Guide:NVIDIA Inspector

-- by the S.T.E.P. Team and Wiki Editors

Updated: 3:28:13 30 January 2014 (UTC)

GUIDE FORUM THREAD

Introduction

Installation & Setup

Sensor Monitoring

Custom Profiles and Settings

Advanced Settings

Troubleshooting

Raw Performance Data

[edit]

The definitive Nvidia Inspector Guide (non-German-reading users will need to use Google Translate or some other browser add-on to read this).

NVIDIA Inspector

NVIDIA Inspector is a tool created by Orbmu2k. It provides detailed hardware information much like GPU-Z from all the available hardware senors pertaining to the video card. This sensor information can also be monitored via the included monitors, which in turn can be logged to a CSV file for later viewing. Inspector also provides simple overclocking tools to control the GPU clock, memory clock, shader clock, voltage, and fan speed of the video card; however, not all of these options will be available to all users.

NVIDIA Inspector's real power lies within its driver profile settings (game profiles). Inspector includes over two hundred individual game profiles. Profiles allow user-defined, game-specific Inspector presets that will be loaded and used when the game is launched. These settings are also more extensive than the settings included in the NVIDIA Control Panel.

Finally, this Guide does not provide the gold-standard of Inspector settings that the user simply copies. That would be impossible to do with the endless combinations of video cards and system hardware. This Guide does provide breakdowns of each of the Inspector dialog menus so that users may be better informed about the capabilities of these settings and the applicability to a particular environment.

[edit]

NVIDIA Inspector Installation

The wonderful thing about NVIDIA Inspector is that it's a standalone application. There is no installation required. Simply download the tool and run the .exe to launch the program. This means it can also be run from USB flash drives and used on the go. You can download NVIDIA Inspector here: NVIDIA Inspector or here: NVIDIA Inspector

NVIDIA Inspector Overview

Main Screen

When you open the program this is the first screen you'll see. Here you'll find all your hardware information. You'll also notice two buttons on the upper left side. The first button uploads a screenshot of the app to Techpowerup.org. The second button below that will open your hardware monitors. Further down to the right of the Driver Version box is a button that will open the game profiles plugin for Inspector. Finally, at the bottom there is a banner to allow you do donate, a drop-down box to allow you to switch between multiple GPUs if you're running SLI, and a button that will open the Overclocking pane. Clicking this button will prompt a warning about overclocking, before the pane opens.

Monitors

Clicking the Sensor Monitoring button will open the this screen. Monitors are discussed on the Sensor Monitoring tab.

Driver Profile Settings

Clicking the Driver Profile Settings (game profiles) button will open this screen. Game profiles are discussed on the Creating Skyrim Profile tab.

Overclocking Pane

Clicking on the Show Overclocking button and choosing "Yes" to the prompt will open this overclocking pane. Overclocking is discussed on the Overclocking tab.

[edit]

Sensor Monitoring

Sensor monitoring can be very helpful when testing hardware stability, performing overclocks, mod testing, or when testing new settings or changes to those settings. Inspector includes 14 different monitors for this purpose. These include:

• GPU Usage
• VPU Usage
• MCU Usage
• BUS Usage
• Memory Usage
• GPU Clock
• Memory Clock
• Shader Clock
• Voltage
• GPU Temperature
• PCB Temperature
• Fan Level
• Fan Tachometer
• Power Level

Of these, the most useful are going to be determined by what you are using the monitors for.

Customizing the Monitors

To open the monitors, click on the Sensor Monitoring button located on the main screen on the upper left side. Once opened, the monitors are defaulted to stay on top of all other windows. The default monitors displayed are the GPU Usage, GPU Clock, Voltage, and the GPU Temperature. To change the monitors simply right-click on the monitor window and hover over "Monitors". The monitors which have a check beside them will be the monitors displayed. You may check as few as one or all of them, if you desire.

The other settings on the right-click menu are as followed:

GPUs

This allows to you select which GPU you wish to monitor if you're using more than one such as in SLI.

Monitors

Provides a list of all the monitors available.

Antialiased Graphs

Makes the graphs a bit less jagged.

Always on Top

Toggle whether the monitor windows stays on top of other windows or not.

Capture Disabled Monitors

Toggles whether to capture all monitor data or just the monitors you're displaying via the Monitors menu.

Log Active Monitors to CSV

Toggles whether or not to log the active monitors to a CSV file for later viewing.

Reset All Monitors

Resets the monitors to start fresh.

Hide to Tray

Minimizes the monitor window to the system tray.

Close

Closes the monitor window.

[edit]

Driver Profile Settings

Driver Profile Settings or game profiles can be opened from the main screen by click the Driver Profile Settings button located to the right of the Driver Version box. Game profiles are the main attraction with NVIDIA Inspector because when used, these profiles will allow custom driver settings for individual games. The profiles will then be saved and loaded once the game is launched. You may be asking what's the difference between the NVIDIA Control Panel profiles and NVIDIA Inspector profiles. The answer is, Inspector provides a more extensive set of settings and options than the NVIDIA Control Panel does. Many of the settings and additional options that are included in Inspector are hidden from the Control Panel for whatever reason but still exist within the driver. Inspector gives you full control over these hidden settings.

Creating a Skyrim Profile

Over 200 profiles are already included in Inspector and there is rarely a need to create a new profile. This is because the profiles exist within the drivers themselves. Whenever NVIDIA releases new driver version they often come with new or updated profiles. Skyrim's profile is one of these; however, if you ever need to create a new profile you can do so by clicking the "Create New Profile" button on the toolbar of the Driver Profile Settings window.

To load Skyrim's profile, open the Driver Profile Settings window. In the text box on the toolbar, type "Elder". You'll see three profile for Elder Scrolls. Click on the profile for "Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim". This loads the pre-configured profile for Skyrim. If you already set some setting in the NVIDIA Control Panel, you'll see those settings here. If not, the settings will be the default ones. Below we'll go through each section in detail.

Compatibility

These settings should general not be changed as they are set to work with Skyrim.

Antialiasing

The settings for AA should be left alone and match the picture above if using the performance recommendation from the STEP Guide. The STEP Guide mentions high quality options which are listed below. To further tweak this section refer to the Advanced tab.

Antialiasing - Mode

Mode should be set to "Application-controlled". Apparently, SkyrimPrefs.ini dictates the level of AA, but the video card drivers can dictate the method of AA, but this is not so for all video cards (see Antialiasing - Setting in the next note). The default Skyrim-engine-driven AA is Multisampling (MSAA), so "Application-controlled" yields MSAA. If set to "Override", default MSAA will be turned off in Skyrim, regardless of the Skyrim INI setting!

Antialiasing - Setting

In general, this should also be set to "Application-controlled / Off" (for better performance), or set to use Sparse Grid Supersampling (SSAA) if the video graphics can override the default Skyrim MSAA and subsequently handle it without a debilitating frame drop. SSAA will ultimately yield superior quality and is recommended if it is able to override Skyrim's native MSAA.

Texture Filtering

Texture Filtering

These image above is the default Skyrim settings. There is one change that should be made listed below.

Anisotropic filtering setting

When forcing anisotropic filtering the recommended minimum setting is 16x; although, a very slight performance gain can be achieved with a lower setting. Higher values may cause texture shimmering in mid to long range texture LODs. If this happens, adjusting the LOD bias (below) can help to remedy the issue.

Common

Common

Skyrim does not have default Ambient Occlusion, so this section can be used to add in AO. The picture above is the default AO settings, refer to the Advanced tab for recommended settings.

[edit]

Advanced Settings

There are many settings for Nvidia GPUs and more are being added with every generation of GPUs, so this section will explain many extra settings that may be of interest to users that want to further customize their experience.

Inspector Overclocking

First a disclaimer: Inspector and STEP can not be held liable for any possible mishaps resulting from overclocking your video card. Potential problems resulting from overclocking can include anything from voiding your warranty to overheating and bricking your card and everything in between. If you decide to overclock your video card, you do so at your own risk. This overclocking overview is meant for information purposes only. Now, on to the magic...

Overclocking in Inspector is not much different than overclocking in other third party software. Keep in mind, depending on your video card model, not all overclocking controls will be at your disposal in Inspector. Inspector was not written with overclocking in mind; therefore, if you need more powerful and precise options you should look elsewhere. It is also a good idea to have monitors open when overclocking so that you may monitor the effect of your changes.

Overclocking Pane

To open the overclocking pane, click the "Show Overclocking" button at the bottom of the main screen. You'll be prompted with a warning asking if you are aware of the risk with overclocking. Clicking "No" closes the windows. Clicking "Yes" will open the overclocking pane. Clicking the button again will hide the pane. Below is a break-down of the items on this pane:

Fan Control

The first thing you'll probably notice is a large vertical slider. This controls the Fan Speed. By default it is set to "Auto". To manually set the fan speed, uncheck "Auto" and move the slider to the desired position. Then click on "Set Fan" to lock it in. In the screenshot, the fan setting is grayed out because the shot was taken on a laptop with no fan control. Any areas you see in the pane which are grayed out is because you either don't have control of these items through the drivers or because Inspector can not control these items on your video card model.

Performance Level

This is a drop-down menu that allows you to select which performance level the NVIDIA drivers use. The performance level is normally changed dynamically by the drivers depending on the GPU load. The main levels are P0, P8, and P12; though yours may differ depending on model. P0 is for high loads such as video gaming, P8 is for loads similar to video acceleration, and P12 is an idle load; when the video card isn't really doing anything. If you have different values, remember that the lower values are higher performance requirements and the higher values are for lower performance requirements.

Unlock Min & Unlock Max

The frequencies available to you by default are locked in via the NVIDIA drivers. Clicking "Unlock Min" or "Unlock Max" will removed these driver limitation so that you may overclock to higher frequencies or underclock to lower frequencies. Clicking these buttons again will relock the frequencies to the driver limitations.

GPU Clock

The GPU clock normally stays grayed out and is provided for informational purposes. This clock can be changed but not individually with Inspector. It is changed by changing the Shader Clock and always remains half the frequency of the Shader Clock. For example, if your Shader Clock is set to 1600MHz then your GPU Clock will be set to 800MHz.

Memory Clock

Measured in megahertz, this changes the frequency of the VRAM. The buttons below the sliders allows for fine tuning of the frequency for both clocks.

Shader Clock

Also measured in megahertz, like the Memory Clock, this changes the frequency of the Shader Clock.

Voltage

Here it is possible to change the voltage to which the video card receives.

Create Clocks Shortcut

This is where Inspector shines! Clicking this button will save a shortcut on your desktop to specific clock settings. These means it's possible to have different overclocks for different game profiles or other tasks. Double clicking on one of these shortcuts will adjust your clocks to the preset settings automatically so you don't have to open Inspector and do it manually every time. So if you want a 10% overclock while you're video encoding, a 25% overclock while gaming, and default settings the rest of the time, all you'd have to do is make three Clock Shortcuts and double-click the appropriate shortcut anytime you change between tasks. Easy and brilliant! One of these preset can also be loaded at system start-up by simply placing the shortcut in your Startup folder in your Windows Start Menu.

Apply Defauts

This reverts any changes to the clock back to their driver defaults.

Apply Clocks & Voltage

This applies the clock and voltage settings immediately.

Editing Skyrim Settings

The default Skyrim profile can be adjusted or a custom profile, which has already been discussed, can be used to further tweak the game. Many of the settings and there functions will be listed here.

Compatibility

These settings should general not be changed as they are set to work with Skyrim.

Ambient Occlusion compatibility

Should be set to: 0x00000029 (Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)

Antialiasing compatibility (DX1)

No setting

Antialiasing compatibility

No setting

SLI compatibility bits (DX1)

No setting

SLI compatibility bits

Should be set to: 0x42C80005 (Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)

Anti-Aliasing

Antialiasing - Behavior Flags

This tells the driver how to use antialiasing. Keep the default setting which is for Skyrim: 0x00000005 (... Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, ...)

Antialiasing - Gamma correction

The default setting is on, but this can remain off for Skyrim. Gamma correction can improve color; however, this will have little to no effect in Skryim.

Antialiasing - Line gamma

This should remain as "default" for Skyrim.

Antialiasing - Mode

Mode should be set to "Application-controlled". Apparently, SkyrimPrefs.ini dictates the level of AA, but the video card drivers can dictate the method of AA, but this is not so for all video cards (see Antialiasing - Setting in the next note). The default Skyrim-engine-driven AA is Multisampling (MSAA), so "Application-controlled" yields MSAA. If set to "Override", AA will be turned off in Skyrim, regardless of the Skyrim INI setting!

Antialiasing - Setting

In general, this should also be set to "Application-controlled / Off" (for better performance), or set to use Sparse Grid Supersampling (SSAA) if the video graphics can override the default Skyrim MSAA and subsequently handle it without a debilitating frame drop. SSAA will ultimately yield superior quality and is recommended if it is able to override Skyrim's native MSAA.

Antialiasing - Transparency Multisampling

Use the default; "disabled". Enabling this has been known to cause textures which are not suppose to be transparent to display as transparent including walls, door, and characters. If you want transparency AA, use supersampling as it's higher quality at about the same performance cost.

Antialiasing - Transparency Supersampling

Transparency antialiasing provides AA for transparent textures and will be most noticeable on foliage, trees, and water. 2x is recommended as the minimum; however, adjust according to the performance/quality you desire. Higher values come at more of a performance cost. Sparse Grid Supersampling is better but comes with a bit of a blurring effect so use plain Supersampling if the blur bothers you.

NVIDIA Predefined FXAA Usage

FXAA should be set to disallow for STEP. FXAA is a fast AA method. Although it works, it also softens the textures and hazes the scene so you loose texture quality.

Toggle FXAA Indicator on or off

Leave as default; off.

Toggle FXAA on or off

Leave as default; off. If you want to use FXAA it's recommended you use a FXAA injector. RCRN includes a very nice FXAA injector which is extremely light on performance.

Note: Any ENBSeries version after v0.119 no longer has support for hardware AA. So if you're planing on using an ENB which uses a version newer than v0.119 please turn AA off here in the drivers. The ENBSeries v0.139 and above now offers edge antialiasing which is similar to MSAA, but with more blur. For a better AA solution with ENB, use SMAA Injector.

Performance Data

Multisample Antialiasing
From 0xMSAA to 2xMSAA: ~07% loss
From 0xMSAA to 4xMSAA: ~15% loss
From 0xMSAA to 8xMSAA: ~30% loss

Sparse Grid Supersampling
From 0xSGSS to 2xSGSS: ~01% loss
From 0xSGSS to 4xSGSS: ~02% loss
From 0xSGSS to 8xSGSS: ~06% loss

Texture Filtering

Texture Filtering

Anisotropic filtering mode

Anisotropic filtering is a texture filtering technique that improves clarity of textures when those textures are viewed at an angle such as when walking down a path or viewing water from the shore. It is recommended to force AF through the drivers. When doing this, turn off anisotropic filtering on the launcher. The recommended setting to force anisotropic filtering is "User-defined / Off".

Anisotropic filtering setting

When forcing anisotropic filtering the recommended minimum setting is 16x; although, a very slight performance gain can be achieved with a lower setting. Higher values may cause texture shimmering in mid to long range texture LODs. If this happens, adjusting the LOD bias (below) can help to remedy the issue.

Texture filtering - Anisotropic filtering optimization

Filtering optimization should remain off for best texture quality.

Texture filtering - Anisotropic sampling optimization

Sampling optimization should remain off for best quality.

Texture filtering - LOD Bias

Note there are two settings for LOD Bias. LOD Bias - (DX), which is for DirectX games, and LOD Bias - (OGL) which is for OpenGL games. Use the LOD Bias that is for your game uses. For Skyrim, this is DirectX. LOD bias reduces the quality of textures as the distance grows from the viewpoint to those textures. Setting this to lower value will increase distant texture detail but will also come at a performance cost. Lowering the value to increase distant texture detail could also cause glitches such as texture shimmering. If a high anisotropic filtering setting cause texture shimming, then raising this value will make the distant textures more blurry and help to reduce the shimmering. It's best to leave it set to default if possible; "+0.0000".

Texture filtering - Negative LOD bias

If using anisotropic filtering, it is best to set this value to "Allow". The "Clamp" setting is no longer supported by Nvidia.

Texture filtering - Quality

Recommended minimum setting here is Quality. High Quality is best.

Texture filtering - Trilinear optimization

Trilinear optimization should be set to "Off" for best texture quality.

Performance Data

Anisotropic Filtering
From 0xAF to 2xAF: ~01%
From 0xAF to 4xAF: ~03%
From 0xAF to 8xAF: ~04%
From 0xAF to 16xAF: ~04.5%

Texture Filtering - Quality
High Performance to High Quality: ~01%

Common

Common

Ambient Occlusion setting

Ambient occlusion is a lighting technique that determines when certain pixels are blocked from the environmental light by nearby geometry, in which case, its brightness value is reduced. This provide you with richer, more realistic shadows in-game. However, AO is very performance heavy. The recommended minimum setting is "Performance". If this to be too heavy on performance, try turning it off and opting for SSAO provided by ENBs. If both are too heavy, the only solution left is to turn it off completely.

Ambient Occlusion usage

If Ambient Occlusion setting is set to anything other than "Off", then this setting should be set to "0x00000001 (... Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, ...)". If Ambient Occlusion setting is set to "Off" and you plan to use SSAO via an ENB, then this setting should be set to "Enabled". If you don't plan to use Ambient Occlusion at all due to the performance loss, this setting should be set to "Disabled".

Extension limit

Leave as default; "Off". This only has to do with OpenGL games and can cause crashes.

Frame Rate Limiter

This is the driver side frame rate limiter. Capping the frame rate is useful for high-end cards only (cap at 2/3 the monitor refresh rate), since it is typical that the GPU frame rate will frequently move between above and below the monitor refresh rate, which causes choppy graphics. Limiting frame rate prevents this. ENBs also include a Frame Rate Limiter. Template:Notice Small Template:Notice Small

Maximum pre-rendered frames

Maximum pre-rendered frames sets the number of frame that the CPU can pre-render before the GPU takes over. Some claim that increasing this setting causes an input delay (in milliseconds) from the mouse and keyboard when set to higher values; however, this will be different for every user. Raising this value can actually improve performance if you experience not lap or stutter by doing so. The recommended setting is leave it as default; however, if you wish to experiment please feel free. No harm will come from doing so. If experimenting, use the highest value you can where you aren't experiencing lag or video stutter. If you do experience lag or stutter from raising this setting, simply decrease the value until it disappears again.

Multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration

This is not relevant to SLI systems. If you only have one monitor, use the "Single display performance mode". If you have multiple monitors, use the "Multi display performance mode". If you have multiple monitor; however, experience some issues with the previous setting use the "Compatibility performance mode".

Power management mode

This should be left on it's default; "Adaptive", which ensures the graphics card changes its speed according to the load it is under. "Per maximum performance" should only be used for troubleshooting purposes.

Show PhysX Visual Indicator

Leave as default; "Off".

Thread optimization

Leave as default: "Auto". This will allow the drivers to choose whether or not to use the multiple cores/hyper-threading of the CPU.

Triple buffering

Set this to "on". Triple buffering improves performance among v-sync/frame rate and monitor refresh when v-sync is enabled and the GPU frame rate is less than the monitor refresh rate (when it is not, there is still no drawback). It does nothing when v-sync isn't enabled. Template:Notice Small

Vertical Sync Tear Control

Leave on default; "Standard".

Vertical Sync

Always enable v-sync, especially when using FPS limits and triple buffering. The only time this is not useful is when frame rates are consistently below the monitor refresh rate (i.e., older cards on newer games). Template:Notice Small

Performance Data

Ambient Occlusion
No AO to Performance: ~28%
No AO to Quality: ~49%
No AO to High Quality: ~55%

Maximum Pre-rendered Frames
1 Frame to 8 Frames: ~03% (gain)
1 Frame to 8 Frames with AFx16: ~09% (gain)

Overall Performance Data

Before all edits:
FPS: Avg: 58.665 - Min: 51 - Max: 61

After all edits with no Ambient Occlusion:
FPS: Avg: 49.050 - Min: 38 - Max: 61
Before to After: ~16%

After all edits with all recommended settings:
FPS: Avg: 33.623 - Min: 28 - Max: 40
Before to After: ~42%

[edit]

General

There's not much for troubleshooting currently. Troubleshooting will be added upon over time.

Transparent Textures

If you start seeing transparent textures in-game, this could be caused by Sparse Grid Supersampling or Transparency Multisampling. To fix this issue set Antialiasing - Transparency Multisampling to "Disabled". You can also switch Antialiasing - Transparency Supersampling to "Supersampling" instead of "Sparse Grid Supersampling".

SSAO Not Rendering

Some NVIDIA cards (like the GTX 560 Ti) ceased rendering SSAO outdoors in Skyrim after the official 1.5.24 patch. The problem hasn’t been resolved but NVIDIA is aware of it. For now, you can temporarily switch to Oblivion or Fallout 3 compatibility to get back the SSAO outdoors.

[edit]

General

Below is the raw data from FRAPS for anyone interested. The system used during data collection:

• Windows 8 Professional 64-bit
• Intel Core i7 2GHz
• 8GB system RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M 1GB VRAM

Data

Mulisampling Antialiasing
2xAA //Frames: 1008 - Time: 17813ms - Avg: 56.588 - Min: 51 - Max: 60
4xAA //Frames: 964 - Time: 18609ms - Avg: 51.803 - Min: 46 - Max: 59
8xAA //Frames: 712 - Time: 16703ms - Avg: 42.627 - Min: 38 - Max: 50

Sparse Grid Supersampling
2xSGSS //Frames: 1494 - Time: 25203ms - Avg: 59.279 - Min: 54 - Max: 62
4xSGSS //Frames: 1400 - Time: 23828ms - Avg: 58.754 - Min: 50 - Max: 61
8xSGSS //Frames: 1450 - Time: 25812ms - Avg: 56.175 - Min: 44 - Max: 62

Anisotropic Filtering
No AF //Frames: 2525 - Time: 42859ms - Avg: 58.914 - Min: 52 - Max: 62
2xAF //Frames: 2462 - Time: 42312ms - Avg: 58.187 - Min: 50 - Max: 62
4xAF //Frames: 2482 - Time: 43609ms - Avg: 56.915 - Min: 46 - Max: 61
8xAF //Frames: 2397 - Time: 42219ms - Avg: 56.775 - Min: 47 - Max: 62
16xAF //Frames: 2374 - Time: 42016ms - Avg: 56.502 - Min: 47 - Max: 62

Texture Filtering - Quality
High Performance //Frames: 2367 - Time: 41375ms - Avg: 57.208 - Min: 48 - Max: 62
Performance //Frames: 2370 - Time: 41454ms - Avg: 57.172 - Min: 48 - Max: 62
Quality //Frames: 2370 - Time: 41812ms - Avg: 56.682 - Min: 47 - Max: 62
High Quality //Frames: 2395 - Time: 42266ms - Avg: 56.665 - Min: 47 - Max: 62

Ambient Occlusion
Off //Frames: 753 - Time: 12657ms - Avg: 59.493 - Min: 57 - Max: 62
Performance //Frames: 1750 - Time: 41016ms - Avg: 42.666 - Min: 36 - Max: 48
Quality //Frames: 1289 - Time: 42203ms - Avg: 30.543 - Min: 27 - Max: 35
High Quality //Frames: 1154 - Time: 43016ms - Avg: 26.827 - Min: 24 - Max: 31

Max Pre-rendered Frames
1 Frame //Frames: 2949 - Time: 51562ms - Avg: 57.193 - Min: 46 - Max: 62
8 Frames //Frames: 2638 - Time: 44828ms - Avg: 58.847 - Min: 52 - Max: 69

With Anisotropic Filtering x16
1 Frame //Frames: 2497 - Time: 48640ms - Avg: 51.336 - Min: 40 - Max: 60
8 Frames //Frames: 2574 - Time: 45563ms - Avg: 56.493 - Min: 47 - Max: 69

Before Edits
Frames: 2485 - Time: 42359ms - Avg: 58.665 - Min: 51 - Max: 61

After Edits with no Ambient Occlusion
Frames: 2044 - Time: 41672ms - Avg: 49.050 - Min: 38 - Max: 61

After Edits with all recommended edits
Frames: 1461 - Time: 43453ms - Avg: 33.623 - Min: 28 - Max: 40