Most PC games require manual configuration of the graphics settings so that they can express their full potential. Unfortunately, most people will only change the settings within the game itself, completely ignoring the settings on all the graphics card control panels. If we wanted to optimize the configurations without having to study manuals to understand the meaning of each option of the graphics card, we will show you in this guide how to configure the optimal video settings for video games and keep drivers updated, so you can always get the best experience of play. For each motherboard manufacturer we will show you the automatically configurable settings (with the appropriate programs) and the simplest manual configurations, so you can immediately get an improvement in quality and performance.
READ ALSO: Change CPU speed, Graphics Card and RAM: best programs
NVIDIA graphics card configurations
In this part of the guide we will show you how to best configure any NVIDIA video card, so you can get the most out of it in terms of graphics and game speed.GeForce Experience
If we are inexperienced in the configuration of NVIDIA branded video cards we can install the free GeForce Experience program on our PC.
It provides detailed information on the hardware and the type of graphics card, allows you to update the drivers and automatically optimizes the card configurations based on the game installed on the PC. The first time GeForce Experience is run, we will find all compatible games installed. To optimize one, simply click on it and then press the Optimize button. If you want to learn more about what the program does, you can compare the settings considered optimal and compare them with the default ones.
With a simple touch inside the program we will be able to optimize the graphics card to the maximum, so as to play with the right graphics parameters and with the right game speed (which is often even more useful than the pure graphics shot at maximum).
Manual configurations of NVIDIA graphics card
If we want to manually proceed with the configuration of our video card, we right-click on an empty spot on our Windows desktop and select the entry NVIDIA Control Panel .
The first configuration can be done in the first screen: we apply the check mark to the item Use my preference highlighting, so as to unlock the quick settings of the card; moving the slider to the left or right we will get higher quality or higher performance, so you can decide in advance how the video card should behave with any game.
If instead we wanted to configure the various parameters for each game, go to the Manage 3D settings menu then open the Program Settings tab.
In the Select a program to customize drop-down menu, select the game to be configured, then modify the various parameters in order to increase the quality or speed of the game. If we do not know what the various parameters are for, we can understand the meaning of many of the items present by reading our guide to Meaning Graphic settings for video games and video card .
Each game has its own different configuration, but in general we advise you to optimize the following parameters (trying all the items and checking immediately if the game shows improvements or deteriorations):
- Antialias - Setting
- Anisotropic filter
- Structure filter - Quality
- Thread optimization
- Vertical synchronization
After making the necessary changes, we click Apply at the bottom right to make them effective.
If the game is not present in the list shown by the NVIDIA control panel, we can always add it manually by clicking Add and scrolling through the PC folders, until you find the game executable (in .exe format).
AMD graphics card configurations
In the next few lines we will show you how to configure a modern AMD video card, so as to bring out all the power of these cards (much more difficult to configure, also due to the driver).AMD Radeon Software
To optimize the card for all modern games, we will have to install the new AMD Radeon Software, which is supplied each year with a different name.
Once installed on our computer, we right-click on an empty spot on the desktop, select AMD Radeon Settings, then click Game and Global Settings . From this menu we can modify all the graphic settings related to the card, which will be active on any game will be started. If we want to set the items differently for each game, simply click on the card in the Game menu and change the most useful graphic parameters; to obtain a good balance between quality and performance, we recommend that you act on the following parameters:
- Anti-aliasing method
- Anti-Aliasing mode
- Anisotropic filter mode
- Texture Filtering Quality
- Tessellation mode
- Please wait for vertical sync
Overclocking and changing parameters with Afterburner
For AMD graphics cards we can also use the Afterburner program.
With this third-party tool we will be able to closely monitor the speed of the GPU, the video memories and the temperature of the video card, as well as modify the graphic parameters in order to always obtain maximum performance with any game.
To learn more about the use of this powerful tool (also valid for NVIDIA graphics cards), we recommend you read our guide on how to enhance the graphics card with Afterburner .
Conclusions
With the programs provided by the manufacturer itself, we can configure all the games on our computer, so that we can always obtain the maximum speed and fluidity of the game, even if our video card is no longer so recent.In order to take advantage of the suggestions in the guide, we must always have the latest video driver for the NVIDIA and AMD cards; if we don't know how to download it, we can fix it by reading our guide on how to download and install updated AMD or NVIDIA video card drivers .
If instead we wanted to do better and get much more from our video card, we can try programs to optimize the computer for games and video games for PC .
