The NVIDIA control panel has many settings you can optimize for gaming. Although the best settings may vary from game to game, you can usually find a good set of base settings that will work for most games.
Best NVIDIA Control Panel 3D Settings
Typically when people refer to NVIDIA control panel settings they’re referring to the 3D settings. You can adjust the 3D settings using the global settings option, which will apply your NVIDIA settings to every game you play. Meanwhile, you can also adjust settings for specific games using the program settings.
Typically the best setup is to adjust the global NVIDIA settings for performance, then add program-specific settings if you’d prefer to make changes. By making changes for specific games you can be assured that your other games won’t be affected.
Image Scaling: Off
Ambient Occlusion: Off
Anisotropic filtering: Application-controlled
Antialiasing – FXAA: Off
Antialiasing – Gamma correction: On
Antialiasing – Mod: Application-controlled
Antialiasing – Setting: Application-controlled
Antialiasing – Transparency: Off
Background Application Max Frame Rate: 30 or 60
CUDA – GPUs: All
CUDA – Sysmem Fallback Policy: Driver Default
DSR – Factors: Off
DSR – Smoothness: Off
Low Latency Mode: On
Max Frame Rate: Off
Monitor Technology: Fixed Refresh
Multi-Frame Sampled AA (MFAA): Off
OpenGL GDI compatibility: Auto
OpenGL rendering GPU: Auto-select
Power Management Mode: Prefer maximum performance
Preferred refresh rate: Application-controlled
Shader Cache Size: Driver Default
Texture filtering – Anisotropic sample optimization: On
Texture filtering – Negative LOD bias: Allow
Texture filtering – Quality: High performance
Texture filtering – Trillinear optimization: On
Threaded optimization: On
Triple buffering: Off
Vertical sync: Use the 3D application setting
Virtual Reality pre-rendered frames: 1
Virtual Reality – Variable Rate Super Sampling: Off
Vulkan/OpenGL present method: Auto
How to Change NVIDIA Color Settings
Using the NVIDIA control panel you can also adjust the desktop color settings of your display. This is a great way to fine-tune the way your screen looks when gaming. While some may prefer to alter their color settings depending on the game they’re playing. However, this can be fairly tedious. Instead, you can use color settings which work well across multiple games.
- Open the NVIDIA Control Panel
- Select Adjust desktop color settings
- Choose a display
- Adjust the settings as needed
- Apply to save your settings.
Best NVIDIA Color Settings
When changing your NVIDIA color settings the main goal is to improve visibility in dark areas of games, while maintaining depth. If the game begins to look washed out then your brightness or gamma settings are probably too high.
The overall best NVIDIA color settings will depend on the display you’re using. This is due to the colors being different from screen to screen. We recommend adjusting your color settings with a screenshot of your favorite game open. However, we have some options which should work in most cases.
Subtle Brightness & Color Enhancements
Color Channel: All channels
Brightness: 52
Contrast: 50
Gamma: 1.02
Digital Vibrance: 70
Hue: 0
Strong Brightness & Color Enhancements
Color Channel: All channels
Brightness: 57
Contrast: 42
Gamma: 1.0
Digital Vibrance: 80
Hue: 0
Turn Off G-Sync
You can turn off G-Sync by selecting the set up G-Sync option on the side of the NVIDIA control panel. For the best latency, you will want to turn off G-Sync in the NVIDIA control panel.
- Open the NVIDIA Control Panel
- Select Set up G-Sync from the side
- Uncheck the option to Enable G-Sync
- Click Apply.
Change Monitor Refresh Rate with NVIDIA Control Panel
For the best NVIDIA settings, you will want to ensure you’re using the highest refresh rate available for your monitor. You can adjust the refresh rate for each monitor individually through the Change resolution settings.
- Click Change resolution on the side.
- Select a display.
- Expand the Refresh rate drop menu.
- Select the highest refresh rate.
- Apply settings.
Final Thoughts
Although the best settings vary from game to game, you can optimize your NVIDIA control panel settings for most games. Once set up your settings will save, and apply to all games and programs you use. This helps to ensure that your games will perform well, old or new.
