Nvidia Control Panel Game Settings

[Christa Voth]

inoticed that when i updated my drivers to 511.23, there were some settings differences. some replaced and some added. i went through @Spudknocker video settings video, and even some shown were different. i went through my specific DCS settings and made the changes to match what i could. here are screen shots in case it helps anyone. clear skies and good luck!

Just a heads up regarding some of those settings...

Power Management Mode: I'd recommend against "Maximum Performance", especially if with a very hot power hungry Nvidia GPU model (1080Ti, 2080Ti, 3080/Ti/3090, etc).

"Optimal Performance" is the prefered/recommended option (and why is set by default) for graphics intensive games, which as of today includes DCS World.

What the "Maximum Performance" does is making your GPU force/increase a higher power state (as to not downclock as often). Something that is only welcome for games that are very old and/or really CPU limited (with the GPU very underutilized), when a few stutters and drops happen for that reason, not being demanding enough for the graphics card to be in the highest power state (just on the threshold of 60 fps in the lower states). It was the case before DCS adopted EDGE graphics engine (prior to 2015, when that setting made sense for it) but not anymore or since.

Just a heads up regarding some of those settings...

Power Management Mode: I'd actually recommend against "Maximum Performance" if you have a very hot power hungry Nvidia GPU model (1080Ti, 2080Ti, 3080/Ti/3090, etc).

"Optimal Performance" is the prefered/recommended option (and why is set by default) for graphics intensive games, which as of today includes DCS World.

What the "Maximum Performance" does is making your GPU force/increase a higher power state (as to not downclock as often). Something that is only welcome for games that are very old and/or really CPU limited (with the GPU very underutilized), when a few stutters and drops happen for that reason, because they aren't demanding enough for the graphics card to be in the highest power state (just on the threshold of 60 fps in the lower states). It was the case before DCS adopted EDGE graphics engine (prior to 2015, when that setting made sense for it) but it's not the case for DCS anymore.

There is no Optimal Performance anymore. Normal or Max Performance. Jury is out for me but on my old 1080 setting this and anything other than max chopped the fps in Normandy (for instance) almost in half. I will try Normal for my 3080 though. Thank you.

Yep, that's how it is for a 30 series GPU.

If you use NVPInspector, it seems to open more options hidden/unlocked, including the power management options.

Still an extremely useful tool for many other things, for example, for older DX9 games to ensure propper SSAA (impossible with default NV control panel) and even implementation of SSAO settings.

I was yanking your chain of course but I did find some old notes frap logs from when I got my 1080 (comparing it to my previous 1060). In the Normandy free flight with an A10 running up towads Pegasus Bridge ( this is back in mid 2018) with the power whatever the default would be 45 fps. With the option set to prefer max performance 72 fps. I changed nothing else.

I dony know what the default power setting was for the older cards or if other settings such as optimal would have has a similar effect but that was my experience at the time. Curiously only the Normandy map showed this. Great battles, clod and even flights in the Causcauses all ran fine. I only noticed I hadnt altered the power setting when Normandy bombed.

At present I cant fly but I can be a apssenger to the inevitable keyboard controlled impact with the ground/ or use F2 view. I see no disadvantage so far in using the "normal" setting (my 3080 is pushing only a 1080P screen and is usually vsync hobbled in any case) but this has only really been on a few free flights. I might go for an immortal spin over a SAM infested Damascus later......

I'm just describing here what it does to anyone not knowing what it does, before he/she decides to go for it because someone in the internet tells him to try it (check the dozens of youtube videos on really dubious, if not harmful "you got to do this on your Nvidia/AMD GPU!!11oneoneone" with kids following it blindly).

"Nvidia GPUs are supposedly designed to operate reliably up to their maximum specified operating temperature. This maximum temperature varies by GPU.

If a GPU hits the maximum temperature, the driver will throttle down performance, in an attempt to bring temperature back underneath the maximum specification.

If the GPU temperature continues to increase despite the performance throttling, the GPU may shutdown the system to prevent damage to the graphics card."

This is a possible scenario with "Maximum Performance" powerplan inappropriately set for graphically demanding games - the option was specifically made for games where the GPU is "bored", when it's not ramping up clocks.

What it does in GPU heavy games then is "pin it to the max" for components that don't really require it if pushed quite high already with the optimized (safe) default setting, like a combustion engine pushed at constant maximum revs for indefinite.

An added downside is potentially creating performance breaks and flutuation (on core and mem clocks) while the background process (on the driver) tries to save the GPU from overheating (because of the constant tall voltages of highest power plan, being enforced) when reaching a designed threshold.

With current DX11 engine using deferred rendering, DCS is a sim/game that does not require this "trick" setting - and being so unoptimized it can (and will) saturate even the biggest and fastest GPUs on the market - so why in heavens would anyone want to provoque this I don't know. (coming from someone who worked with gaming systems and repairs for years)

But by all means.... you do you, man.

I kept mine on "prefer maximum performance" for years, both with my previous and current GPUs. Then something happened last year, and it started to heat up dramatically while playing DCS. Other equally demanding games (2020, xp, v5 etc.) played just as smooth as before.

Then I saw Luke's post and though, "what the hell?" Went and changed it to "Adaptive", and guess what? No more overheating, no more fans going crazy in DCS, and I was able to bring the GPU freqs back to their original values. With no noticeable performance hit whatsoever*

Not sure what I can do to optimize my sim. But this is what I currently have. I run the sim in 4K single screen with a GTX 1080 FTW (8GB). So I'm not sure if I should turn on or off some of the options I have in here.

Wouldn't touch it at all, outside of perhaps "Prefer maxiumum performance". Most of it has zero effect. I tried forcing AF but you end up with a weird water shimmering when done through the control panel I've found.

Imho, as Sethos 1988 said, you shouldn't touch a single option in those screens. I myself never ever noticed a difference between various settings and always leave things at default. No need to complicate things without reason. ?

i got 4k monitor with 1070, night with qw787 or fsl320 at Flightbeam KSFO with dynamic lighting just basically killed the 1070, qw787 sitting at runway with lights is about 18-23 fps just bad, but pmdg 777 is much better. only thing i touch in Nvidia control panel is prefer maximum performance

Friendly tip: the next time edit out all those screenshots: no need to repeat them all and make us scroll down for a minute. ? Even easier: do not click on + Quote but select an appropriate part of a post you want to reply to and you will see a small popup coming up saying 'Quote selection'. Click on that and your post could have begun with for instance this:

you change those settings all you want, but you are trying to run a 20 year old engine in 4K... same hooker different dress... it never ceases to amaze me how people think v4 is this magic bullet just because a miltary contracter has bought the rights to recode it and made it 64 bit. its still fsx under a ton of make up. it really is that simple.

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