# RivaTuner basic guide



## burebista (Jun 2, 2009)

I'll try to present a mini-guide for RivaTuner.
Before I start I must say that is not the latest and greatest RivaTuner guide but original was for 2.09 RT version. Meantime some options has changed, but for having an idea about RivaTuner I think is still pretty good. 
Some of pictures below are borrowed from Derek's guide after I receive his permission (unfortunately his site is down so I decided to put my guide here instead) some are mine with my old 8800GT and some are from my actual GTX 260 so don't be confused about different pictures, final result matters. 

Official page for RivaTuner.
After download and installation (on x64 systems don't forget to click yes on that update request at the end of install, that is RivaTuner signed driver) we see something like this







Every option has a build-in help (at least for early version of RivaTuner but how users don't bother to read them unfortunately *Unwinder* drop that build-in help in latest builds). For Vista64 users download a patch for this feature to be active.







*Fan profiles*

In section _Driver settings_ click on the arrow next to "_Customize..._". We'll see a menu with many options. For now we focus on video card icon. Click on it and we'll see a window _System tweaks_. Here we can play with video driver settings.






Select _Fan_ tab






Then _direct control_ from drop down menu






We move the slider until our desired value of fan speed






Then click on _Apply_ button and we can save this entry as a fan profile.
Click on floppy icon to save profile






You'll be asked for a name for saving, give one suggestive and click _OK_.






Same steps for multiple fan profiles. In my example I've made fan profiles for 80% and 100% fan speed.






*Overclock/underclock profiles*

We come back to _System settings_ icon






Click on "_Enable drive-level hardware overclocking_" check box from _Overclocking_ tab






You'll be warned about a reboot for reading frequencies. Click _Detect now_.






Select _performance 3D_ from drop down box.






Move slider at your desired value for GPU, shader and memories. WARNING, test your new frequencies for stability before apply (don't hunt me if you fry your card from first OC attempt). 

Click _Apply_.






Save profile with a click on floppy icon






Give profile a suggestive name.






Same for a underclock profile and a default one.
Give profiles suggestive names.

Now we'll add them in _Launcher_ tab. We give them a name, we assign a hotkey, we check _Associated overlocking profile_ box and select overclock profile. Click _OK_.






After we finish to add all _Launcher_ profiles they'll look something like this






*Add Launcher items*

Select _Launcher_ tab






Click on that *+* to add a new item






Select "_Regular item_" and click _OK_






Give it a name.

Then link it with a fan profile






Rinse and repeat for others fan profiles.






*Creating tasks (Task scheduler)*

Those _Scheduler Tasks_ are an elegant mode to launch a _Launcher_ item or other applications when an event is triggered.
Select _Scheduler_ tab






Click on the same *+* for adding a new task.






Click on drop down menu to select Fan speed 100% element






Click _Run task_ drop down menu to select the event which triggers Fan speed 100%. In our case "_on hardware monitoring range event_"






If you don't have active "_background hardware monitoring_" you'll be warned to do so after task selection.
Click _Yes_.






Choose from drop down menu under _Data source_ _Core temperature_. If you have 2 video cards then it will appear Core temperature 0 and Core temperature 1.






Now enter _Range min_ and _Range Max_ for launching this profile. Click _OK_ when you're ready.
Here you must enter 0 in those 2 boxes _Data sampling period_ and _Task freezing period_.






Repeat for Fan speed 80%






And Fan speed 60%






Continue until you finish all your desired profiles






If you have a fan problem with changing his RPM between 60% si 80% profiles make a gap between temperatures for which profile is active. Something like 56-63°C and 68-75°C instead 56-65°C and 66-75°C

*Aditional Tasks*

We can define another tasks. For example system shutdown for a high GPU temperature (fan broken for example).
We add a new task, select _application_ from drop down box and click on _Browse_ to choose our option.






In our case at the end of list we select _System shutdown_.






Select "_on hardware monitoring threshold event_" task, select _core temperature_ as source and we set 89 value and "_upward_" direction.






Now what? At 90°C core temperature system will shutdown.

Same you can define what profile to launch on RivaTuner startup overclock, underclock, or standard frequency.
Some examples






*Hardware Monitoring.*

A lot of monitoring option here. Most of then came already with RivaTuner but we can use third-party plugins (Core2Duo sau AMD core temperature, SpeedFan or Everest, RealTemp for example).
At first launch of _Hardware Monitoring_ you may be warned about activation of some plugins. Click _Yes_ if you want them enabled automatically or _No_ if you're brave and want to activate them by hand later.






Main window _Hardware Monitoring_






Be sure that you activate _background monitoring_ (click on that red circle)






Now let's take a look on _Setup_






Here we can select what we can monitor/control with RivaTuner and where we can see it(on screen, in tray or on your fancy G15 screen).
We begin with selecting _Core temperature_ then select _Setup_






Those are all _Core temperature_ options. If you want to see temperature in tray or/and as tooltip, or OSD or on your G15 keyboard screen check those boxes.






Below is a screenshot with OSD informations provided by RivaTuner






We can change color for tray temperature.






Pick a color and _OK_






You can define another range for showing temperatures.
When you're done click _OK_.






The same drill for other monitoring options.
When you're done click _OK_.






Below is what RivaTuner show me in tray: GPU and ambient temperature, distance to TJMax Core0 and Core1 (from RealTemp plugin), MB temperature and HDD's temperatures (via Everest plugin).






*Using Statistics Server.*

One of the strong points of RivaTuner. With RTSS we can control launching profiles (overclock, fan) when detects a 3D application launch (game or anything else 3D).
For that we need RTSS running in background. We can launch it from Start-Programs-RivaTuner group or we can make a _Launcher_ item with it.






RTSS starts minimized. Click on his icon to maximize it.






Here we have some cosmetics settings, start with Windows, show/hide OSD monitoring, screen coordinates, color of what you see in OSD.
HINT: Hover mouse over different settings, that contextual help is priceless.

Let's see how we can automate launching overclock/stock/underclock profiles linked with launching/exiting a game.
Open _Hardware Monitoring_, click _Setup_, search _Hardware acceleration_ and click on check box to activate it.






OK, now _Hardware acceleration_ will monitor our computer and when it will detect launching a 3D application it will have value 1 and when we close that 3D application will come back at 0 value.
Now we must add  2 tasks in _Scheduler_ tab which will launch my profiles stock and underclock based on _Hardware acceleration_. One task is Stock, select item then Stock. Select "_on hardware monitoring threshold event_", then we choose source _Hardware acceleration_, _threshold_ value 0.5 direction _upward_.
Click _OK_.






Same we add a underclock task, but on direction we choose _downward_.






Now what's happens when we launch a 3D application? _Hardware aceleration_ change in 1 and Stock profile is launched. Leaving 3D application _Hardware acceleration_ come back to 0 and underclock profile is launched.






This kind of profiles management works wonderful but only with 2 profiles. What if we have a game which need more power from our GPU and we need our overclock profile in action?
We can do that, of course: we define an item for that game in _Launcher_ tab and we associate it with our overclock profile and a keyboard shortcut.






Everything is easy now, when pressing our keyboard shortcut for launching the game, RTSS detects changing of _Hardware acceleration_ value and launch the profile assigned for that game.






*ADDENDUM*

Another method for controlling fan speeds based on low-level settings. It works only on ADT7473 controller.

Open RivaTuner, then _Power user_ tab (answer _Yes_ at that question) and we seek RivaTuner \ Fan. Double-click _AutoFanSpeedControl_ and insert 3 for having access at parameters from _Low-level_ settings (be sure that button marked with a red square is pressed in Dec value otherwise we need to enter a Hex value). Click Apply, then OK for saving and closing. 






We launch again RivaTuner, press _Customize..._ then first left button _Low-level system settings_. 






In the new window we check _Enable low-level fan control_ and be sure to set on Auto. 






Now we are interested in values from that box with a scrollbar. Those are:
# Duty cycle min: minimum fan speed in % 
# Duty cycle max: maximum fan speed in %
# T min: Temperature minimum limit. If temperature is below that value fan speed will remain at value defined in _Duty cycle min_
# T max: It doesn't show here but is GPU temperature for fan running at 100%. This is calculated by us based on T range below.
# T range: It's a calculated value based on others parameters and it establish how fast or how slow fan RPM's grows with GPU temperature.
# T operating, T low, T high: Those values affects dynamic _T min_ control and we don't want this so we put some bogus values (150, 0, 150 degrees).

Formula for T range (found it somewhere on guru3D):
T range = (2/3) * (Tmax - Tmin) / [(Dc max - Dc min)/100]
Keep in mind that T range which I follow is that value highlighted in picture below. GPU temperature reported by nVidia driver has 8°C offset.
And valid numbers for T range are 5, 8, 10, 13, 16, 20, 26, 32, 40, 54, 80. Other values are rounded at one of these.






My example:
I want 27% fan speed until 48°C (56°C reported by nVidia driver) then a liniar growing until 100% fan speed for T max 90°C.
Duty cycle min = 27
Duty cycle max = 100
T min = 48
T operating = 150
T low = 0
T high = 150
T max = 90 

So T range = 2/3*42/0.73 = 38.35. Rounded 40.
OK, now let's see what I get after entering those values, check box with Apply settings on Windows startup and Save. 






A pretty nice curve without fan bumping up and down at changing fan profiles and without overwriting my VGA BIOS with new values. 

That's all folks, I know it's not a very in deep guide but basic tasks like fan and overclock profiles, hardware monitoring and OSD display are covered.
Hope it helps somebody, someday, somewhere. 

PS. Bear with my English mistakes and if is something awful wrong I'll ask a Mod to correct my novel. Thanks.


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## sttubs (Jun 2, 2009)

Nice. Thanks for all the work that went into this write up. I know a lot of people could use this information.


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## mastrdrver (Jun 3, 2009)

I'm soooo glad you made this. I always went to Derek's site to understand somethings when I was using RT instead of Catalyst. I thought his site might have gone down never to return.

Send a thanks to Derek for being a stand up and letting you use his pictures he had on his site.


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## overclocking101 (May 23, 2010)

I get unnattached device  for my 2nd gpu and am not given overclocking options for my first NOR my second gpu. kind of annoying as I used to ONLY use rivatuner, have not been able to use it since I went win 7 64 bit and hd4890. YES I did click "install riva updates" when prompted on intallation. im using msi mater arena edition, but ones before that didnt work either. apparentyl unwinder was going to release 2.25 but has yet to do so because of msi afterburner and the others.


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## Champ (May 23, 2010)

I'll be glad when there is a version that works well with ATI cards.


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## burebista (May 23, 2010)

overclocking101 said:


> [...] have not been able to use it since I went win 7 64 bit and hd4890.


Did you tried this configuration file for HD4890?



Champ said:


> I'll be glad when there is a version that works well with ATI cards.


2.25. When? Even *Unwinder* doesn't know.


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## mastrdrver (May 24, 2010)

Champ said:


> I'll be glad when there is a version that works well with ATI cards.



MSI Afterburner

If you want more, then yea no body is sure.


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## newtekie1 (May 24, 2010)

A lot of this is covered my stickied thread.  There is a lot here that isn't to though!

Great thread!



Champ said:


> I'll be glad when there is a version that works well with ATI cards.



It works great for cards up through the HD4000 series, I'm not sure about the HD5000 series though.  

I wish there was something good for the GTX400 series.  I've been testing a GTX470 in my rig, and Rivatuner, Precision(which came with the card), and Afterburner all don't work properly.  Though I'm also using the new 257 drivers, so that might be part of it.


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## burebista (May 25, 2010)

newtekie1 said:


> I've been testing a GTX470 in my rig, and Rivatuner, Precision(which came with the card), and Afterburner all don't work properly.  Though I'm also using the new 257 drivers, so that might be part of it.


Readme.


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## newtekie1 (May 25, 2010)

burebista said:


> Readme.



I read that, but unwinder says it doesn't effect overclocking, which is why I didn't totally believe it was the driver causing the issue.  I'm going to switch to an older driver version in a bit and see what happens.

With Afterburner, Precision, and RivaTuner, they all detect the wrong frequencies(810/1674/405) when the card is really running at the stock 608/1216/837(core/shader/mem).  Adjusting the sliders in all three doesn't effect clock speed either.  Also, rivatuner's hardware monitor has the core and memory clock at 100MHz not matter what, the other detect the clock speeds as the improper 810/405 clock speeds.  The even happens with MSI's latest beta of Afterburner that is supposed to work with the GTX400 cards.


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## overclocking101 (May 25, 2010)

wow thaanks for that cfg file! now it works!


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## burebista (May 25, 2010)

newtekie1 said:


> The even happens with MSI's latest beta of Afterburner that is supposed to work with the GTX400 cards.


You can go on guru3d and tell *Unwinder* about this. He doesn't bite (badly) if your complaint is real. 

*overclocking101* you're welcome. Happy overclocking then.


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## newtekie1 (May 25, 2010)

burebista said:


> You can go on guru3d and tell *Unwinder* about this. He doesn't bite (badly) if your complaint is real.
> 
> *overclocking101* you're welcome. Happy overclocking then.



I will once I confirm it is the driver causing it, I'm going to driver sweep the machine and install 197.75 later today and see what happens.  If it works, I'll try 257.15 again and see if it breaks, then I'll report what I find to Unwinder if it truly is the driver breaking things.

Edit: I just switched drivers, and have the same problem...overclocking doesn't work and the wrong clocks are detected.

Edit2:  I uninsalled Afterburner and Re-installed it and now it detects the proper clock speeds and lets me adjust the shader speed and actually apply the changes, which of course changes the core speed.


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## BababooeyHTJ (Aug 6, 2010)

Does anyone know of a plugin that works with Rivatuner for Vram usage under Windows 7? I would love to get that working in the OSD.


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