ATI & NVIDIA Video Card Tweak Guide - Page 4

Game Util

The Game Util section deals with game-specific settings and options, many of which can come in very handy, especially when dealing with refresh rates and card overclocking.

Clear Desktop Wallpaper at Game Launch - Checking this option will free the bit of video memory your desktop's wallpaper may have been using.

Enable Overclock Settings on Boot - If you're overclocking your video card you will want to have this option checked as it will make sure that your overclocking settings will take effect upon boot.

Enable Refresh-rate Fix Check When Game Exits - Enable this to ensure that your game uses the optimal refresh-rate of your monitor after your game exits.

Enable Refresh-rate Fix for Suspend and Display Changes - Checking this option will allow GameUtil to check the refresh-rate after your system is resumed from suspend mode, or if there is a display change.

Overclocker (Rage 3D Tweak Specific Tab)

Last, but certainly not least is the Overclocker tab supplied by Rage 3D Tweak. Like Coolbits for NVIDIA this tab allows you to change the memory and core clock speed of your ATI-based video card. The overclocking is done through software and will take effect upon reboot. Really industrious users will also set profiles for their favorite games which allow certain clock speeds and settings for different games.

Custom Display Modes (Rage 3D Tweak Specific Tab)

Part of the Rage 3D tweak add-on this tab allows one to select resolutions and refresh-rates more precisely than before. With this part of the program one can work around the infamous refresh-rate problems (games are stuck at 60Hz) that occur in Windows 2000/XP, without the use of a 3rd-party utility.

Other Noteworthy ATI Tweaking Software

Radeonator

A clever melding of the ATI line of video cards (Radeon) and NVIDIA's name for their drivers (Detonator), Radeonator is an excellent piece of software. Not nearly as old or widely used as Rage 3D Tweak, Radeonator has come a long way from when it was first developed and offers a multitude of tweaks. Unfortunately, do to length constraints and fear of redundancy, we chose not to cover both Rage 3D Tweak and Radeonator in this article.