What are your GPU settings for running games and benchmarks?

[lexluthermiester]

@EarthDog and I were discussing AA settings in another thread and his comment gave me an idea. It would be interesting to see how people run their settings in games and benchmarking suites. He runs with AA enabled. I turn it off.

So how do all of you have your GPU settings? Do you have AA on max? Are there other settings you tweak to improve performance? Is image quality more important or are you like me in subscribing to that old "framerate is life" school of though? Share your thoughts.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

at 4k im managing most games because AA is set to low at best , fps depends on the game so ill often lower res to be competitive(it doesnt work mind).

 

[MrGenius]

Games: All settings maxed. Always. More eye candy at the cost of FPS is a price I'm willing to pay.

Benchmarks: All settings tuned for max scores. And/or the settings that follow the rules of the competition. I don't bench for fun. I bench to WIN!

 

[Vya Domus]

I mess with literally every setting, all the time. There isn't anything that I pursue in general. Everything ranges from maxing out everything for 1080p60 to tweaking resolution (up), AA and every other setting if I want a 4K-ish experience on my TV playing with a controller and making use of the frame interpolation feature.

 

[hat]

Everything in my nVidia control panel is set to default settings, which is mostly "application controlled".

AA is usually off though, or on some low setting like 2x. Even at 1920x1080 I don't see much need for it.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

I go through Geforce Experience most of the time for convenience.
Sometimes I max it out...depends on the game really...My GFX does 1440 way better than 60hz but my monitor does not...so meh I let Nvidia pick for me.

 

[jboydgolfer]

I usually run settings as high as i can as long as it doesnt make the game a slide show.

 

[EarthDog]

Just a note I deleted my previous post and rewrote it as it was a rambling diatribe of confusion... lol (as this one turned into?????)

He runs with AA enabled. I turn it off.

You misunderstood how I roll...

It will vary depending on what is going on.

Let's start with 'benchmarks': If you are talking synthetic benchmarks like the UL 3DMark benchmarks (think Fire Strike, Time Spy, etc) for reviews, I run their default settings which typically includes AA and default driver settings. If there is an option of IQ settings, like in FF XV, I run the highest settings (also includes AA). If you are talking those same UL 3DMark benchmarks but for competitive purposes like for Hwbot or threads, then I follow those rules, but disable allowable things to improve the score (like AA). THAT is a race. Reviews and performance testing are NOT a race to see who gets the highest score by disabling things at the driver/NVCP level.

Now games: If we are talking for reviews, I run games at default Ultra settings and the driver is default as well. When I PLAY games for fun, I also use the highest settings in game. The only difference is that for my daily driver, I set the texture filtering to maximum in the NVCP. When I play modern games (for the last several years honestly) there is ZERO need for me to adjust anything in the NVCP or make a profile for a game. It was always recommended to have the driver on app controlled and select the AA and AF levels in game by settings. Settings in the NVCP can supplement in-game, but isn't reccommended to be the primary handler of AA/AF settings.

So, to summarize, it is situation dependent as to what my settings are.


In reference to the other thread, you spit out performance differences for 'your settings' which runs things without AA (and forced off through the NVCP it seems). This is fine and dandy for your 24/7 settings, but is not a great way to compare cards with the masses. Most people that play PC games strive to use the highest settings (setting games to Ultra/High which typically includes AA) to get the best IQ (and balance of FPS depending on the card)...so please understand the incredulous response to your performance numbers which vary quite a bit from all the reviews. Turning off AA clearly increases performance but at the sake of losing IQ and seeing aliasing. It was unclear, to me, the context you were talking about in the thread, though it was clear I am talking performance reviews and such, hence my comments and response. In my head, ya just don't test willy nilly with settings disabled that are commonly used (IRL and reviews) and call it 'so' as was done in that thread.

In the end, I didn't vote. Bad poll is bad, because it is situation dependent on how things are run... even the same things. Sometimes its on ultra settings (gaming personally and game reviews), sometimes the benchmark defaults (when reviewing), and sometimes I disable things in NVCP (like AA) when benchmarking competitively. It will vary wildly depending on how its used. So, no vote from me, sorry.

 

[johnspack]

With my 980ti I wanted maximum graphics, so I crank up the fans, and the clocks. If it doesn't crash during extended gaming.. I'm good. I'm also one of those rare few who don't give a dam about noise, with my headphones on, my computer can make as much noise as it needs to.

 

[rtwjunkie]

image quality

Image quality is life for me. That’s why I always go powerful GPU. While I am enjoying the most important part of SP gaming (the only thing I play), the story itself, I want to see the game to the full extent the devs spent a lot of time making it look like. I don’t have bionic eyes, and am perfectly comfortable with 45-60fps.

I set all settings in-game.

 

[newtekie1]

It all depends on the game and which computer/gpu I am using. I turn up settings as high as I can while still getting smooth gameplay. I'm not so worried about framerate. I don't keep a frame counter open when I play, I just adjust settings so whatever game I'm playing is smooth.

 

[jboydgolfer]

I set all settings in-game.

Same here. I dont go into nvidia control panel ever....may be smart to familiarize myself with it in case of low perf, but i usually just tweak as high as i can w/o perf loss. My monitor only goes to 60Hz, so as long as I'm getting around 60 frames per second, I'm a happy boy.

 

[Tallencor]

Usually whatever gets me as close to 144 fps as possible. Most things max or very high. Then I play with shadows and AA to hit the mark. I prefer fluidity before candy. I will sometimes cap lower like 120 if the game just looks so much better with higher shadows or more AA.
I'm getting weaker in the eyes so AA isnt as important as it was 4 or 5 yrs ago.
I use the same settings for Valley/Heaven and Superposition. 3d mark I use default.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

go hard or go home. Ive max out almost every game i play. the last time i struggled with a game was with a GTX970 running what i think was BF3 or BF4 at the time (i think it was BF3) I was hitting the 3.5GB limitation and my frames were starting to tank.

Not that i play super demanding games these days.... There seems to be quite a lack of games that really push the limits of hardware unless you count Ray Tracing on RTX compatible cards. Now that is a joke and a half. Over £1000 for a graphics card and it cant even do one of the things it was supposed to do well which was run with RTX on. (according to BF:V)

 

[lexluthermiester]

In the end, I didn't vote. Bad poll is bad, because it is situation dependent on how things are run...

That's why the option of "Depends on the game" was included in the vote. Referring back to an earlier conversation, it does look like a lot of people run maxed out. It's at 50% at the time of this post. Interesting.

 

[Gorstak]

the only thing I like to do, is turn on fastsync if nvidia, or it's counterpart if amd (not freesync), and turn off all other syncs, if any....that's usually the only change I do.

 

[chaosmassive]

most of the game I dont set to max setting, because the game is pretty enough at high setting sometimes even medium and doesn't need to get additional fps cut for negligible visual improvement

you wont stare at NPC or other player's eye reflection when playing open world/fps games

 

[Gorstak]

I lied, I like to turn shadows off...usually doubles my framerate...

 

[lexluthermiester]

I lied, I like to turn shadows off...usually doubles my framerate...

I don't usually turn them off, just down to medium or low but there are some games that shadows just look ugly so they get turned off.

 

[Gorstak]

Depending on scene content, basically it draws everything and everyone two times....if it's on high setting it will draw shadows on everything, and with highly populated scenes that really impacts performance...

 

[Frick]

Always off. In the games that actually run well with it on max I don't see enough difference to make it worth the performance drop.

 

[Tomgang]

As long its possible, i manuel set the settings to maximum.

 

[RCoon]

All settings max, but custom max so I can turn off Motion Blur and Bloom.

 

[lexluthermiester]

All settings max, but custom max so I can turn off Motion Blur and Bloom.

Yes! Not all games have motion blur(why does it even exist?) or bloom, but I'm with you on those two.

 

[EarthDog]

That's why the option of "Depends on the game" was included in the vote. Referring back to an earlier conversation, it does look like a lot of people run maxed out. It's at 50% at the time of this post. Interesting.

But... it doesnt depend on the game...it depends on the ACTIVITY as to how I run things. Games are all ultra/high (default when benching, an NVCP adjustment when playing). Synthetic benchmarks and such settings vary depending on the activity (review/performance testing). So nothing fits.

because it is situation dependent on how things are run... even the same things. Sometimes its on ultra settings (gaming personally and game reviews), sometimes the benchmark defaults (when reviewing), and sometimes I disable things in NVCP (like AA) when benchmarking competitively. It will vary wildly depending on how its used.

In the end, the poll also doesn't say why people run without AA. I'd be willing to be most would use it if FPS wasn't an issue. So to do it when one doesnt have to is...well, a prerogative. To run no AA and claim/infer its common, just isnt the best way. Thanks for the poll/thread!