DeepIron's nVidia tweaking notes...

[DeepIron]

I've been messing about tweaking my video drivers and SH4 to get the best balance of performance and quality out of my older system. Here's my notes for those of you who may find them useful as a basis for your own tweaking.

My computer specs:
Athlon XP 3000+ 2.17GHz CPU, 1GB RAM, WinXP SP2

Silent Hunter specs:
Silent Hunter v1.5
NSM4 Classic
NSM Patch for 1.5 (not yet publically available -- beta)
ROW PE3 Install #1
ROW PE3 Install less floater
ROW PE3 Submarine bubles and caustics and roll pitch #3
ROW PE3 Install sun flair for camera
PE3_1 Ship_debris_SH4_fixed_with bodies
PE3_1 Sky and reflection controls and textures
Carotio_Sh4_Small_Moon
RFB_v1.5_051408
RSRDC_RFBv15_V395_RC5

My video subsystem specs:
nVidia 7600GS 256MB AGP card
nVidia v175.16 driver http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-us
nVidia Control Panel v1.5.2400.10 (Part of the driver download)
EVGA Precision Video tuning program v1.02 http://www.evga.com/articles/405.asp

Cavaet: These settings work fine for me and have been the result of many hours of testing. If you wish to try them, especially the overclocking tweaks, you do so at your own risk.

nVidia Control Panel info.
1. Open the nVidia Control Panel.
2. Select "Manage 3D settings" from the left pane.
3. Click on the "Program Settings" tab in the right pane.
4. Click on the "Add" button, navigate and select "sh4.exe" from the file explorer window.
4a. Or, check the "Show only prgrams found on this computer" check box and see if it show up there.
5. These are the settings I've found to give the best results:
Anistropic filtering 2x
Antialiasing -Gamma correction Use global setting (Off)
Antialiasing - Setting 2x
Antialiasing - Transparancy Multisampling
Conformant texture clamp Use global setting (Use hardware)
Extension limit Use global setting (Off)
Force mipmaps Use global setting (None)
Maximum pre-rendered frames 8
Multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration Use global setting (Multiple display performance)***
Texture filtering - Anisotropic mip filter opt Use global setting (On)
Texture filtering - Anisotropic sample opt On
Texture filtering - Negative LOD bias Use global setting (Allow)
Texture filtering - Quality Use global setting (High performance)
Texture filtering - Trilinear optimization Off
Triple buffering Use global setting (Off)
Verticle sync: Use the 3D application setting

***Note: I have multiple monitors, adjust this setting to your system.

6. Make sure the nVidia control icon is taskbar tray when you exit. When you start SH4, the nVidia Control Panel will set the card parameters automatically.

Ok, next step: Over clocking... (DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!)
1. Install and start the EVGA Precision program.
2. On the 7600GS card, you can change the Core Clock and Memory Clock speeds only. This is how I do it:
Increment first the Core clock by 5 MHz and then click the "TEST" button. If it tests ok then increment the Memory Clock by 5MHz and test. Alternate between the two clock settings, testing each time until one of the other fails the test. Then back them off the one that fails by 10MHz and test again. You may be able to push the Core Clock higher than the Memory Clock. This is due to the maximum bus speed of your computer.
3. Once your satisfied with the speed settings, click the "Apply" button.
4. Exit the EVGA Precision program. It doesn't need to be open after the clocks are set.
5. Start up Silent Hunter and play. Check for instability and "artifacts" appearing on your screen. If either occur, exit sh4, open the Precision program and tweak the clock settings until everything is working correctly.

NOTES: If you have a dual monitor setup, you can drag the Precision program over to it while sh4 is running and monitor your GPU temp. The framerates in sh4 will jump a bit due to data sampling but once your comfortable with the GPU temps, close the program. You can also minimize it to the Taskbar and "alt-tab" to it once in a while to check the temps.

I suggest that when your done playing, restart the Precision program, click the "Reset All" button to return your card clocks to their default values.

On my system, I can run my Core Clock at 550MHz and Memory Clock at 390MHz. This DOES warm up the GPU to around 90 Centigrade but my cooling system handles it ok. I average 40fps in the Control room and 30 fps everywhere else. My monitors run at 1152x864 @75Hz and the SH4 image quality is very good. The camera is very responsive and smooth.

In SH4, I run everything but Volumetric Fog and Detailed Wave options and all sliders to the right (except the Gamma).

I hope this may prove helpful Enjoy!

[DavyJonesFootlocker]

I have NVidia 8500 GT and will try out the settings. I do not dare OC due to tropical heat here.

[SteveW1]

Thanks DeepIron I tried these out with my 7300gt and had a performance increase while running TMO 1.5B

[steinbeck]

Installed the driver, d/l the EVGA prog' but on opening my nvidia control panel and using:
'Add' I cannot find Sh4 in the, 'Show only programs found on this computer'
also if I go the other route it opens my 'system 32' window and I cannot see it in there. So, now I'm stuck.
Any advise here would be a great help!

Thanks from

steinbeck..:hmm:

[DeepIron]

@SteveW1... glad to hear you got some more performance!

@steinbeck... Hmmm, let's see... SH4 didn't show up on my "Show only programs..." either but you should be able to manually find and select it...


After opening the nVidia Control Panel to the "Manage 3D settings" window...
1. Click on the "Add" button. This should open a "File explorer" window and it will default to the system32 directory.
2. Click on the little "upside down" triangle in the "Look in:" slot (where it says "system32"). This should show you the directory tree on your computer.
3. Navigate to the root directory where you installed Silent Hunter, left click and highlight the sh4.exe file. I think it's something like "C:\Program Files\Silent Hunter Wolves of the Pacific\" or similar. I installed my SH4 in a different directory on a different hard drive than the default so I'm not 100% sure...
4. Click the "Open" button on the lower right hand side just above the "Cancel" button.

That should do it. Now you can tweak the nVidia settings...

[steinbeck]

Originally Posted by DeepIron

@SteveW1... glad to hear you got some more performance!

@steinbeck... Hmmm, let's see... SH4 didn't show up on my "Show only programs..." either but you should be able to manually find and select it...


After opening the nVidia Control Panel to the "Manage 3D settings" window...
1. Click on the "Add" button. This should open a "File explorer" window and it will default to the system32 directory.
2. Click on the little "upside down" triangle in the "Look in:" slot (where it says "system32"). This should show you the directory tree on your computer.
3. Navigate to the root directory where you installed Silent Hunter, left click and highlight the sh4.exe file. I think it's something like "C:\Program Files\Silent Hunter Wolves of the Pacific\" or similar. I installed my SH4 in a different directory on a different hard drive than the default so I'm not 100% sure...
4. Click the "Open" button on the lower right hand side just above the "Cancel" button.

That should do it. Now you can tweak the nVidia settings...

.................................................. .................................................. ...........

Did as you just suggested and it was ok. Now running in a similar fashion to you(having almost the identical system)

Thanks a lot.

steinbeck....

[DeepIron]

@steinbeck... great! Glad you had positive results!

[banjo]

The question I have is have your tried this build with other games? I have a 7600GS and am inclined to try your setup but don't want it to mess up Crysis, for example.

[DeepIron]

Originally Posted by banjo

The question I have is have your tried this build with other games? I have a 7600GS and am inclined to try your setup but don't want it to mess up Crysis, for example.

By creating a "program profile" associated with the sh4.exe file in the nVidia Control Panel, such as I've outlined above, other games remain unaffected...


However, if you go to "Manage 3D Settings", click on the "Global Settings" tab and tweak anything in there, yes, all your games would be affected. So, don't do that...

[banjo]

Right, forgot about that.

One more question--the 175.xx drivers are for 9800 cards. The only drivers I could find for 7000 cards are the 169.25's, which btw I had problems with and had to go back to the 162's. What about 175's for 7000 series cards? Is it okay to always use the latest driver no matter what card one has?


Thanks

[DeepIron]

Originally Posted by banjo

Right, forgot about that.

One more question--the 175.xx drivers are for 9800 cards. The only drivers I could find for 7000 cards are the 169.25's, which btw I had problems with and had to go back to the 162's. What about 175's for 7000 series cards? Is it okay to always use the latest driver no matter what card one has?


Thanks

I'm currently running the v175.16 driver without any ill effects... However, I did run v174.74 previously which screwed up some OpenGL programs I use so I reverted back to v169.44 for a time.

The newest drivers are always "beta" it seems so it's "use at your own risk" with them. As fast as video technology is moving, I can understand why most drivers never get labeled as "production" nowadays...

My suggestion is to give the newer drivers a shot but be prepared to unload them if they don't work...

[DavyJonesFootlocker]

I have Nhancer installed and can't seem to access the NVidia control panel. I get it frozen and no access. However, even with the settings on NHancer the game looks rad!

[DeepIron]

Originally Posted by DavyJonesFootlocker

I have Nhancer installed and can't seem to access the NVidia control panel. I get it frozen and no access. However, even with the settings on NHancer the game looks rad!

DJF... I abandoned nHancer due to similar problems and just went with the control panel...

[MarkShot]

To avoid that lock up, you need a profile in nhancer with a name like "00000" which you do not edit as a place holder. It seems when you edit the first profile that it cause the lock up. I am using both nhancer and the NVidia CP.

I hope that helps.

[MarkShot]

Simple rename the first default profile to "00000" and don't touch it after that. Edit your other game profiles and you should be fine.