NVIDIA settings for best performance

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The infamous NVIDIA Control Panel and all it's misleading parameters...

In today's blog, we will discuss the NVIDIA Control Panel and the NVIDIA app. There are many videos and posts on this subject, but I've seen too much misleading information circulating, and this blog post aims to keep things simple.

Tweaking settings here should be kept to a minimum. In almost all scenarios, you will want to adjust graphical settings within the games you play instead of modifying options in the NVIDIA Control Panel or the NVIDIA app.

Settings you should set in almost all scenarios

Here are the settings I recommend for nearly all configurations. This guide is for desktop PCs. If you are using a laptop, some menus might be absent, and depending on your configuration, I would advise against tinkering too much with the control panel.

Adjust Image Settings with Preview

Use the advanced 3D image settings

If you modify any settings in the "Manage 3D Settings" menu, you should select this option to ensure they are applied correctly.

Manage 3D Settings (Global Settings)

First and foremost, I recommend restoring the default settings in the "Manage 3D Settings" menu.

Additionally, do the same for any individual programs where you may have modified settings in the Program Settings panel to ensure a fresh start with the correct settings.

Click on "Restore" to reset to the default settings

Now that everything is back to default, let's dive into it.

Low Latency Mode should be "On", if your PC is not suffering from heavy CPU bottleneck this should help in games that don't yet support NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency

Set Low Latency Mode to "On" in the NVIDIA Control Panel. For games that support it, always use NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency, set to either "On + Boost" or "On," and test which option delivers the best results.

The in-game NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency option overrides the Low Latency Mode setting in the Control Panel and is significantly more effective at reducing overall latency.

Some older games may experience issues with Low Latency Mode in the Control Panel. If problems occur, you can disable it for the specific game in the Program Settings panel by selecting its executable.

Monitor technology should be set to "Fixed Refresh".

For most users, I recommend avoiding G-Sync, even if your monitor supports it. G-Sync should only be used in specific scenarios where the framerate remains below the monitor’s maximum refresh rate. Its sole purpose is to synchronize the monitor’s refresh rate with the game’s framerate to prevent screen tearing. If screen tearing is not an issue (which it typically isn’t), G-Sync should be disabled. Additionally, variable refresh rate technologies like G-Sync can cause issues on newer monitors, such as screen flickering or blackouts.

Set the Preferred Refresh Rate to "Highest available" This setting ensures that your monitor’s native refresh rate is applied to any game you run.

Set Shader Cache Size to "Unlimited" This prevents multiple games from overwriting each other’s shader cache. A low cache size limit can force the cache to be recompiled each time a game launches if it has been deleted, leading to performance issues.

Set Texture Filtering - Quality to "High Performance" This setting has minimal visual impact while slightly improving overall performance. Choosing "High Performance" or "Performance" also enables Trilinear optimization, which can further boost your FPS.

Leave the Power Management Mode to "Normal" in the Global Settings panel

Set Power Management Mode to "Prefer Maximum Performance" but only in the Program Settings tab for the games you play. Applying this globally may cause your GPU to run at high clocks unnecessarily while idling.

Make sure you select the right .exe for your game, for instance not the launcher, but the .exe of the game itself

The NVIDIA app

It’s perfectly fine to use the NVIDIA app to install the latest drivers or adjust specific settings for certain games (e.g., forcing a particular DLSS version). However, in most cases, the app isn’t necessary for your system. You can bypass it entirely and download drivers directly from the NVIDIA website.

For more advanced driver-side tweaking, tools like NvidiaInspector offer far greater control over settings. However, these should only be used if you are confident in what you’re doing, as they allow deeper access to complex configurations.

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Now, let’s move to the "Settings" panel on the left-hand side.

Disable the Automatically optimize newly added games and apps option.

This feature automatically adjusts settings for your games based on NVIDIA’s recommendations, which often fail to optimize performance or visual quality. In some cases, it can even cause bugs or crashes in certain games.

Disable the NVIDIA Overlay.

If you don’t use the overlay for recording gameplay or applying game filters, turn it off, as it may negatively impact performance.

Using Game Filters and Photo Mode can significantly affect performance. These features are disabled by default when the NVIDIA Overlay is turned off.

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This is it, simple as that. One thing we did not cover here is DLSS and and Super Resolution. If you want to know more about these technologies and how you can leverage them here is a follow up article (available soon).