Possible FPS boost with Nvidia Inspector

Stili · March 2013

First off, I am by no means responsible what happens to your NS2 if you do this.
Secondly I would like to say that this is for NVIDIA CARDS ONLY.
Thirdly pay attention if you are doing this, I'm not sure if this works on all cards.
Here's my specs and what I did, what my fps was and what it is now.
Btw I'm on a gaming laptop.

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M  
       Manufacturer: NVIDIA
          Chip type: GeForce GT 330M
           DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
         Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0A29&SUBSYS_C06A144D&REV_A2
     Display Memory: 2697 MB
   Dedicated Memory: 978 MB
      Shared Memory: 1718 MB
       Current Mode: 1600 x 900 (32 bit) (60Hz)
       Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
      Monitor Model: unknown
         Monitor Id: CMO1711
        Native Mode: 1600 x 900(p) (59.978Hz)
        Output Type: Internal
        Driver Name: nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um
Driver File Version: 9.18.0013.0623 (English)
     Driver Version: 9.18.13.623
        DDI Version: 10.1
       Driver Model: WDDM 1.1

And my cpu

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU       M 450  @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
             Memory: 4096MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 3950MB RAM
          Page File: 4718MB used, 11074MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\windows
    DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
   User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
 System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
    DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled

The Tweak

Click the wrench icon, top left, the updated nvidia inspector will have a "Natural Selection 2 profile" make the following tweaks you want 
(Only if 
you're experienced and knowledgable about what you're doing!!!!) 
-IF YOU'RE NOT then apply these tweaks
-Texture filtering LOD Bias - 0x00000078 (change from 0.00 to my value I have...0x00000078)
-Texture filtering Negative LOD bias "Clamp"
-Texture filtering - Quality "High Performance"
{EDIT: If you have more than 1 GPU then Activate the one below} 
-for "SLI Rendering Mode" select "Force Alternate Frame Rendering 2"

h'okay so before I did this I got about 17-21 fps on everything low/off with 1280x720
after Nvidia inspector tweak I went from 17-21 to 35-36, and now I can turn on effects and stuff, but I really like the simple and plain look lol I'm still wanting to tamper with the cfg file but i'm not sure how hopefully someone below can post how to make your graphics look worse for more fps!

Btw I tried this on my desktop and I only got about 10 fps...make sure video card is updated to latest version or later than 306.xx
I'm still going to test this but at the moment here's my settings
(I made my Team Fortress 2 add ns2.exe to the profile) I'm using a day older version of inspector)
img.techpowerup.org/130324/nvidia_20130324_130330.png
img.techpowerup.org/130324/nvidia_20130324_130330.png
img.techpowerup.org/130324/nvidia_20130324_130417.png
img.techpowerup.org/130324/nvidia_20130324_130432.png

See you in game! Feel free to give comments / feedback and create discussion/elaborate ideas and give feedback to this thread for more tips and tricks to boost fps!

SquishpokePOOPFACE · March 2013

Might give this a try, but I will feel sad about picmip/legoland-ing such a pretty game.

IronHorse · March 2013

Alternate frame rendering will only effect those with two gpu's fyi

Stili · March 2013

Squishpoke wrote: »

Might give this a try, but I will feel sad about picmip/legoland-ing such a pretty game.

Surprisingly not that picmip/lego-ey

IronHorse wrote: »

Alternate frame rendering will only effect those with two gpu's fyi

Thank you! I will edit my original post.

ScardyBob · March 2013

Nvidia Inspector looks like an alternate GPU overclocking program so I could see it improve fps if your GPU-limited (pretty likely with a GT 330M). I wouldn't expect it to help many others.

SomaZ · March 2013

I can confirm 0 fps change whatsoever.

Brainmaggot · March 2013

Please don't post results without specs to back it up. Just saying it doesn't work doesn't really say anthing.

I'm going to try this today. Always been having performance issues with NS2. My rig is CPU bottlenecked though so this might not work at all for me. I really liked the idea of ns2 picmip though. I've been wanting that ever since I started playing. Way too much stuff going on visually in ns2 for my liking.

Jevrio · March 2013

I prefer to just set every setting as low as I can, except resolution. Shadows could be nice to have, but for the most part in NS2, it's easier to just listen for noise, as you can hear the enemy pretty well unless they're sneaking.

lornlynx · March 2013

Didn't do anything for me. Have nearly the same system as op, just with an i7 and a gts 250M.

Stili · March 2013

Sorry to hear it wasn't working for some of you!
I don't know what it was for me but I added ns2.exe to the Team Fortress 2 Profile
and deleted the Natural Selection 2 profile

hope that helps!

gl and post more derails to the graphics

please! to add to the OP

Brainmaggot · April 2013

Hey Stili. I tried your settings but it doesn't seem to do anything ingame. I tried doing it the exact same way as you with adding the ns2.exe file to the TF2 profile and having the same settings, no result. Tried loading back the ns2 profile and tweaking the texture settings in that one as well, no result.

Could you post som screenshots of how the game looks with your settings? I'd like to see it so that I have something to compare to. Maybe you know what I'm missing as well.

I even tried changing the Texture filtering settings LOD Bias and Quality to Clamp and High Performance respectively in NVIDIA Control Panel on global settings instead to see if it made any difference. No difference noticiable whatsoever with those two for me though. Right now it seems it just doesn't apply the settings properly or something. Judging by their names they sound like something that would change visuals noticably.

EDIT: What drew me in here was the talk about picmipped NS2. I have been looking for something like that for months. What settings in particular dull down the textures? I'm guessing it's the LOD bias.

The most important factor for me though is how do I make the settings actually apply to the game, something seems to be off for me.

Screenshot of the simple ns2 profile I tried as my latest attempt:
http://i.imgur.com/qkgQbUw.jpg

Possible FPS boost with Nvidia Inspector

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