Nvidia VCQFX550PCIEPB - Quadro FX 550, Quadro FX 550 User Manual
ForceWare Graphics Driver
User’s Guide
Driver Release 90 for Windows
NVIDIA Corporation
September 2006
2nd Edition
NVIDIA ForceWare Graphics Drivers User’s Guide
Published by
NVIDIA Corporation
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Santa Clara, CA 95050
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Copyright
© 2006 by NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved.
NVIDIA Corporation
NVIDIA ForceWare Graphics Drivers User’s Guide
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
About this Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Other Related Documentation . . . . . . . . . 12
Online Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Context Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
NVIDIA Display Properties and nView Desktop
Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Release 90 Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
OpenGL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Video Processing Improvements . . . . . . 14
New Features—Available Only in the New
NVIDIA Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2. System Requirements And Driver
Installation
Hardware and Software Support . . . . . . . . . . 15
Supported Operating Systems . . . . . . . . . 15
Supported NVIDIA Products . . . . . . . . . . 16
Supported Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
NVIDIA ForceWare Graphics Driver Installation .20
System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
About the NVIDIA ForceWare Driver Installation
21
Preserving Settings Before Upgrading Your
Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
About Using Saved Profiles in Another
Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Installing the NVIDIA ForceWare Driver
Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Uninstalling the NVIDIA ForceWare Driver
Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Notes on Feature and Configuration Support. . . 25
Feature Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Examples in this Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3. NVIDIA Driver Control Panel
Access
NVIDIA Display Setup Wizards. . . . . . . . . . . 27
Accessing the NVIDIA Display Control Panel Pages
28
Desktop Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Shortcut to Playing Video Files on Any Display .30
NVIDIA Settings Menu — Windows Taskbar
Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Windows Display Properties Setting Access . 33
Using the NVIDIA Display Menu . . . . . . . . . 33
The NVIDIA GPU Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Other NVIDIA Display Menu Items . . . . . . 35
Using the NVIDIA Display Menu Help and Tool Tips
37
Context Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Tool Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Tool Tips for Disabled Settings . . . . . . . 38
4. Using nView Multi-Display
Settings
nView Display Modes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
nView Multi-Display Applications . . . . . . . . . 43
Accessing the Display Context Menus . . . . 44
About Display Numbering . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
About Renaming Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
NVIDIA Multi-Display Support . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Primary and Secondary Displays . . . . . . . 50
nView Display Settings . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Windows Display Properties Settings . . . 50
Using nView Dualview Mode . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Key Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Initial Installation of nView Dualview Mode —
Windows 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Enabling nView Dualview Mode After Initial
Installation — Windows 2000 . . . . . . . . 55
Using nView Span Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
nView Span Modes vs. Dualview Mode Features
56
Using Horizontal & Vertical Span Modes . . . 57
Using nView Clone Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Enabling nView Clone Mode . . . . . . . . . . 60
Enabling Virtual Desktop — Clone Mode . . 62
Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Procedure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Disabling Auto-Panning (Lock Pan Position) .
65
Switching Between nView Dualview and Span/
Clone Modes — Windows 2000 . . . . . . . . . 66
Enabling nView Multiview Mode — Only for NVIDIA
Quadro NVS-based Graphics Cards . . . . . . 66
Arranging Displays on the Settings Page . . . . 67
NVIDIA Corporation iii
User’s Guide Table of Contents
5. Configuring Displays
Adjusting Analog Display Settings . . . . . . . . . 69
Screen Adjustment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Display Timing Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Adjusting Digital Display Settings . . . . . . . . . 72
Digital Display Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Adjusting Television Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
TV Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Signal Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Video Output Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Device Adjustments — TV Output . . . . . . . 76
Screen Positioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Brightness/Contrast/Saturation . . . . . . . 77
Flicker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Overdrive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Overscan Shift. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Video Border — (for HDTV) . . . . . . . . . 79
Supported TV and HDTV Adjustment Features
Based on TV Encoder and NVIDIA GPU . . 80
6. Configuring HDTV
Supported Television/HDTV Formats for Analog
and Digital Outputs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
About D Connector Output Modes . . . . . . . 83
Television and HDTV Formats and Desktop
Resolutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Television Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
HDTV Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Optimizing HDTV Viewing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Underscan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Overscan Shift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Native . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Notes on Startup Functionality with HDTV
Connected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
nView Single Display Mode . . . . . . . . . . . 86
nView Multi-Display Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Using HDTV in nView Display Modes . . . . . . . 86
Using HDTV in nView Single Display Mode .86
Using HDTV as the Primary Display in nView
Clone Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Using HDTV as the Secondary Display in nView
Clone Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Using HDTV in nView Dualview Mode . . . . . 87
Using HDTV Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Using Overscan Shift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Using Underscan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Troubleshooting HDTV Configuration. . . . . . . 95
7. Configuring Key ForceWare
Graphics Driver Features
Adjusting Desktop Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Accessing the Desktop Colors Page . . . . . 99
Color Correction Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Digital Vibrance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100
Brightness, Contrast, and Gamma. . . . . 100
Apply Color Changes to.... . . . . . . . . .101
Color Channels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101
Color Curve Graph. . . . . . . . . . . . . .102
Image Sharpening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Color Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103
Add (ICC Profile Mode) . . . . . . . . . . .103
Other Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103
Adjusting Performance and Quality Settings. . .104
Changing Global Driver Settings. . . . . . . .105
Modifying an Existing Application Profile. . .106
Adding a New Application Profile . . . . . . . 111
Adding Profiles With an SLI Configuration . . 113
Deleting Application Profiles . . . . . . . . . . 113
Driver Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Antialiasing Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Anisotropic Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Image Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Vertical Sync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Driver Settings — Advanced . . . . . . . . . . 117
View Advanced Settings . . . . . . . . . . 117
Antialiasing Settings (SLI-specific) . . . . . 117
Color Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .118
Force Mipmaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Conformant Texture Clamp . . . . . . . . . 119
Extension Limit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Hardware Acceleration . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Trilinear Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . .121
Anisotropic Optimizations . . . . . . . . . .122
Gamma Correct Antialiasing . . . . . . . .123
Transparency Antialiasing. . . . . . . . . . 123
SLI Rendering Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . .124
Negative LOD bias . . . . . . . . . . . . .125
Triple Buffering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125
Using Video Overlay Settings . . . . . . . . . . .126
Accessing the Video Overlay Settings Page .126
Overlay Zoom Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . .127
Zoom Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Out/In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .127
Screen Region to Zoom . . . . . . . . . . .127
Overlay Color Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Hue and Saturation . . . . . . . . . . . . .127
Adjust Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .127
iv NVIDIA Corporation
User’s Guide Table of Contents
Restore Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Using Full Screen Video Settings . . . . . . . . 128
About the Full Screen Video Mirror Feature . 129
Accessing the Full Screen Video Page . . . 129
Full-Screen Video Settings . . . . . . . . . . 129
Full Screen Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Track Overlay Rotation . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Adjust Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Full Screen Video Zoom Controls . . . . . . 131
Zoom Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Out/In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Screen Region to Zoom . . . . . . . . . . 132
Troubleshooting Full Screen Video Problems132
Using the Tools Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Adding the NVIDIA Settings Menu to the
Windows Taskbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Display Optimization Wizard . . . . . . . . . 134
Adding NVIDIA Menu Options to the Windows
Desktop Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Forcing Detection of Connected Television . 136
Detecting Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Using NVRotate Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Accessing the NVRotate Page . . . . . . . . 138
Before You Use NVRotate Settings . . . . . 139
Enabling NVRotate Settings . . . . . . . . . 139
Adjusting Temperature Settings . . . . . . . . . 141
Accessing the Temperature Settings Page . 141
Temperature Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Temperature Level (GPU Core Temperature)
142
Core Slowdown Threshold. . . . . . . . . 142
Ambient Temperature. . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Enable Heat Indicator Warning When
Threshold Exceeded . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Changing Screen Resolutions and Refresh Rates
143
Screen Resolution and Color Quality . . . . 143
Monitor Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Adding Custom Screen Resolutions & Refresh
Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Enabling Custom Screen Resolutions . . . . 145
Removing Custom Screen Resolutions &
Refresh Rates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Advanced Timing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Display Mode & Timing Parameters . . . 146
Display Timing Standards . . . . . . . . . 150
Editing the NVIDIA Display Menu . . . . . . . . 150
Accessing the Menu Editing Page . . . . . . 150
Using Menu Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Adjusting PowerMizer Settings — Only for
Notebook Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .153
Accessing the PowerMizer Page . . . . . . .153
PowerMizer Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . .153
Current Battery Charge . . . . . . . . . . .153
Current Power Source. . . . . . . . . . . .153
Current Power Level. . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Using NVIDIA SLI Technology . . . . . . . . . . .155
Hardware Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . .155
Motherboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Examples of GeForce-based Graphics Cards
Supporting SLI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .156
Power Supply. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Installation and Operating Instructions . . . .157
Installing the Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Installing the Display Driver . . . . . . . . . 158
Enabling SLI Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . .159
Viewing Load Balancing. . . . . . . . . . .159
A. Using Two NVIDIA GPU-Based
Graphics Cards (Non-SLI
Configuration)
Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Before Installing the NVIDIA ForceWare
Graphics Display Driver . . . . . . . . . . . .163
Examples and Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163
GeForce FX 5900 Ultra — Installing the NVIDIA
ForceWare Graphics Display Driver. . . . . . . 164
GeForce FX 5900 Ultra — Attaching the Secondary
Display for nView Dualview Mode . . . . . . . .165
GeForce4 MX — Installing the NVIDIA ForceWare
Graphics Display Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Attaching Displays for GeForce4 MX — nView
Dualview Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .169
Enabling nView Span and Clone Modes —
Detaching the Secondary Display . . . . . . . .171
Viewing Multiple NVIDIA GPU-based Graphics
Cards from the NVIDIA Display Menu . . . . . 172
Viewing Multiple Card Configurations Using the
NVIDIA Settings Menu Icon . . . . . . . . . . .175
B. Using HDTV with NVIDIA
GPU-Based Graphics Cards
Supported HDTV Connectors . . . . . . . . . . .177
Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
HDTV over DVI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
D connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Sample “Component-Based” Cables Shipped with
NVIDIA HDTV-Encoded Graphics Cards . . . .180
NVIDIA Corporation v
User’s Guide Table of Contents
C. NVIDIA ForceWare Graphics
Display Driver — Feature History
Driver Release History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Release 90 Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Release 80 Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
New Feature Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Additional Details by Driver Module . . . . . 183
Release 75 Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
SLI Support Improvements . . . . . . . . . . 185
Display Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
DirectX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
NVIDIA Display Control Panel . . . . . . . . 187
nView Desktop Manager. . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Release 70 New Features and Enhancements 188
Details by Driver Module. . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Release 65 Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
SLI Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
512 MB Frame Buffer Support . . . . . . . . 191
Multi-GPU Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Operating System Support . . . . . . . . . . 192
Enhancements in Driver Performance . . . . 192
Desktop Manager and Control Panel
Improvements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Release 60 Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Latest GPU Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
PCI Express Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Enhancements in Driver Performance. . . . . . 194
3D Graphics API Enhancements . . . . . . 194
Release 55 Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
PCI Express Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
PAE Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
nView Desktop Manager Enhancements . . 195
User Interface Enhancements . . . . . . . . 195
Video Support Enhancements . . . . . . . . 196
3D Graphics API Enhancements . . . . . . . 196
Release 50 Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
New Feature Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Display Driver Changes—New Features . . 197
Video — New Features . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
PowerMizer — New Features. . . . . . . . . 197
User Interface Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
nView . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
DirectX Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
OpenGL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Release 40 Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Enhanced Display Driver, DirectX, and Video
Capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
New Graphical User Interface. . . . . . . . . 200
Enhanced nView Desktop Manager Features . .
201
OpenGL Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Release 35 Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . .201
Release 25 Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . .202
Release 20 Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . .203
Release 10 Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . .203
Release 6 Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . .203
TwinView . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Digital Vibrance Control. . . . . . . . . . . . .205
OpenGL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .205
Direct3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .205
Cursor Trails Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Control Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .205
Release 5 Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . .206
OpenGL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .206
Direct3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .207
Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .208
D. NVIDIA Setup Wizard Pages
NVIDIA Display Wizard — Typical Setup. . . . . 210
NVIDA Display Setup Wizard — Custom Setup 211
NVIDIA Display Wizard — HDTV Component
Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .213
NVIDIA Display Wizard — Analog Display with
HDTV/DVI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .215
NVIDIA Display Wizard — Digital Display and
Television. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .217
E. Glossary
vi NVIDIA Corporation
NVIDIA ForceWare Graphics Drivers User’s Guide
List of Tables
Table 2.1 Supported NVIDIA Consumer Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Table 2.2 Supported NVIDIA Workstation Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Table 2.3 Hard Disk Space Requirements—English. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Table 2.4 Hard Disk Space Requirements—Non-English Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Table 2.5 Hard Disk Space Requirements—Full International Package. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Table 5.1 TV Encoders and Supported TV Adjustment Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Table 6.1 Supported TV/ HDTV Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Table 6.2 D Connector Output Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Table 6.3 Optimizing HDTV Viewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Table 7.1 Image Settings and Optimizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Table 7.2 Advanced Timing Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147
Table 7.3 Display Timing Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150
Table C .1 Release 70 Graphics Driver — Performance Improvement and New Features . . . . . . . . 188
NVIDIA Corporation vii
NVIDIA ForceWare Graphics Driver User’s Guide
List of Figures
Figure 2.1 nView Desktop Manager — Sample Profiles Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Figure 2.2 nView Desktop Manager — Save Profile Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Figure 3.2 NVIDIA Display Options on the Windows Desktop Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Figure 3.3 NVIDIA Display Options from a Video File Context Menu T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Figure 3.4 NVIDIA Settings Menu Icon in the Windows Taskbar Notification Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Figure 3.5 NVIDIA Settings Sample Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Figure 3.6 NVIDIA Settings Sample Menus with Four Connected Graphics Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Figure 3.10 NVIDIA Display — Sample Context Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Figure 3.11 NVIDIA Display Menu — Sample Tool Tip for Disabled Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Figure 4.1 nView Single Display Mode — Windows XP/2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Figure 4.2 nView Multi-Display Mode — Windows XP/2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Figure 4.6 nView Display Pair Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Figure 4.9 nView Display Settings — Installing Dualview in Windows 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Figure 4.10 Display Properties Settings — Dualview Mode (Windows 2000). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Figure 4.12 nView Horizontal Span Mode — Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Figure 4.13 nView Vertical Span Mode — Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Figure 4.15 nView Clone Mode — TV + Digital Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Figure 4.16 nView Clone Mode with Virtual Desktop Enabled — Disabling Panning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Figure 4.20 Display Settings — Diagonal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Figure 5.1 Screen Adjustment Settings — Analog Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Figure 5.2 Display Timing Settings — Analog Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Figure 5.3 Digital Display Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Figure 5.4 TV Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Figure 5.6 HDTV Output Setting — Video Border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Figure 6.1 Back View of an HDTV with DVI and Analog Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Figure 6.2 Quick Access to HDTV Formats — HDTV Component Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Figure 6.4 TV Settings — HDTV Component Connection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Figure 6.5 TV Settings — HDTV over DVI Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Figure 6.6 HDTV Overscan Configuration —”Native” Selected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Figure 6.7 HDTV Overscan Configuration —”Overscan shift” Selected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Figure 6.8 Confirm Display Settings Prompts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Figure 6.9 HDTV Overscan Configuration — “Underscan” Selected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Figure 6.10 Slider Control to Adjust Underscan to fit Desktop to HDTV Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Figure 7.1 Color Correction Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Figure 7.2 Performance and Quality Settings Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104
Figure 7.3 Changing Global Driver Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
NVIDIA Corporation viii
User’s Guide List of Figures
Figure 7.4 Changing Global Driver Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Figure 7.8 Modifying a Profile — Renaming and Saving the Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Figure 7.11 NVIDIA Advanced Driver Settings — SLI-Specific Antialiasing Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117
Figure 7.13 NVIDIA Advanced Driver Settings — Hardware Acceleration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120
Figure 7.14 Driver Settings Displaying Trilinear & Anisotropic Optimizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122
Figure 7.15 Advanced Driver Settings Displaying SLI Rendering Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Figure 7.16 Video Overlay Settings — Windows XP/2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .126
Figure 7.17 Full Screen Video Settings — Disabled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128
Figure 7.19 Full Screen Video — Zoom Control Video Mirror Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Figure 7.21 NVIDIA Settings Menu Icon Displayed in the Windows Taskbar Notification Area . . . . . . . . . 134
Figure 7.25 NVRotate Settings — Landscape Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Figure 7.28 Temperature Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Figure 7.29 Screen Resolution & Refresh Rates Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143
Figure 7.30 Add Custom Resolution Dialog Box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .144
Figure 7.32 Menu Editing Page — Default Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151
Figure 7.35 Connecting Two Graphics Cards with an SLI Bridge Connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .158
Figure 7.36 Message “SLI capable system” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Figure 7.37 NVIDIA SLI Page — Enabling SLI Multi-GPU. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .160
Figure 7.38 Load Balancing Indicators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161
Figure A.1 Display Properties Settings — 3 Displays with 1 Attached . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Figure A.2 One Display With Identifying Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .166
Figure A.3 Display Properties Settings — 3 Displays with 2 Attached . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Figure A.4 Two Displays With Identifying Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Figure A.5 Display Properties Settings — 4 Attached Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Figure A.6 Four Displays With Identifying Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .170
Figure A.7 Display Properties Settings — 4 Displays with 2 Attached . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Figure A.8 Two Displays With Identifying Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Figure A.9 NVIDIA Display Menu — GeForce FX 5900 Ultra and GeForce4 MX 420 Options . . . . . . . . . 173
Figure A.10 NVIDIA Display Menu Showing Both GeForce FX 5900 Ultra and GeForce4 MX Graphics Cards . .
174
Figure A.11 NVIDIA Settings Taskbar Menu Displaying NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra-based and GeForce4
MX-based Graphics Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .175
Figure B.1 Sample Component Cables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Figure B.2 Sample DVI Cable. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .179
Figure B.3 Sample NVIDIA Personal Cinema™ A/V Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .179
Figure B.4 Sample Video Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .180
Figure D.1 NVIDIA Display Wizard — Typical Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .210
Figure D.2 NVIDIA Display Setup Wizard — Custom Setup Pages (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Figure D.3 NVIDIA Display Setup Wizard — Custom Setup Pages (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .212
NVIDIA Corporation ix
NVIDIA ForceWare Graphics Driver User’s Guide
Figure D.4 NVIDIA TV Display Wizard — HDTV Component Connection Page (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .213
Figure D.5 NVIDIA TV Display Wizard — HDTV Component Connection Page (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .214
Figure D.6 NVIDIA Display Wizard—Analog Display with HDTV/DVI Pages (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .215
Figure D.7 NVIDIA Display Wizard—Analog Display with HDTV/DVI Pages (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .216
Figure D.8 NVIDIA Display Wizard — Digital Display with TV Pages (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .217
Figure D.9 NVIDIA Display Wizard — Various Types of TV Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .218
Figure D.10 NVIDIA Display Wizard — Digital Display with TV Pages (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .219
x NVIDIA Corporation
Introduction
C HAPTER
I
NTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses the following major topics:
• “About this Guide” on page 11
• “Online Help” on page 12
• “NVIDIA Display Properties and nView Desktop Manager” on page 13
Chapter 1
• “Release 90 Enhancements” on page 13
About this Guide
This user’s guide is addressed to users of the control panel-based NVIDIA®
ForceWare™ graphics display driver.
This guide focuses on NVIDIA desktop consumer products, i.e, graphics cards based
on the NVIDIA GeForce™ series of GPUs (graphics processing units) listed in Table
2.1, “Supported NVIDIA Consumer Products”.
For technical details on the features and benefits of the NVIDIA ForceWare graphics
driver, refer to the NVIDIA Web page — www.nvidia.com.
NVIDIA Corporation 11
Chapter 1
Introduction
Other Related Documentation
• NVIDIA ForceWare Graphics Driver: Quadro Workstation User’s Guide —
Release 90 driver version. Refer to this document if you are primarily using the
NVIDIA workstation products, i.e, graphics cards based on the NVIDIA Quadro
series of GPUs.
• NVIDIA ForceWare Graphics Drivers nView Desktop Manager User’s Guide —
Release 90 driver version. Refer to this document if you are using the nView™
Desktop Manager application component of the ForceWare graphics driver.
• NVIDIA ForceWare Graphics Driver: Release Notes — Release 90 driver version.
These Release Note documents describe performance improvements and software
fixes in the ForceWare graphics drivers. Release notes also enable add-in-card
(AIC) producers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to monitor
performance improvements and bug fixes in the driver.
• Application Note — Using NVIDIA SLI Graphics Cards — Version 2.0 or later
Note: NVIDIA SLI multi-GPU features are intended for advanced users and
available with NVIDIA SLI graphics cards.
®
Online Help
Context Help
You can obtain context Help for any of the settings on the NVIDIA display control
panel pages.
Also, when a setting is disabled (grayed out), placing the cursor on the setting
provides “too tip” help indicating the reason it is disabled.
For complete details on Help and tool tips, see “Using the NVIDIA Display Menu
Help and Tool Tips” on page 37.
12 User’s Guide
Chapter 1
Introduction
NVIDIA Display Properties and nView Desktop Manager
The NVIDIA ForceWare graphics display driver includes two major control panelbased components — NVIDIA display properties and nView Desktop Manager.
In general terms, “nView™” represents a collection of multi-display technologies
encompassing driver support, multi-display GPU architecture, and desktop
management support.
• NVIDIA display properties, the topic of this user’s guide, refers to the control
panel-based user interface from which you can configure the advanced display
properties of the current release of the NVIDIA ForceWare graphics driver.
For details on using the NVIDIA display control panel menu, see “Accessing the
NVIDIA Display Control Panel Pages” on page 28.
• nView Desktop Manager is a user-level application utility that focuses on making
you more productive when working on your Windows® desktop. nView Desktop
Manager was originally created for multi-display graphics cards but has grown to
enhance single-display user desktops as well. Desktop Manager supports both
single-display and multi-display configurations running with single-display,
multi-display, or multiple graphics cards based on NVIDIA GPUs.
For details on using nView Desktop Manager features, refer to the NVIDIA
ForceWare Graphics Drivers: nView Desktop Manager User’s Guide.
Release 90 Enhancements
Release 90 provides these new features and improvements:
• Establishes the new NVIDIA Control Panel as the recommended user interface.
• Includes several PureVideo improvements.
• Increased stability and performance.
OpenGL
The following extensions have been added:
• WGL_NV_gpu_affinity
NVIDIA Corporation 13
Chapter 1
Introduction
Video
Video Processing Improvements
New Features—Available Only in the New NVIDIA Control Panel
Release 90 includes the following new PureVideo features and improvements:
Release 90 includes several PureVideo technology improvements1:
• Added noise reduction post processing
• Added image sharpening post processing
• Improved inverse telecine algorithm
• Improved de-interlacing algorithm
• Improved compatibility with third party MPEG-2 decoders
• Color Temperature Correction
• Allows users to compensate for monitor gamut differences
• Enhances color correctness of video
• Video Gamma Enhancement to include RGB gamma adjustment
• RGB Gamma for VMR9
• Allows users to tweak gamma in channels separately
• For both Overlay and VMR9
Control Panel
Release 90 introduces the new NVIDIA Control Panel as the recommended interface.
The new interface provides intuitive navigation of NVIDIA display property
controls, and will be the interface for other NVIDIA software.
While the Classic Control panel is still available, no changes or new features will
appear in that interface.
1. Video processing improvements are seen in higher HQV benchmark scores.
14 User’s Guide
System Requirements And Driver Installation
S
YSTEM
This chapter discusses the following major topics:
R
EQUIREMENTS
Chapter 2
C HAPTER
A
ND
D
RIVER
I
NSTALLATION
• “Hardware and Software Support” on page 15
• “NVIDIA ForceWare Graphics Driver Installation” on page 20
• “Notes on Feature and Configuration Support” on page 25
Hardware and Software Support
Supported Operating Systems
This Release 90 driver includes drivers designed for the following Microsoft®
operating systems:
• Microsoft Windows® XP
• Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Update Rollup2
• Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
• Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004
• Windows XP Professional
• Windows XP Home Edition
NVIDIA Corporation 15
Chapter 2
System Requirements And Driver Installation
• Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition
• Microsoft Windows
2000
Supported NVIDIA Products
Table 2.1 and Table 2.2lists the NVIDIA products supported by Version 91.47 of the
Release 90 driver.
Table 2.1
Product
GeForce 7950 GX2 (PCI-E) X X
GeForce 7950 GT (PCI-E) X X
GeForce 7900 GTX (PCI-E) X X
GeForce 7900 GTO (PCI-E) X X
GeForce 7900 GT (PCI-E) X X
GeForce 7900 GS (PCI-E) X X
GeForce 7800 GTX 512 (PCI-E) X X
GeForce 7800 GTX (PCI-E) X X
GeForce 7800 GT (PCI-E) X X
GeForce 7800 GS (AGP and PCI-E) X X
GeForce 7600 GT (PCI-E) X X
GeForce 7600 GS (AGP and PCI-E) X X
GeForce 7500 LE (PCI-E) X X
GeForce 7300 GT (PCI-E) X X
GeForce 7300 SE (PCI-E) X X
GeForce 7300 LE (PCI-E) X X
GeForce 7300 GS (PCI-E) X X
GeForce 6800 (AGP and PCI-E) X X
GeForce 6800 XT (AGP and PCI-E) X X
GeForce 6800 XE (AGP and PCI-E) X X
GeForce 6800 Ultra (AGP and PCI-E) X X
GeForce 6800 LE (AGP and PCI-E) X X
GeForce 6800 GT (AGP and PCI-E) X X
GeForce 6800 GS (AGP and PCI-E) X X
GeForce 6700 XL (PCI-E) X X
GeForce 6610 XL (PCI-E) X X
GeForce 6600 VE (AGP and PCI-E) X X
GeForce 6600 LE (AGP and PCI-E) X X
GeForce 6600 GT (AGP and PCI-E) X X
GeForce 6600 (AGP and PCI-E) X X
Supported NVIDIA Consumer Products
Windows XP 32-bit
Windows 2000
Windows XP
Professional x64
16 User’s Guide
System Requirements And Driver Installation
Chapter 2
Table 2.1
Product
GeForce 6500 (PCI-E) X X
GeForce 6200 LE (PCI-E) X X
GeForce 6200SE with TurboCache — PCI-E X X
GeForce 6200 with TurboCache — PCI-E X X
GeForce 6200 (AGP and PCI-E) X X
GeForce 6150 LE (PCI-E) X X
GeForce 6150 (PCI-E) X X
GeForce 6100 (PCI-E) X X
GeForce PCX 5900 X X
GeForce PCX 5750 X X
GeForce PCX 5300 X X
GeForce FX 5950 Ultra X X
GeForce FX 5900ZT X X
GeForce FX 5900XT X X
GeForce FX 5900 Ultra X X
GeForce FX 5900 X X
GeForce FX 5800 Ultra X X
GeForce FX 5800 X X
GeForce FX 5700VE X X
GeForce FX 5700LE X X
GeForce FX 5700 Ultra X X
GeForce FX 5700 X X
GeForce FX 5600XT X X
GeForce FX 5600SE X X
GeForce FX 5600 Ultra X X
GeForce FX 5600 X X
GeForce FX 5500 X X
GeForce FX 5200LE X X
GeForce FX 5200 Ultra X X
GeForce FX 5200 X X
GeForce FX 5100 X X
GeForce4 Ti 4800 SE X
GeForce4 Ti 4800 X
GeForce4 Ti 4600 X
GeForce4 Ti 4400 X
GeForce4 TI 4200 with AGP8X X
GeForce4 Ti 4200 X
GeForce4 MX440SE with AGP8X X X
GeForce4 MX Integrated graphics X X
GeForce4 MX 460 X X
GeForce4 MX 440-SE X X
GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X X X
GeForce4 MX 440 X X
Supported NVIDIA Consumer Products (continued)
Windows XP 32-bit
Windows 2000
Windows XP
Professional x64
NVIDIA Corporation 17
Chapter 2
System Requirements And Driver Installation
Table 2.1
Product
GeForce4 MX 420 X X
GeForce4 MX 4000 X X
GeForce3 Ti 500 X
GeForce3 Ti 200 X
GeForce3 X
GeForce2 MX Integrated graphics X
GeForce2 MX 400 X
GeForce2 MX 200 X
GeForce2 MX 100 X
GeForce2 MX X
Table 2.2
Product
NVIDIA Quadro FX 5500
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 X2
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4400
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4000 SDI
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3500
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3450
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3400
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3000
NVIDIA Quadro FX 2000
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1300
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1100
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1000
NVIDIA Quadro FX 700
NVIDIA Quadro FX 600
NVIDIA Quadro FX 560
NVIDIA Quadro FX 550
NVIDIA Quadro FX 540
NVIDIA Quadro FX 500
NVIDIA Quadro FX 350
NVIDIA Quadro FX 330
NVIDIA Quadro4 980 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 900 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 780 XGL
Supported NVIDIA Consumer Products (continued)
Windows XP 32-bit
Windows 2000
Supported NVIDIA Workstation Products
Windows XP 32-bit
Windows 2000
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
Windows XP
Professional x64
Windows XP
Professional x64
X
18 User’s Guide
System Requirements And Driver Installation
Chapter 2
Table 2.2
Supported NVIDIA Workstation Products (continued)
Product
NVIDIA Quadro4 750 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 700 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 580 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 550 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 500 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 400 NVS
NVIDIA Quadro4 380 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 200 NVS
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 440
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 400
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 285 PCI-E
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 280 PCI
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 280
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 200
NVIDIA Quadro NVS with AGP8X
NVIDIA Quadro NVS
NVIDIA Quadro2 MXR
NVIDIA Quadro DCC
Supported Languages
Windows XP 32-bit
Windows 2000
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
X
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
XX
Windows XP
Professional x64
The Release 90 NVIDIA ForceWare Graphics Driver supports the following
languages in the main driver Control Panel:
English (USA) German Portuguese (Euro/Iberian)
English (UK) Greek Russian
Arabic Hebrew Slovak
Chinese (Simplified) Hungarian Slovenian
Chinese (Traditional) Italian Spanish
Czech Japanese Spanish (Latin America)
Danish Korean Swedish
Dutch Norwegian Thai
Finnish Polish Turkish
French Portuguese (Brazil)
NVIDIA Corporation 19
Chapter 2
System Requirements And Driver Installation
NVIDIA ForceWare Graphics Driver Installation
Make sure the current Release 90 version of the NVIDIA ForceWare graphics display
driver for your Windows operating system has been installed on your computer.
Note: If you are using a mobile (laptop or notebook) computer, please be sure that
you are using the “mobile” version of the NVIDIA display driver.
Consult your System Administrator if you are unsure about the version that is
installed.
System Requirements
The minimum hard disk space requirement for each operating system are listed in
Table 2.3, Table 2.4, and Table 2.5:
Table 2.3
Operating System Minimum Hard Disk Space
Windows XP (32-bit editions) 40.3 MB
Windows XP (64-bit editions) 47.9 MB
Windows 2000 40.3 MB
Table 2.4
Operating System Minimum Hard Disk Space
Windows XP (32-bit editions) 20.8 MB
Windows XP (64-bit editions) 20.8 MB
Windows 2000 20..8 MB
Table 2.5
Operating System Minimum Hard Disk Space
Windows XP (32-bit editions) 61.1 MB
Windows XP (64-bit editions) 68.7 MB
Windows 2000 61.1 MB
Hard Disk Space Requirements—English
Hard Disk Space Requirements—Non-English Languages
Hard Disk Space Requirements—Full International Package
20 User’s Guide
System Requirements And Driver Installation
About the NVIDIA ForceWare Driver Installation
Note: If you do not have System Administrator access privileges, it is assumed that
the appropriate person with System Administrator access in your organization
will set up and install the Release 90 NVIDIA ForceWare graphics driver
software on your computer.
•NVIDIA graphics driver installation provides both an
method and an InstallShield (
Note: The InstallShield method is recommended for general users. For details, see
“Installing the NVIDIA ForceWare Driver Software” on page 24.
• The installation process copies all necessary NVIDIA Release 90 ForceWare
graphics driver files for operation into the appropriate directories.
Note: If you are using a mobile (laptop or notebook) computer, please be sure that
you are using the “mobile” version of the NVIDIA display driver.
• The nView system files are copied to your
setup.exe
) Wizard-based installation method.
Windows\System
.inf
Chapter 2
file-based installation
directory.
• nView Desktop Manager Profile files (*.tvp) are saved in the
directory.
Depending on the version of the NVIDIA driver previously installed, profiles may
also be located in the
nView_Profiles
• As part of the install process, an uninstall is registered in your system.
• Under Windows XP, the NVIDIA driver is installed in “Dualview” display mode.
However, the second display is not activated by default and must be enabled. See
“Using nView Multi-Display Settings” on page 40 for instructions on how to
install nView Dualview mode.
• Under Windows 2000, the NVIDIA Display Driver is installed in Span mode. See
“Using nView Multi-Display Settings” on page 40 for instructions on how to
install nView Dualview mode.
Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\
directory.
Windows\nView
Preserving Settings Before Upgrading Your Software
Before uninstalling or installing software, your can preserve your nView Desktop
Manager and/or NVIDIA Display settings by using the nView Desktop Manager
Profiles features and following the steps below.
Note: Under Windows XP/2000 and Windows NT 4.0, you must have, at least, Power
User access privileges in order to create or save a profile. (Refer to Windows
Help if you need an explanation of Power User access rights.)
NVIDIA Corporation 21
Chapter 2
System Requirements And Driver Installation
1 Open the nView Desktop Manager Profiles page (Figure 2.1).
Figure 2.1
nView Desktop Manager — Sample Profiles Page
1 To preserve your current settings, you can use either the Save or the New option
from the nView Desktop Manager Profiles page:
• If you want to overwrite the currently loaded profile with your changed
settings, use the Save option. Notice that a warning message indicates that you
are about to overwrite the selected profile.
• If you want to retain the currently loaded profile and want to save your
changed settings to a new file, click the New option. Enter a name and
description of the profile in the New Profile dialog box. For example, you can
name this profile
My Settings
.
2 If you are an “advanced” user and want to customize certain settings in the saved
profile, click Advanced << to expand the dialog box (Figure 2.2).
22 User’s Guide
System Requirements And Driver Installation
Chapter 2
Figure 2.2
nView Desktop Manager — Save Profile Settings
3 To customize the settings, you can select or clear any of the settings check boxes.
4 Click Save to return to the main Profiles page.
If you created a new profile, you will see the name of the newly created profile in
the profiles list.
If you overwrote a current profile, the same profile name is retained in the list.
Note: nView Desktop Manager profile (
.tvp
) files are saved in the
Windows\nView
directory. Depending on the version of the NVIDIA driver previously
installed, profiles may also be saved in the
Users\Application Data\ nView_Profiles
Documents and Settings\All
directory.
5 Now you can uninstall your current driver for a driver upgrade.
6 After you restart your computer following an NVIDIA new driver install, you can
easily load the saved profile from the Profiles page of nView Desktop Manager.
NVIDIA Corporation 23
Chapter 2
System Requirements And Driver Installation
About Using Saved Profiles in Another Computer
You can easily use any saved profile (
from one computer and use it in another computer, if you want. You’ll need to copy it
to the
Windows\nView
graphics display driver, etc. installed properly. Then this profile can be loaded from
another computer from the nView Desktop Manager Profiles page just as it can from
your original computer.
directory of a computer that has the NVIDIA ForceWare
.tvp
file in the
Windows\nView
Installing the NVIDIA ForceWare Driver Software
1 Follow the instructions on the www.nvidia.com Web site driver download page to
locate the appropriate driver to download, based on your hardware and operating
system.
2 Click the driver download link.
The license agreement dialog box appears.
3 Click Accept if you accept the terms of the agreement, then either open the file or
save the file to your PC and open it later.
Opening the .EXE file launches the NVIDIA InstallShield Wizard.
4 Follow the instructions in the NVIDIA InstallShield Wizard to complete the
installation.
directory)
Uninstalling the NVIDIA ForceWare Driver Software
Note: It is highly recommended that you follow the steps in this section to completely
uninstall the NVIDIA Display Driver software before updating to a new version of the
software.
To uninstall the nView software, follow these steps:
1 From the Windows taskbar, click Start > Settings > Control Panel to open the
Control Panel window.
2 Double-click the Add/Remove Programs item.
3 Click the NVIDIA Display Driver item from the list.
4 Click Change/Remove.
5 Click Yes to continue.
24 User’s Guide
System Requirements And Driver Installation
A prompt appears asking whether you want to delete all of the saved nView
profiles.
• If you click Yes, all of the nView software and all of your saved profiles will be
deleted.
• If you click No, the nView software is removed, but the profile files are saved in
the
Windows\nView
6 Your system now restarts.
directory on your hard disk.
Notes on Feature and Configuration Support
Feature Support
• To access features on the nView Display Settings page (see “nView Display
Modes” on page 41), you need:
• a multi-display graphics card based on any of the NVIDIA GPUs that support
multiple displays on a single graphics card, as indicated in Table 2.1,
“Supported NVIDIA Consumer Products”, and
Chapter 2
• at least two displays connected to the graphics card.
• When running with multiple graphics cards (i.e., two or more NVIDIA GPU-based
graphics card are installed in your computer), ensure that the same version of the
NVIDIA ForceWare graphics display driver is installed for each card. For a
detailed discussion of using multi-display nView modes, see “Using nView Multi-
Display Settings” on page 40.
• Some NVIDIA display and nView Desktop Manager features are supported by
either single-display or multi-display NVIDIA GPU-based graphics cards.
Therefore, to access features that are supported by single-display configurations,
you only need a singe display connected, provided that the particular NVIDIA
GeForce-based graphics card supports these features.
• The settings available on the NVIDIA display control panel pages may vary
depending on the specific NVIDIA GeForce GPU-based graphics card you are
using. For example, settings that are available for a specific graphics card such as
one that is GeForce 7800 GTX-based, may not be available on a graphics card
based on a GeForce4 Ti- or other older NVIDIA GeForce GPU series.
NVIDIA Corporation 25
Chapter 2
System Requirements And Driver Installation
Examples in this Guide
• For example purposes, most of the NVIDIA display control panel pages shown in
this guide feature an NVIDIA GeForce GPU-based graphics card. You may be
using a different NVIDIA GPU-based graphics card, in which case you will see the
exact name of the GPU you are using reflected in the NVIDIA GPU tab.
• The Windows XP screens shown in this document apply also to Windows 2000
functionality, unless noted otherwise.
26 User’s Guide
NVIDIA Driver Control Panel Access
Chapter 3
C HAPTER
NVIDIA D
This chapter discusses the following major topics:
• “NVIDIA Display Setup Wizards” on page 27
• “Accessing the NVIDIA Display Control Panel Pages” on page 28
• “Shortcut to Playing Video Files on Any Display” on page 30
• “Using the NVIDIA Display Menu” on page 33
• “Using the NVIDIA Display Menu Help and Tool Tips” on page 37
RIVER
C
NVIDIA Display Setup Wizards
After a fresh installation of the NVIDIA Release 90 graphics display driver and
restarting your computer, one or both of the NVIDIA display wizards (Display
Wizard or TV Wizard) are automatically invoked, depending on the types of
displays that are connected to your graphics card — i.e., analog or digital display,
television, or HDTV. The wizards help set up the most commonly used nView
display modes, including screen resolution and output.
Note: On subsequent session using the NVIDIA display driver, you can manually
start any one of these wizards by clicking either the Display Wizard or the TV
Wizard button from the Desktop Management page (Figure 3.1).
To see sample Wizard pages, see Appendix C, “NVIDIA Setup Wizard Pages”
on page 63.
ONTROL
P
ANEL
A
CCESS
NVIDIA Corporation 27
Chapter 3
NVIDIA Driver Control Panel Access
Figure 3.1
Manually Starting the NVIDIA Display Wizard
Click TV Wizard
for help in setting
up your television
or HDTV display.
Click Display
Wizard for help in
setting up your
analog or digital
displays.
1 Click Change/Remove.
2 Click Yes to continue.
Accessing the NVIDIA Display Control Panel Pages
Once your NVIDIA ForceWare graphics display driver is installed, you can easily
access the driver features from a convenient menu. You can quickly access the
NVIDIA display menu that gives you direct access to the NVIDIA display control
panel pages.
For quick access, you can use either the “Desktop Access” on page 29 or the
“NVIDIA Settings Menu — Windows Taskbar Access” on page 31 access method,
explained in the sections that follow.
28 User’s Guide
Note: When needed, you can still access the NVIDIA display control panel pages
through the Microsoft Display Properties Settings > Advanced option, as
explained in “Windows Display Properties Setting Access” on page 33.
Desktop Access
1 Right click on your Windows desktop to open the desktop menu.
2 If you do not see the menu item “NVIDIA Display,” follow the procedure in
“Adding NVIDIA Menu Options to the Windows Desktop Menu” on page 136,
and then continue to the next step.
3 Click NVIDIA Display (Figure 3.2).
NVIDIA Driver Control Panel Access
Chapter 3
Figure 3.2
NVIDIA Display Options on the Windows Desktop Menu
Note If you have two displays connected, both
displays appear and are accessible on the
only
desktop menu
is enabled. One your primary display appears
if any other nView display mode is enabled.
if nView Dualview mode
NVIDIA Corporation 29
Chapter 3
NVIDIA Driver Control Panel Access
You will see one or more of the descriptive EDID display names as shown in the
examples in Figure 3.2. The display names that appear are based on the number
and type of display(s) that are connected to your computer and whether you are in
nView Dualview mode. These display names are also viewable from the nView
Settings page (Figure 3.9).
Note: For example, if you have multiple displays connected to an NVIDIA dual-
display graphics card, in order to see both of your displays, you must be in
nView Dualview mode. In nView Clone or Span mode, you can only see one
display because Windows considers the displays as a “single” display in
these modes. For details, see “About Renaming Displays” on page 46.
4 Select the display for which you want to view the NVIDIA display control panel.
During first use of the driver, the “default” page that opens is always the main
NVIDIA GPU page as shown in Figure 3.7. On subsequent use, the actual NVIDIA
control panel page that opens will be the page that was open when you last closed the
NVIDIA control panel.
Shortcut to Playing Video Files on Any Display
You can now use the NVIDIA display selection shortcut feature to play video files on
any selected display.
1 As shown in Figure 3.3, right click on a video file to open its context menu.
2 Select the NVIDIA option Play On My and then choose the display on which you
want to play the video.
3 To configure full screen video display, see “Using Full Screen Video Settings” on
page 128.
30 User’s Guide
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