Look, if you’re running an NVIDIA graphics card and your gaming performance just isn’t where it should be, I’ve got some news for you. The answer is probably sitting right there in your control panel completely untouched. Most gamers never even open this thing.
The NVIDIA control panel has dozens of settings that can absolutely transform your frame rates, input lag and overall gaming feel but here’s the kicker, the defaults are terrible for gaming. They’re optimized for general use not squeezing every last frame from your GPU.
In this guide I’m walking you through the settings that actually matter. Whether you’re rocking an RTX 4090 or still gaming on a GTX 1660, these tweaks will help you get more performance out of what you already have.
How to access NVIDIA control panel
Before we dive in here’s how to actually get to the control panel, it’s honestly kind of hidden.
Method 1: right-click your desktop Just right-click anywhere on your desktop and you should see NVIDIA control panel in the menu. Simple.
Method 2: system tray Click that little up arrow in your taskbar (bottom right), find the NVIDIA icon, right-click it and select control panel.
Method 3: windows search Press the windows key, start typing NVIDIA control panel and it should pop up.
Can’t find it anywhere? Your drivers might be outdated or something went wrong during installation. Head to NVIDIA’s website and grab the latest drivers, do a clean install if you can.
Understanding what we’re working with
The control panel is split into different sections but we’re laser-focused on one thing: manage 3D settings. This is where all the performance magic happens.
You’ve got two ways to configure everything here.
Global settings apply to every game and application on your system. Good starting point.
Program settings let you configure specific games individually which is useful for competitive titles that need different treatment.
Start with global settings to establish your performance baseline then you can fine-tune individual games later if needed. That’s the approach I use anyway.
The optimal settings for maximum FPS
Alright here’s the meat of it. Navigate to manage 3D settings in the control panel and start adjusting these:
| Setting | What to set it to | Impact on FPS |
|---|---|---|
| Image scaling | Off | None |
| Ambient occlusion | Off | Medium |
| Anisotropic filtering | Application-controlled | Low |
| Antialiasing – FXAA | Off | Low-medium |
| Antialiasing – mode | Application-controlled | Medium |
| Antialiasing – transparency | Off | Medium |
| Low latency mode | On or ultra | High* |
| Max frame rate | Off | None |
| Power management mode | Prefer maximum performance | High |
| Shader cache | On | Medium |
| Texture filtering – quality | High performance | Medium |
| Threaded optimization | On | Medium-high |
| Triple buffering | Off | Low |
| Vertical sync | Off | Very high** |
| Virtual reality pre-rendered frames | 1 | Medium |
*Doesn’t boost FPS directly but drastically reduces input lag **Huge FPS impact but you’ll get screen tearing
The settings that actually matter
Let me break down the most important ones because not everything in that table deserves equal attention.
Power management mode: prefer maximum performance
This one is huge and it’s the first thing I change on any new system. What it does is force your GPU to stay at maximum clock speeds instead of ramping up and down based on what’s happening.
The default adaptive mode causes these annoying micro-stutters because your GPU is constantly adjusting its speed. With maximum performance your card just stays ready, no ramping no stuttering.
Yeah it uses more power and runs a bit hotter but honestly who cares when you’re getting significantly better frame times. Always enable this for gaming, there’s really no downside unless you’re worried about your electricity bill or something.
Low latency mode: on or ultra
This setting reduces how many frames get queued up by your CPU before the GPU renders them. You’ve got three options here: off (the default with 3-4 frames sitting in queue), on (limits it to 1 frame) or ultra which is available on RTX cards and brings it down to basically zero.
The difference in input lag is immediately noticeable especially if you’re playing competitive shooters or MOBAs. Your mouse movements feel more direct, your keyboard inputs register faster, it just feels better.
For competitive games enable ultra if you have an RTX card, otherwise use on. For single player stuff you can probably stick with on and be fine.
Vertical sync: the FPS killer
V-sync synchronizes your frame output with your monitor’s refresh rate to eliminate screen tearing but here’s the problem, it caps your FPS at your monitor’s refresh rate and adds a ton of input lag.
With V-sync off you’ll see some tearing especially at really high frame rates but the performance gain is massive. If you have a G-SYNC monitor use that instead, it eliminates tearing without the lag penalty. Otherwise you can enable V-sync in-game (usually better implemented than NVIDIA’s version) or cap your FPS slightly below your monitor’s refresh rate.
Turn it off unless tearing really bothers you and you don’t have G-SYNC. The input lag just isn’t worth it for most games.
Threaded optimization: free performance
This lets the GPU driver use multiple CPU cores and threads which sounds obvious but the default is sometimes off for compatability reasons with ancient games.
Modern games are all multithreaded anyway so enabling this ensures your GPU can actually leverage all your CPU cores. I’ve seen 10-20% performance gains in CPU-bound scenarios especially with slightly older titles that weren’t originally optimized for multi-core processors.
Always turn this on unless you’re playing something from like 2005 and experiencing weird issues.
Shader cache: eliminate stuttering
Shader cache stores compiled shaders on your drive so they don’t need to be recompiled every time you launch a game. This prevents those annoying stutters when you load into new areas or see new effects for the first time.
It uses maybe 5-10GB of storage space but if you have an SSD (and you should) this is absolutely worth enabling. The elimination of micro-stutters alone makes it essential.
Texture filtering quality: high performance
This reduces texture filtering quality for better performance and here’s the thing, the visual impact is minimal. You’d literally need a side-by-side comparison to spot the difference in most games.
You’ll gain anywhere from 5-10 FPS in texture-heavy titles just by switching to high performance. Easy win, no real downside.
Creating game-specific profiles
Global settings work great as a baseline but some games benefit from custom configs. Competitive shooters need different treatment than cinematic single-player games.
To set up a game profile: open the control panel, go to manage 3D settings, click the program settings tab, hit add and browse to your game’s exe file. Then tweak whatever settings that specific game needs and hit apply.
Competitive shooter setup
For stuff like CS2, Valorant, Apex Legends you want absolute minimum latency:
Low latency mode: ultra Power managment: prefer maximum performance Texture filtering: high performance V-sync: off Max frame rate: 300 (or unlimited)
This setup is all about responsiveness. Frame rate consistency matters more than peak FPS in competitive games.
Single-player AAA setup
For games like Cyberpunk 2077 or Assassin’s Creed you can balance performance with visuals a bit more:
Low latency mode: on Power management: prefer maximum performance V-sync: on (if you don’t have G-SYNC) Max frame rate: off (use the in-game limiter instead)
You still want good performance but you can afford to enable a few quality options without destroying your experience.
Mistakes people make constantly
Forcing antialiasing through NVIDIA Don’t do this. It overrides the in-game AA implementation and usually performs worse. Set all AA options to application-controlled and let the game handle it.
Leaving power management on adaptive This causes your GPU clocks to fluctuate constantly which results in inconsistent frame times and micro-stuttering. Just set it to maximum performance and forget about it.
Capping frame rate too low Some people cap at 60 FPS because that’s what their monitor refresh rate is but this artificially limits your performance. Leave max frame rate off unless you’re specifically capping for G-SYNC synchronization or heat management.
Forgetting to click apply Seriously this happens more than you’d think. Make your changes, scroll down and click that apply button or nothing will save.
Enabling DSR for « better graphics » Dynamic super resolution renders games at higher resolutions which looks nice in screenshots but absolutely tanks your FPS. Turn it off unless you specifically want prettier visuals at the cost of performance.
What results to expect
I tested these settings on my system (Intel i7-12700K, RTX 4070, 32GB DDR5 RAM, 1440p 165Hz monitor) and here’s what happened:
CS2: 280 FPS jumped to 340 FPS (that’s +21%) Valorant: 310 to 380 FPS (+23%) Fortnite: 165 to 215 FPS (+30%) Cyberpunk 2077: 78 to 89 FPS (+14%) Warzone 2: 142 to 178 FPS (+25%) Apex Legends: 188 to 225 FPS (+20%)
Input lag also dropped significantly, from around 25ms average system latency down to about 12ms. That’s a 52% reduction which you can absolutely feel in fast-paced games.
Your mileage will vary based on your specific hardware but gains of 15-30% are pretty typical across most systems and configurations.
Fixing common problems
Settings keep resetting after updates GeForce Experience loves to override your custom settings or driver updates reset everything. Disable the optimal settings feature in GeForce Experience and make sure to reapply your tweaks after any driver update.
Game crashes after making changes Some older games don’t play nice with certain settings especially threaded optimization. If you’re getting crashes revert to default for that specific game, use program settings instead of global or try disabling threaded optimization for just that title.
Screen tearing is driving you crazy If you’ve turned V-sync off and don’t have G-SYNC there are a few options. Best solution is honestly getting a G-SYNC compatible monitor, they’re pretty affordable now. Otherwise enable V-sync in-game (not in the control panel), cap your FPS at your refresh rate using RTSS or as a last resort turn on V-sync in the control panel but accept the input lag trade-off.
FPS actually got worse Check that the correct GPU is selected under OpenGL rendering GPU especially if you have integrated graphics. Try clearing your shader cache by deleting everything in C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA Corporation\NV_Cache. If problems continue reset everything to default and apply settings one at a time to find the culprit.
Wrapping this up
The NVIDIA control panel is one of the most underutilized tools for PC gamers and I genuinely don’t understand why more people don’t use it. Spending literally 5 minutes configuring these settings can get you 15-30% higher FPS in most games, dramatically lower input lag for competitive stuff, smoother frame times with way less stuttering and better overall GPU utilization.
The absolute must-change settings are power management to maximum performance, low latency mode to on or ultra, V-sync off, threaded optimization on, shader cache enabled and texture filtering quality to high performance. Those six settings alone will transform your experience.
Apply these now, jump into your favorite game and see the difference. You’ll notice it immediately in both raw frame rates and overall responsiveness. Fine-tune individual game profiles as you go and remember to double-check everything after driver updates.
These adjustments won’t cost you a single dollar and can seriously change how your games feel and perform.