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Difference between revisions of "Nvidia"

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#REDIRECT [[Nvidia (GeForce GPU)]]
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{{Infobox non-game
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|cover        = Nvidia logo.png
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|developers  =
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|release dates =
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|winehq      =
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|wikipedia    = Nvidia
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}}
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'''Nvidia''' is a chip making company that creates the '''GeForce''', '''Titan''', and '''Quadro''' line of [[Glossary:Graphics card|graphics cards]], as well as various in-home streaming devices under the '''Shield''' brand that allows streaming of PC games from a computer over the local network to the Shield device.
 +
 
 +
'''Resources'''
 +
{{ii}} [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/ Official GeForce website] - GeForce Experience, drivers, tech specs, and other gaming related technologies.
 +
{{ii}} [http://www.nvidia.com Official Nvidia website]
 +
:[[Wikipedia:GeForce|GeForce article on Wikipedia]]
 +
 
 +
'''Related articles'''
 +
{{ii}} [[Nvidia Control Panel]]
 +
{{ii}} [[Nvidia Profile Inspector]]
 +
 
 +
==[[Nvidia Control Panel]]==
 +
{{ii}} See the [[Nvidia Control Panel]] article for more information.
 +
 
 +
The Nvidia Control Panel is a tool created by Nvidia designed to allow you to customize various display driver settings for your Nvidia graphics card.
 +
 
 +
===[[Nvidia Profile Inspector]]===
 +
{{ii}} See the [[Nvidia Profile Inspector]] article for more information.
 +
{{++}} Often found to be more responsive than the regular Nvidia control panel.
 +
{{--}} Can be hard to use for beginners as not everything is explained.
 +
 
 +
Nvidia Profile Inspector is a third-party tool created for pulling up and editing application profiles within the display drivers. Much like the '''3D settings''' page in the [[Nvidia Control Panel]], but more in-depth and exposes settings and functionality not exposed through the normal control panel for the display driver.
 +
 
 +
==GeForce==
 +
The GeForce line of graphics cards were introduced in 1999 with the GeForce 256.
 +
 
 +
===[https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ GeForce Experience]===
 +
Nvidia's companion tool for GeForce graphics cards, focusing on providing a central place for gamers to customize and access Nvidia/GeForce exclusive features, such as [[#Shadowplay|Shadowplay]] and [[#FreeStyle|FreeStyle]].
 +
 
 +
===GeForce Naming Scheme===
 +
;GeForce 6 series to 9 series
 +
With earlier series of cards the names are broken up into a 4 digit model number, with an occasional suffix on the end.
 +
As an example we can use the GeForce 8600GTS.
 +
The first digit is the series the card belongs to, in this case an 8 series. The second digit, the 6, is to signify the cards power range within that series. A 6 signifies a mid-range power, 8 for high end enthusiast card, and a 4/5 for low-end cards intended mainly for multimedia uses. The "00" are meaningless. The suffix can indicate minor changes from the base card, such as over-clocking or additional RAM. As in this example the 8600GTS comes with a 675mhz core, compared to the 8600GT with a 540 MHz core. The GS suffix indicates an inferior version of the base card (e.g. 7600 GS performs poorer than 7600 GT).
 +
 
 +
;GeForce 100 series to 1000/"10" series
 +
With the 100 series introduced in 2009 Nvidia changed their naming scheme for GeForce cards. This time they come with a small fixed prefix, and a 3 digit model number.
 +
As an example we can use the GTX 460.
 +
It is much the same as the older models, the first digit signifying the series, in this case the 400 series. The second digit signifies the power range, once again a middling card signified by the "6". And the "0" is once again meaningless, though may occasionally updates to a card may lead to a card coming with a 5 instead of the common 0. Though in this case the GTX465 is a weaker card.
 +
 
 +
Furthermore, there are only three prefixes:
 +
GT (low end) < GTS (mainstream) < GTX (performance and high end).
 +
 
 +
As said, a card has now a fixed prefix, e.g. there is no GTS 460. Occasionally the suffix "Ti" can indicate a more powerful version (e.g. GTX 560 Ti > GTX 560).
 +
 
 +
The '''10xx''' line-up is also known as the '''10 series'''. Beyond that, they follow the same naming scheme as the rest of the 1xx-9xx series.
 +
 
 +
;GeForce 20 series and beyond
 +
With the announcement of the 20 series (2070, 2080, etc.) in August 2018, Nvidia changed their naming scheme slightly. Instead of each new generation having a product name 100 above the previous one, the difference is now 1000 instead. On top of this the '''GTX''' prefix was also complimented with '''RTX''' to correlate with the new focus on real-time ray tracing.
 +
 
 +
==Ansel==
 +
''Not to be confused with [[#FreeStyle|FreeStyle]], a GeForce exclusive feature to add post-processing filters to games.''
 +
{{ii}} [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/ansel/ Product page]
 +
{{ii}} [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/games/#ansel List of supported games]
 +
{{mm}} See [https://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/ansel-revolutionizing-game-screenshots Nvidia's feature article]
 +
{{mm}} [https://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/ansel Technology page]
 +
{{--}} Is injected in all games by the display drivers, regardless if the game supports Ansel or not. This might cause conflicts with third-party tools or injectors.<ref>{{Refcheck|user=Aemony|date=2021-05-19|comment=Occasionally Ansel conflicts with Special K even in games without Ansel support. Disabling Ansel (preventing its injection) tend to solve these issues.}}</ref>
 +
 
 +
Ansel is Nvidia's exclusive photo mode for [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/games/#ansel supported games], allowing the use of a free camera to take photos of a game. The mode is also able to crank up the graphical fidelity of a game so players do not have to change settings back and forth manually as they engage or disengage the photo mode. Games have to make use of the Ansel SDK to support this feature. Contrary to common belief Ansel is '''not''' bundled in the [[#GeForce Experience|GeForce Experience]] package, but is instead included in the regular display driver package.
 +
 
 +
{{Fixbox|description=Disable Ansel system-wide (DCH)|ref=<ref>{{Refurl|url=https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4932/~/my-game-ready-driver-no-longer-has-program-files%5Cnvidia-corporation%5Cansel|title=Nvidia - My Game Ready Driver no longer has "Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\Ansel" folder. Where do I put my ReShade filters or get access to NvCameraConfiguration tool?|date=2021-06-26}}</ref>|fix=
 +
# Download the '''NvCameraConfiguration''' utility from Nvidia using [https://international-gfe.download.nvidia.com/GFE/GFEClient/NVCameraConfiguration/v1.0/NVCameraConfiguration_v1.0.0.6.zip this link.]
 +
# Extract the archive to any location.
 +
# Launch the {{file|NvCameraConfiguration}} executable.
 +
# At the bottom of the window, under '''NvCamera Status''', select <code>Disable</code>.
 +
# Click on '''Save''' to save the changes.
 +
}}
 +
 
 +
{{Fixbox|description=Disable Ansel system-wide (DCH, alternate method)|ref=|fix=
 +
# Navigate to <code>C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository</code>
 +
# Search for <code>NvCameraEnable</code> using the search field in the top right corner.
 +
# Right click on the result and click on '''Open file location'''.
 +
# In the folder that opens, click on an empty area of the folder so the file gets deselected.
 +
# Hold down {{Key|Shift}} and right-click on an empty space of the folder.
 +
# Click on '''Open PowerShell window here'''.
 +
# Type the following and hit {{Key|Enter}}:
 +
<pre>.\NvCameraEnable.exe off</pre>
 +
}}
 +
 
 +
{{Fixbox|description=Disable Ansel system-wide (Standard)|ref=|fix=
 +
# Navigate to {{file|C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\Ansel\Tools}} and run {{file|NvCameraConfiguration}}.
 +
# At the bottom of the window, under '''NvCamera Status''', select <code>Disable</code>.
 +
# Click on '''Save''' to save the changes.
 +
 
 +
'''Notes'''
 +
{{--}} The Ansel/NvCamera Configuration Utility only displays properly when Windows is set to '''100% DPI''' and the resolution is configured to 1920x1080 or higher.
 +
{{ii}} [[Nvidia Profile Inspector]] is also capable of disabling Ansel system-wide by changing '''Enable Ansel''' in the global driver profile to <code>0x00000000 ANSEL_ENABLE_OFF</code>.
 +
}}
 +
 
 +
==FreeStyle==
 +
''Not to be confused with [[#Ansel|Ansel]], a GeForce exclusive photo mode.''
 +
{{ii}} [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/games/#freestyle List of supported games]
 +
{{ii}} Requires [[#GeForce Experience|GeForce Experience]].
 +
{{mm}} See [https://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/nvidia-freestyle-fortnite-shadowplay-highlights-new-ansel-ui Nvidia's feature article]
 +
{{mm}} Was inspired by the popularity of [http://sfx.thelazy.net/games/ SweetFX] and [[ReShade]], two popular and vendor-agnostic generic post-processing injectors.
 +
 
 +
FreeStyle is Nvidia's exclusive post-processing injector for [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/games/#freestyle supported games], allowing players to inject predefined post-processing filters to tweak the look and feel of the game.
 +
 
 +
Nvidia developed FreeStyle with the help of some of the Reshade developers and it uses the ReShade FX shader compiler to compile shaders written in Reshade FX. 
 +
Besides the official shaders that come with FreeStyle, it is also capable of running most other Reshade FX shaders as well.
 +
 
 +
Nvidia curates a [https://github.com/crosire/reshade-shaders/tree/nvidia collection of Reshade shaders that are known to work with FreeStyle].
 +
 
 +
==Highlights==
 +
{{ii}} [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/games/#shadowplay List of supported games] <!-- The link is correct as of 2018-08-24. Nvidia uses the 'shadowplay' tag for the Highlights section, for whatever reason. // User:Aemony -->
 +
{{ii}} Requires [[#GeForce Experience|GeForce Experience]].
 +
 
 +
Highlights is Nvidia's exclusive capture feature that is capable of automatically capturing and "highlighting" certain moments in games, such as the finishing move of an intense combat sequence, achievement unlocks, or similar events. Games have to make use of the Highlights SDK to support this feature. In the background, Highlights relies on [[#Shadowplay|Shadowplay]].
 +
 
 +
==Shadowplay==
 +
{{ii}} Works with practically all games.
 +
{{ii}} Requires [[#GeForce Experience|GeForce Experience]].
 +
 
 +
Shadowplay is Nvidia's exclusive and generic gameplay recording and streaming feature bundled in [[#GeForce Experience|GeForce Experience]]. This uses GPU hardware accelerated capturing and encoding to achieve a low overhead that does not impact gameplay as much as alternatives might do.
 +
 
 +
==G-Sync==
 +
{{ii}} Supports all games running in exclusive fullscreen mode or in borderless window mode using flip model presentation. Also supports regular windows when enabled for '''windowed mode'''.
 +
{{ii}} See [[Glossary:Variable refresh rate (VRR)#Recommended optimal settings|the variable refresh rate article]] for how to best configure the Nvidia display drivers to maximize the use of G-Sync.
 +
{{mm}} See [https://www.blurbusters.com/gsync/gsync101-input-lag-tests-and-settings/ Blur Buster's G-Sync 101 articles] for in-depth and advance information.
 +
{{--}} In the past, G-Sync has had issues with the '''windowed mode''' setting, which allows for the usage of G-Sync for windowed applications that otherwise would not support it.
 +
 
 +
Nvidia's proprietary variable refresh rate solution, and a competitor to AMD's '''FreeSync''' solution.
 +
 
 +
==SLI==
 +
Scalable Link Interface (SLI) is a brand name for a multi-GPU technology developed by Nvidia for linking two or more video cards together to produce a single output. SLI is an application of parallel processing for computer graphics, meant to increase the processing power available for graphics.
 +
 
 +
==PhysX==
 +
[[Glossary:PhysX|PhysX]] is a physics API originally created by Ageia and integrated into the GeForce line of cards from the 8-series onward. It allows the Nvidia CPU to perform physics calculations instead of the CPU, allowing for enhanced realism and CPU performance.
 +
 
 +
==CUDA==
 +
CUDA is a GPGPU API created by Nvidia for use in GeForce and Quadro range of cards. It allows common computer programs, such as Adobe Photoshop, to use the GPU card in your PC to boost certain parallel computing tasks.
 +
 
 +
==Optimus==
 +
Nvidia Optimus is an optimization technology created by Nvidia to save battery life by automatically switching the power of the graphics processing unit (GPU) off when it is not needed and switching it on when needed again. The technology mainly targets mobile PCs such as notebooks. When the GPU power is off, the driver redirects graphics commands to the integrated graphics chip (e.g. Intel GMA). Currently only Windows 7, 8, and 10 are officially supported, however the open source project Bumblebee brings support to Linux.
 +
 
 +
===Optimus Troubleshooting===
 +
Several issues have been noted when it comes to using integrated Nvidia graphics cards alongside an integrated Intel GPU (Note: Some of these suggestions are difficult and may brick your computer. Perform them only if you know what you are doing)
 +
* In case the Nvidia graphics fails to show up in the device manager, install the latest BIOS available from your computer or motherboard manufacturer
 +
* Install the latest drivers for your integrated GPU, Nvidia GPU, and Motherboard may help to eliminate some problems.
 +
* If a DirectX 8 game refuses to run on your Nvidia GPU, place [https://github.com/crosire/d3d8to9/releases d3d8to9] in the location of the game executable.
 +
 
 +
[[Category:Hardware]]

Revision as of 20:51, 26 June 2021

Nvidia
Nvidia cover
Nvidia at Wikipedia

Nvidia is a chip making company that creates the GeForce, Titan, and Quadro line of graphics cards, as well as various in-home streaming devices under the Shield brand that allows streaming of PC games from a computer over the local network to the Shield device.

Resources

Official GeForce website - GeForce Experience, drivers, tech specs, and other gaming related technologies.
Official Nvidia website
GeForce article on Wikipedia

Related articles

Nvidia Control Panel
Nvidia Profile Inspector

Nvidia Control Panel

See the Nvidia Control Panel article for more information.

The Nvidia Control Panel is a tool created by Nvidia designed to allow you to customize various display driver settings for your Nvidia graphics card.

Nvidia Profile Inspector

See the Nvidia Profile Inspector article for more information.
Often found to be more responsive than the regular Nvidia control panel.
Can be hard to use for beginners as not everything is explained.

Nvidia Profile Inspector is a third-party tool created for pulling up and editing application profiles within the display drivers. Much like the 3D settings page in the Nvidia Control Panel, but more in-depth and exposes settings and functionality not exposed through the normal control panel for the display driver.

GeForce

The GeForce line of graphics cards were introduced in 1999 with the GeForce 256.

GeForce Experience

Nvidia's companion tool for GeForce graphics cards, focusing on providing a central place for gamers to customize and access Nvidia/GeForce exclusive features, such as Shadowplay and FreeStyle.

GeForce Naming Scheme

GeForce 6 series to 9 series

With earlier series of cards the names are broken up into a 4 digit model number, with an occasional suffix on the end. As an example we can use the GeForce 8600GTS. The first digit is the series the card belongs to, in this case an 8 series. The second digit, the 6, is to signify the cards power range within that series. A 6 signifies a mid-range power, 8 for high end enthusiast card, and a 4/5 for low-end cards intended mainly for multimedia uses. The "00" are meaningless. The suffix can indicate minor changes from the base card, such as over-clocking or additional RAM. As in this example the 8600GTS comes with a 675mhz core, compared to the 8600GT with a 540 MHz core. The GS suffix indicates an inferior version of the base card (e.g. 7600 GS performs poorer than 7600 GT).

GeForce 100 series to 1000/"10" series

With the 100 series introduced in 2009 Nvidia changed their naming scheme for GeForce cards. This time they come with a small fixed prefix, and a 3 digit model number. As an example we can use the GTX 460. It is much the same as the older models, the first digit signifying the series, in this case the 400 series. The second digit signifies the power range, once again a middling card signified by the "6". And the "0" is once again meaningless, though may occasionally updates to a card may lead to a card coming with a 5 instead of the common 0. Though in this case the GTX465 is a weaker card.

Furthermore, there are only three prefixes: GT (low end) < GTS (mainstream) < GTX (performance and high end).

As said, a card has now a fixed prefix, e.g. there is no GTS 460. Occasionally the suffix "Ti" can indicate a more powerful version (e.g. GTX 560 Ti > GTX 560).

The 10xx line-up is also known as the 10 series. Beyond that, they follow the same naming scheme as the rest of the 1xx-9xx series.

GeForce 20 series and beyond

With the announcement of the 20 series (2070, 2080, etc.) in August 2018, Nvidia changed their naming scheme slightly. Instead of each new generation having a product name 100 above the previous one, the difference is now 1000 instead. On top of this the GTX prefix was also complimented with RTX to correlate with the new focus on real-time ray tracing.

Ansel

Not to be confused with FreeStyle, a GeForce exclusive feature to add post-processing filters to games.

Product page
List of supported games
See Nvidia's feature article
Technology page
Is injected in all games by the display drivers, regardless if the game supports Ansel or not. This might cause conflicts with third-party tools or injectors.[1]

Ansel is Nvidia's exclusive photo mode for supported games, allowing the use of a free camera to take photos of a game. The mode is also able to crank up the graphical fidelity of a game so players do not have to change settings back and forth manually as they engage or disengage the photo mode. Games have to make use of the Ansel SDK to support this feature. Contrary to common belief Ansel is not bundled in the GeForce Experience package, but is instead included in the regular display driver package.

Disable Ansel system-wide (DCH)[2]
  1. Download the NvCameraConfiguration utility from Nvidia using this link.
  2. Extract the archive to any location.
  3. Launch the NvCameraConfiguration executable.
  4. At the bottom of the window, under NvCamera Status, select Disable.
  5. Click on Save to save the changes.
Disable Ansel system-wide (DCH, alternate method)
  1. Navigate to C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository
  2. Search for NvCameraEnable using the search field in the top right corner.
  3. Right click on the result and click on Open file location.
  4. In the folder that opens, click on an empty area of the folder so the file gets deselected.
  5. Hold down Shift and right-click on an empty space of the folder.
  6. Click on Open PowerShell window here.
  7. Type the following and hit Enter:
.\NvCameraEnable.exe off
Disable Ansel system-wide (Standard)
  1. Navigate to C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\Ansel\Tools and run NvCameraConfiguration.
  2. At the bottom of the window, under NvCamera Status, select Disable.
  3. Click on Save to save the changes.

Notes

The Ansel/NvCamera Configuration Utility only displays properly when Windows is set to 100% DPI and the resolution is configured to 1920x1080 or higher.
Nvidia Profile Inspector is also capable of disabling Ansel system-wide by changing Enable Ansel in the global driver profile to 0x00000000 ANSEL_ENABLE_OFF.

FreeStyle

Not to be confused with Ansel, a GeForce exclusive photo mode.

List of supported games
Requires GeForce Experience.
See Nvidia's feature article
Was inspired by the popularity of SweetFX and ReShade, two popular and vendor-agnostic generic post-processing injectors.

FreeStyle is Nvidia's exclusive post-processing injector for supported games, allowing players to inject predefined post-processing filters to tweak the look and feel of the game.

Nvidia developed FreeStyle with the help of some of the Reshade developers and it uses the ReShade FX shader compiler to compile shaders written in Reshade FX. Besides the official shaders that come with FreeStyle, it is also capable of running most other Reshade FX shaders as well.

Nvidia curates a collection of Reshade shaders that are known to work with FreeStyle.

Highlights

List of supported games
Requires GeForce Experience.

Highlights is Nvidia's exclusive capture feature that is capable of automatically capturing and "highlighting" certain moments in games, such as the finishing move of an intense combat sequence, achievement unlocks, or similar events. Games have to make use of the Highlights SDK to support this feature. In the background, Highlights relies on Shadowplay.

Shadowplay

Works with practically all games.
Requires GeForce Experience.

Shadowplay is Nvidia's exclusive and generic gameplay recording and streaming feature bundled in GeForce Experience. This uses GPU hardware accelerated capturing and encoding to achieve a low overhead that does not impact gameplay as much as alternatives might do.

G-Sync

Supports all games running in exclusive fullscreen mode or in borderless window mode using flip model presentation. Also supports regular windows when enabled for windowed mode.
See the variable refresh rate article for how to best configure the Nvidia display drivers to maximize the use of G-Sync.
See Blur Buster's G-Sync 101 articles for in-depth and advance information.
In the past, G-Sync has had issues with the windowed mode setting, which allows for the usage of G-Sync for windowed applications that otherwise would not support it.

Nvidia's proprietary variable refresh rate solution, and a competitor to AMD's FreeSync solution.

SLI

Scalable Link Interface (SLI) is a brand name for a multi-GPU technology developed by Nvidia for linking two or more video cards together to produce a single output. SLI is an application of parallel processing for computer graphics, meant to increase the processing power available for graphics.

PhysX

PhysX is a physics API originally created by Ageia and integrated into the GeForce line of cards from the 8-series onward. It allows the Nvidia CPU to perform physics calculations instead of the CPU, allowing for enhanced realism and CPU performance.

CUDA

CUDA is a GPGPU API created by Nvidia for use in GeForce and Quadro range of cards. It allows common computer programs, such as Adobe Photoshop, to use the GPU card in your PC to boost certain parallel computing tasks.

Optimus

Nvidia Optimus is an optimization technology created by Nvidia to save battery life by automatically switching the power of the graphics processing unit (GPU) off when it is not needed and switching it on when needed again. The technology mainly targets mobile PCs such as notebooks. When the GPU power is off, the driver redirects graphics commands to the integrated graphics chip (e.g. Intel GMA). Currently only Windows 7, 8, and 10 are officially supported, however the open source project Bumblebee brings support to Linux.

Optimus Troubleshooting

Several issues have been noted when it comes to using integrated Nvidia graphics cards alongside an integrated Intel GPU (Note: Some of these suggestions are difficult and may brick your computer. Perform them only if you know what you are doing)

  • In case the Nvidia graphics fails to show up in the device manager, install the latest BIOS available from your computer or motherboard manufacturer
  • Install the latest drivers for your integrated GPU, Nvidia GPU, and Motherboard may help to eliminate some problems.
  • If a DirectX 8 game refuses to run on your Nvidia GPU, place d3d8to9 in the location of the game executable.
  • Verified by User:Aemony on 2021-05-19
    Occasionally Ansel conflicts with Special K even in games without Ansel support. Disabling Ansel (preventing its injection) tend to solve these issues.
  • Nvidia - My Game Ready Driver no longer has "Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\Ansel" folder. Where do I put my ReShade filters or get access to NvCameraConfiguration tool? - last accessed on 2021-06-26