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=Low Level System Settings=
=Low-Level Hardware Overclocking=
How far u can overclock ur card depends on many things. The card brand, amount of cooling ur computer have etc.
A
typical 'fairly' branded GF4 MX 440 card can handle 300core/450mem w/o probs.
-Apply overclocking at start-up:
I recommend enabling this option. But if u prefer to only enable o/c'ing b4 playing games, then disable the said option.
***The
trick is that u increase the core/mem slider 5 increments at a time and play for at least an hour, and if graphics corruption
or falling white dots (looks like snow) etc arise, set it back to ur usual setting. If no graphics corruption or instability
occurs then juz repeat the process up to the time that u reached the max setting that ur card can handle.
**If u have
a 'cheap' vidcard w/c can't handle high clock and core settings at the same time. Just leave the core clock setting at default
and increase the memory clock to its max (and stable) setting. Afterwards, u can raise the core clock setting 5 increments
at a time (if ur card still can handle it).
=More=
Clock Frequency Generation Accuracy: Select "Normal"
**Selecting this option will give u more precise numbers. Selecting "Low
(Safest)" will cause the numbers to bounce once you applied ur preferred setting and will only cause confusion.
Fake DDR Workaround: Select "Auto"
** Selecting "Force On" will cause Rivatuner to improperly detect ur Mem
Clock default setting.
=Direct3D=
=Mipmapping=
Mipmap LOD Bias
Adjustment:
-Default Value is zero (balance between speed and graphics quality)
-Move the slider to the left for
sharper images but more aliased (jagged) textures. I recommend setting this to -1.0. Lower values are said to cause the
textures to flicker or shimmer. If ur not experiencing any probs setting this at a lower value and ur system can handle the
performance drop, then set it at a lower value for better graphics quality.
-Set to a number higher than 0 (zero)
for better performance at the expense of graphics quality (blurry textures).
Enable user mipmaps:
-Enables programs/games to produce mipmaps. I recommend leaving this setting
at its default value (enabled). Disabling this option 'might' increase the games texture sharpness but will drastically
pull its performance down. So I recommend that u leave it enabled and use the LOD Bias Adjustment (above) to improve
ur games texture sharpness.
=Depth Buffering=
Enable 24-bit Z-buffer: I recommend
that u leave this setting enabled. Disable if experiencing font related problems (eg. blurry and/or unreadable texts).
Enable
W-buffer: Leave this setting enabled.
**Both settings above are ignored by DX8 games.
=LMA=
Enable Losless Z-buffer compression: no reason to disable this option!
=Blitting=
-I recommend that u do not put a check mark on any of the boxes
cause they will slow down ur d3d games/apps. But if u experience some difficulty running d3d games, enabling them 'might'
fix ur probs.
=Vsync=
Syncronization with vertical retrace:
-Set to "always off" for
better performance (recommended)
-Set to either "auto" (and enable/disable vsync from within the game) or "always
on" (to force vsync to become enabled even if it is disabled from within the game) if ur experiencing tearing with
ur d3d apps/games.
Pre-render limit: Set to "5" (or higher) for better performance. If u experience lags with
a high value, then give it a setting that is lower than 5.
=Textures=
Texture Memory Settings:
Set to the lowest possible number. They are only used by PCI graphics card.
Texture Format Settings: Leave them as
they are with the default settings.
Texture Filtering Settings:
-Set to "Force
Level 2" for better graphics quality. (recommended)
-Set to "Force Level 1" for faster performance. I don't recommend
this setting or any other setting except the "Force Level 2" since the loss in graphics quality isn't worth the increase in
fps. The "Determined by D3D application" option is also a good choice if u want the program to be the one who will set the
filtering method and might even cause some games to run faster if they only run in Trilinear filtering and don't support
"anisotropic filtering".
=Optimize=
Allow D3D to optimize filter Stage 0 and 1: I recommend enabling both boxes by adding a tick mark. Same
goes with the "always optimize selected stages" box to force the driver to always apply ur selected values.
-Optimization Strategy: I recommend setting this to 1 or 0 (lower number = better performance).
-Disable Trilinear Filtering for optimized stages: I also recommend enabling this option.
**Explanation for the said settings is quite long. So if u need detailed info on what the ff setting does
and how it affects ur games graphics/performance ... email me.
=Compatibility=
Texel Origin Adjustment: Leave this at its default setting.
If ur experiencing blurry text's on games, moving the slider to other settings will fix the problem (often times to the left).
Enable Fog Togle Emulation: Leave this setting enabled.
=Antialiasing=
-I highly
recommend that u enable FSAA and take advantage of Quincunx method. Its quality is comparable to 4x FSAA but the performance
drop/hit is only about the same as 2x FSAA. And since GF4 MX 440 is powerful enough to harness this feature, there is really
no reason not to use it unless ur having low fps with games.
**Enabling FSAA on D3D games makes the game's texture look blurry ... specially
if ur using Quincunx and 4x-9tap. The only way to combat this is lowering the LOD Bias value (shown above). But as u decrease
its value ... performance will start to become a problem. So if u can't stand how blurry the game looks, I recommend that
u use a higher resolution instead.
Force AntiAliasing in all Direct3D applications: Select
this option to enable FSAA for all D3D games. If graphics corruption becomes a prob ... disable this setting.
Enable Multisample Masking: This setting is said to
increase D3D FSAA performance and quality but may cause DX7 games to disable FSAA even if it is enabled.
=Mipmapping=
-Default Value is zero (balance between speed and graphics
quality)
-Move the slider to the left for sharper but more aliased (jagged) images. I recommend setting this
to -1.0, lower values are said to cause the textures to flicker or shimmer. If ur not experiencing any probs setting this
at a lower value and ur system can handle the performance drop, then set it at a lower value for better graphics quality.
-Set to a number higher than 0 (zero) for better performance at the expense of graphics quality (blurry textures).
=Vsync=
Syncronization with vertical retrace:
-Set to "off
by default" for better performance (recommended)
-Set to "on by default" if ur experiencing tearing with ur OGL
apps/games that doesn't have the option to enable Vsync.
Pre-render limit: Set to "5" (or higher) for better performance.
If u experience lags then give it a value lower than 5.
=Back/Depth Buffering=
Set this to "page-flipping" for better performance.
Set to "Auto" if ur having troubles playing OGL based games.
=Rendering Quality=
Texture and S3TC Quality settings: Leave them with
their default values. (both boxes un-ticked)
Anisotropic Filtering Quality Preferences: Set to "performance optimization" for
better performance with very slight to unoticeable decrease in graphics quality. If ur sensitive enough to notice the decrease
in graphics quality then switch to "quality optimization"
Default Degree of Anisotropy: Set to "Level 2". "Level 1 (off)" produces lower quality
graphics but the trade-off for its ugly graphics and performance increase isn't worth it IMO.
=Compatibility=
OpenGL Hardware Acceleration Mode: Set to "max acceleration
mode" for better performance.
Disable support for CPU enhanced instruction sets: disable!
Amount of memory
for PCI textures: set to the lowest setting possible. Only used by PCI videocards.
=Antialiasing=
Enable AntiAliasing Quincunx Method and
put a check mark on "Enable Texture Sharpening" for sharper looking textures.
**Unlike DX, OpenGL FSAA doesn't have the blurry side-effect
when enabling Quincunx or 4x-9tap. You might notice that there is still a slight blurry effect (specially if u have ur LOD
Bias set at zero and Texture Sharpening disabled) but it doesn't ruin the games graphics or might even be unoticeable for
some.
=Misc. Tips / Info=
=I Hate Jaggies=
For folks who really hates jagged lines
and can stand how a less detailed textures look. I recommend that u run ur game/s at 800x600 ... enable FSAA Quincunx
mode (or 2x mode for D3D if Quincunx looks too blurry for ur taste) ... and voila! Ur game/s will look as if ur running a
resolution higher than 1024x768!
=LOD Bias +/- 15=
There is a way to break the +/- 3 value
for LOD Bias Adjustment. Go to > power user (tab) > Click on Rivatuner\Detonator\Global > Give the LODBiasRange line
a value of "15".
*Note that any value higher than 15 is
ignored by the drivers. And the performance hit of giving the LOD Bias a value of -15 is quite drastic ... but the
graphics quality increase is noticeable.
=Enable Digital Vibrance=
I recommend that u enable Digital Vibrance
and give it a "low" value for more rich and vibrant looking colors!
=Omega Drivers=
This driver is said
to increase NVIDIA cards performance and/or graphics quality. I tried it with my GF4 Ti 4200 128mb card and I got a pretty
impressive performance boost with it. Now I am not sure whether or not older cards can achieve the same result, but IMO its
worth the try. So if ur interested, check out my GF4 Ti tweaking section for more info.
=Closed To Future Updates=
Last Updated: 011703
Minor Update on: 011304
IMPORTANT:
***I will not
be held responsible to any damage this tweaking guide might cause your graphics card.
**What do you think about my
Geforce4 MX 440 tweaking guide? Please sign my guestbook before leaving, it's the least you can do to thank me, and the
only way for me to know that someone did visit my site!
**Any errors/corrections, comments, and/or additions to my
Geforce4 MX 440 tweaking guide are welcome and will be greatly appreciated
*Email me if u have comments and/or
suggestions. Tnx!
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