How to Tweak a Graphics Card
Today's computer games are not cheap to develop, nor are they cheap to buy. You want the gaming experience you paid for, so there's no point settling for anything less than the maximum performance your graphics card can deliver. If you have never experimented with adjusting the settings on your graphics card, then it's almost certain something could be tweaked to improve performance significantly. There is an order of operations you should follow when going about this, so you can be sure you aren't leaving untapped resources on the table.
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Instructions
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Adjust software settings
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1
Click "Options" or "Settings" within the video game for which you are optimizing your graphics card. This opens the control panel for that specific game. Experiment by changing a setting, then playing the game to see the effect of the change, and see how much performance you can get from your graphics card by only adjusting these settings.
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2
Click the check box next to "Anti-aliasing" if it is not checked and turn off anti-aliasing. You should experiment with a few other settings first before turning anti-aliasing back on.
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3
Click and drag the slider next to "Texture Detail" to increase texture detail. This setting will have to be turned up before anything else can be expected to look good.
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4
Click and drag the slider next to "Anisotropy" to increase anisotropic filtering. This setting does not demand much from your graphics card, and can make a big difference in how things look as they move within the game.
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5
Click and drag the slider next to "Resolution" to increase resolution. This setting is a bit demanding on your graphics card, but your graphics will have smoother edges, and you won't see the kind of blurriness typical of anti-aliasing.
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6
Click and drag the slider next to "Shadow Detail" to decrease shadow detail. Unless your game involves a lot of standing still, this setting uses more graphics card resources than it is worth.
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7
Click the check box next to "anti-aliasing" to re-enable it. Experiment with this setting only after you have optimized all the others. Sometimes in-game anti-aliasing settings aren't quite satisfactory, in which case you will need to adjust them manually using the graphics card's control center.
Adjust hardware settings
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8
Right-click on the system tray icon for your graphics card's control panel and select "nVidia Control Panel" if you have an Nvidia card, or "Catalyst Control Center" if you have an ATI card.
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9
Click "Manage 3D Settings," then click the drop-down menu next to "Anti-aliasing - Settings" and select an anti-aliasing setting from the drop-down menu.
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10
Click "Anti-aliasing - Mode" and select "Override any application setting."
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Click the "Program Settings" tab, then click the drop-down menu under "Select a program to customize" and select your game from the list. Now you can adjust any of the settings in the "Settings" box to load only when that particular game or application is launched.
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Tips & Warnings
Use transparency anti-aliasing to do away with jagged edges on "transparent" objects such as chain link fences.
References
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