ATI & NVIDIA Video Card Tweak Guide - Page 8

As we did with the ATI Rage3D Tweak program, we've selected a popular 3rd-party application for the NVIDIA side of the equation. Rivatuner is a very popular tweak program for NVIDIA video cards, and features an extensive list of options and settings that go far beyond the basics available using Coolbits. We'll be going into some detail on many of the important Rivatuner sections, as well as giving a basic outline of the individual settings and options. If you truly want to squeeze every last bit of performance and image quality juice out of your NVIDIA-based card, then adding a tweak program like Rivatuner is a basic requirement.

Main Tab

Target Adaptor

Click on the button next to the word customize to activate the tweaking panel for customization of low level settings.

Target Adaptor > Low Level System Tweaks > Overclocking

If you would rather have your video card overclocked on a lower level than Coolbits, this feature is for you.

Target Adaptor > Low Level System Tweaks > NVStrap Driver

Here you will find a few tweaks that can override what your video card's BIOS may be telling your system. Generally you will want to leave these settings alone however, a very neat feature that Rivatuner can enable is support for professional Quadro capabilities in OpenGL applications.

Target Adaptor > Low Level Display Mode Tweaks

If you want to get really down-and-dirty with your monitor's refresh-rate, this is the place to do it. Here you can change your monitor's resolution pixel-by-pixel, refresh-rate, and color depth.

Driver Settings > Customize System Settings

Here one will find most of the basic driver level system tweaks such as overclocking, compatibility and AGP and overlay settings. If you haven't overclocked your card using the Coolbits or lower level tweaks than this is your chance to do it.

60Hz Refresh Rate Fix Wizard

If you chose to use Rivatuner as your one-stop-shop for tweaking your NVIDIA-based card, you can fix the age-old "I'm stuck at 60Hz refresh-rate in all my games" problem.