Most gamers already are aware that if your system isn’t properly configured, you might be leaving some unused performance on the table. But because every system is fundamentally different, configuration may be a challenging task. In any case, we’ll go over what to look for during optimization and optimization of Windows 11 if you have a Nvidia GPU.
Windows 11 Nvidia Optimization Guide For Best Performance
First off, we’ll start off with the simple things. Updating your GPU drivers.
As Windows 11 isn’t yet fully released for some systems, updating said drivers is not yet as easy as it was back on Windows 10. First things first, navigate to the Nvidia driver download page.
There, start by selecting your GPU, and that includes which series and product type it is. In the operating system dropdown, select Windows 11.
NOTE: For some Windows 11 might not be available, in that case, choose Windows 10.
For driver type, select standard and then search for drivers. Select the latest version of the Game Ready Driver from the list.
Open the downloaded file next, and go through the installation process.
Nvidia Control Panel
This is where the magic happens. Start by navigating to the 3D Settings tab. Once you’re in that menu, select “Use the advanced 3D image settings”, and hit “Take Me There”.
Here, you’ll need to tweak some settings. The settings and options available will vary depending on which GPU you have, but try to recreate the following settings:
- Image Sharpening – Off, Scaling Disabled
- Ambient Occlusion – Off
- Anisotropic Filtering – Application-Controlled
- Antialiasing – FXAA – Off
- Gamma Correction – On
- Antialiasing Mode – Application-Controlled
- Antialiasing Transparency – Off
- Background Application Max Frame Rate – Off
- CUDA – GPUs – All
- DSR – Factors – Off
- Smoothness – Off
- Low Latency Mode – On
- Max Frame Rate – Off
- Monitor Technology – G-Sync (if available)
- Multi-Frame Sampled AA (MFAA) – Off
- OpenGL Rendering GPU – Auto-Select
- Power Management Mode – Prefer Maximum Performance
- Preferred Refresh Rate – Highest Available
- Shader Cache – On
- Texture Filtering – Anisotropic Sample Optimization – Off
- Negative LOD Bias – Allow
- Quality – High Performance
- Trilinear Optimization – On
- Threaded Optimization – Auto
- Triple Buffering – Off
- Vertical Sync – Off
- Virtual Reality Pre-Rendered Frames – 1
Display
Navigate to “Change Resolution”. Here it is important that you set both the refresh rate, and the display resolution to the maximum advertised refresh rate and resolution. Do this for all of your monitors if you have more than one.
Below, click on “Use NVIDIA color settings” and set all of the settings to highest. For Output Color Format, choose RGB, and for Output Dynamic Range, set it to Full. Do the same things for all of your monitors.
G-Sync (If Available)
If you have a G-Sync monitor, you’ll have an option to configure G-Sync in the control panel on the left hand side. Click on it, and make sure it is enabled.
Also, you’ll need to ensure that G-Sync is enabled for windowed and Fullscreen applications, instead of just Fullscreen.
Adjust Desktop Size & Position
This isn’t a really something which will dramatically increase performance, but it can help. In this menu, I suggest selecting “No Scaling” for each of your monitors.
Now, if you do need scaling, set it to Aspect Ratio or Fullscreen, but otherwise, disable scaling altogether.
Wrapping Up
There are more settings which can be changed, but they don’t make a dramatic impact on performance. In addition, the other settings are more down to personal preference.
In any case, I encourage you to poke around and see if you can squeeze an extra bit of performance.
