SLI is being used and how the workload is split between the cards. |
SLI rendering mode | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Stereo
- Lists stereoscopic 3D settings related to Nvidia 3D Vision.
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
Force Stereo shuttering | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
LaserXAdjust | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
LaserYAdjust | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Stereo - Display mode | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Stereo - Dongle Support | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Stereo - Enable | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Stereo - Swap eyes | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Stereo - Swap mode | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
StereoConvergence | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
StereoCutoff | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
StereoCutoffDepthFar | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
StereoCutoffDepthNear | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
StereoFlagsDX10 | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
StereoMemoEnabled | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
StereoProfile | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
StereoTextureEnable | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
StereoUseMatrix | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Other
- Lists settings which do not match another category.
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
Ansel flags for enabled applications | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Application Profile Notification Popup Timeout | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Battery Boost | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Buffer-flipping mode | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Deep color for 3D applications | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Display the VRR Overlay Indicator | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Do not display this profile in the Control Panel | Hides the profile from being listed in Nvidia Control Panel > Manage 3D Settings > Program Settings. |
Enable Ansel | Enable Ansel (NvCamera) for the application. This is enabled by default and results in the display drivers injecting the DLL files for Ansel in all applications. |
Enable application for Optimus | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Enable GTX950 specific features | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Enable NV_gpu_multicast extension | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Enable overlay | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Event Log Severity Threshold | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Event Log Tmon Severity Threshold | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Export Performance Counters | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Export Performance Counters for DX9 only | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Exported Overlay pixel types | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Frame Rate Monitor | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Frame Rate Monitor Control | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
High level control of the rendering quality on OpenGL | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
ICafe Settings | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
List of Universal GPU ids | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Maximum AA samples allowed for a given application | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Maximum frames allowed | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Maximum GPU Power | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Maximum resolution alllowed for a given application | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Memory Allocation Policy | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
NVIDIA Predefined Ansel Usage | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
NVIDIA Quality upscaling | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
OpenGL default swap interval | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
OpenGL default swap interval fraction | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
OpenGL default swap interval sign | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Optimus flags for enabled applications | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
PowerThrottle | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Preferred OpenGL GPU | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Quiet Mode | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Quiet Mode Application FPS | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Shim Rendering Mode Options per application for Optimus | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
SILK Smoothness | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Steam Application ID | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Unified back/depth buffer | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
VAB Default Data | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Variable refresh Rate | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Virtual Reality pre-rendered frames | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Vsync - Behavior Flags | If you know what this setting do, please add a description here. |
Unknown
- These are unknown settings or overrides that Nvidia Profile Inspector is not aware of what they determine or controls.
- Most of these are game-specific overrides only applicable to a few games, or new flags that were introduced in newer versions of the display drivers.
References
- ↑ Geeks3D Forums - Nvidia Inspector 1.9.7.2 Beta - last accessed on 2018-08-29
- "added FERMI_SETREDUCECOLORTHRESHOLDSENABLE as "Antialiasing fix" to avoid black edges in some games while using MSAA (R320.14+)"
- ↑ Blur Busters - G-SYNC 101: In-game vs. External FPS Limiters - last accessed on
- "Needless to say, even if an in-game framerate limiter isn’t available, RTSS only introduces up to 1 frame of delay, which is still preferable to the 2+ frame delay added by Nvidia’s limiter with G-SYNC enabled, and a far superior alternative to the 2-6 frame delay added by uncapped G-SYNC."
- ↑ Maximum Pre-Rendered frames for SLI - last accessed on 2016-10-12
- "The 'maximum pre-rendered frames' function operates within the DirectX API and serves to explicitly define the maximum number of frames the CPU can process ahead of the frame currently being drawn by the graphics subsystem. This is a dynamic, time-dependent queue that reacts to performance: at low frame rates, a higher value can produce more consistent gameplay, whereas a low value is less likely to introduce input latencies incurred by the extended storage time (of higher values) within the cache/memory. Its influence on performance is usually barely measurable, but its primary intent is to control peripheral latency."
- ↑ DisplayLag - Reduce Input Lag in PC Games: The Definitive Guide - last accessed on 2018-08-29
- ↑ Nvidia - What is Smooth Vsync? - last accessed on 2018-08-29
- ↑ Nvidia - Adaptive VSync - last accessed on 2018-08-29
- ↑ NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 (G80): GPUs Re-architected for DirectX 10 - What's Gamma Correct AA? - last accessed on 2016-10-12
- ↑ GeForce Forums - What does "Line Gamma" do for Anti-Aliasing? - last accessed on 2018-08-30
- ↑ Verified by User:Aemony on 2018-08-30
- This is a comment by the modder Kaldaien in his Special K mod for Ys 8, which among other things included an anisotropic filtering override. The comment is shown while hovering the mouse over the anisotropic filtering override.
- ↑ Natural Violence - SGSSAA - last accessed on 2016-10-12
- ↑ https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/449234/sli/mulit-display-mixed-gpu-acceleration-how-to-use-/
- ↑ https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3130/~/setting-power-management-mode-from-adaptive-to-maximum-performance
- ↑ GeForce 337.88 WHQL, Game Ready Watch Dogs Drivers Increase Frame Rates By Up To 75% - last accessed on 2016-10-12
- "Shaders are used in almost every game, adding numerous visual effects that can greatly improve image quality (you can see the dramatic impact of shader technology in Watch Dogs here). Generally, shaders are compiled during loading screens, or during gameplay in seamless world titles, such as Assassin's Creed IV, Batman: Arkham Origins, and the aforementioned Watch Dogs. During loads their compilation increases the time it takes to start playing, and during gameplay increases CPU usage, lowering frame rates. When the shader is no longer required, or the game is closed, it is disgarded, forcing its recompilation the next time you play.
In today's 337.88 WHQL drivers we've introduced a new NVIDIA Control Panel feature called "Shader Cache", which saves compiled shaders to a cache on your hard drive. Following the compilation and saving of the shader, the shader can simply be recalled from the hard disk the next time it is required, potentially reducing load times and CPU usage to optimize and improve your experience.
By default the Shader Cache is enabled for all games, and saves up to 256MB of compiled shaders in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp\NVIDIA Corporation\NV_Cache. This location can be changed by moving your entire Temp folder using Windows Control Panel > System > System Properties > Advanced > Environmental Variables > Temp, or by using a Junction Point to relocate the NV_Cache folder. To change the use state of Shader Cache on a per-game basis simply locate the option in the NVIDIA Control Panel, as shown below."
- "Shaders are used in almost every game, adding numerous visual effects that can greatly improve image quality (you can see the dramatic impact of shader technology in Watch Dogs here). Generally, shaders are compiled during loading screens, or during gameplay in seamless world titles, such as Assassin's Creed IV, Batman: Arkham Origins, and the aforementioned Watch Dogs. During loads their compilation increases the time it takes to start playing, and during gameplay increases CPU usage, lowering frame rates. When the shader is no longer required, or the game is closed, it is disgarded, forcing its recompilation the next time you play.
- ↑ NVIDIA - SLI Antialiasing - last accessed on 2016-10-12
- "SLI AA essentially disables normal AFR rendering, and in 2-way mode will use the primary GPU for rendering + forced AA, while the secondary GPU is only used to do AA work.
In SLI8x mode for example, each GPU would then do 4xMSAA after which the final result becomes 4xMSAA+4xMSAA=8xMSAA.
This can be useful in games without proper SLI support, so at least the second GPU is not just idling.
However it unfortunately only works correctly in OpenGL, and there will be no difference in temporal behavior between for example normal forced 4xMSAA+4xSGSSAA and SLI8x+8xSGSSAA in DX9."
- "SLI AA essentially disables normal AFR rendering, and in 2-way mode will use the primary GPU for rendering + forced AA, while the secondary GPU is only used to do AA work.