Nvidia WOW tweak

'm writing this guide in the hope this helps those
people who are posting with nvidia graphics problems, low framerates,
and graphical errors, texture errors, etc,
after months of experimentation and reading up i managed to solve
my performance issues to the extent where i have no problems playing the game,

I generally have a good framerate everywhere, min 40fps - 70 fps
with spikes of 100+ fps and a record 159fps!

first thing i have to mention is don't trust the settings that the nvidia
driver setup leaves you with, they are simply no good for playing WoW,
and you won't get the best out of your graphics hardware if you leave the settings as is,
with the default nvidia settings on my card, i was experiencing very low FPS,
crashing, visual errors ingame, pretty much everything that i see posted here
from different people,

this is my spec:

AMD 3200+ 64bit cpu
gigabyte K8NXP - SLI motherboard
gigabyte GV3D1 nvidia 6600GT twin gpu graphics
1gb corsair 400mhz DDR ram

I'm not saying this info is a cure all, but if it helps a few people whose
spec is close to mine, then it's a bonus,

Up to date Nvidia drivers now install an icon in the windows control panel,
if you don't have it, then your drivers are rather old, and the only way to access
the advanced settings is to go through the righ click desktop, 'properties'
all the way to the advanced settings in video card options, you should really update
to the newer setup though...

control panel> Nvidia control panel > 3d settings > manage 3d settings

you need to alter the global settings list to reflect these settings,
not all of the settings will be available depending on your setup,
make sure you select 'advanced view' at the top of the screen, and not 'custom view'
or 'standard' this is what i use:

Anisotropic filtering - application controlled
anisotropic mip filter optimization - on
anisotropic sample optimization - off
Antialiasing settings - 2xQ
Conformant texture clamp - on/use hardware
Extension limit - off
Force mipmaps - bilinear
Multiple graphics card acceleration - single display performance mode
Negative LOD bias - allow
SLI performance mode - force alternate frame rendering 2
Texture filtering - high performance
Transparancy antialiasing - multisampling
Image settings - high performance
Color profile - N/A
Vertical sync - app controlled
Trilinear optimization - on
Triple buffering - off

now apply these settings using the button on the bottom of the window and restart,


A word on installing graphics drivers
-------------------------------------

there is a right way and a wrong way to install graphics drivers on your system,
this is the way it should be done:

* Go into add/remove, and select the nvidia graphics drivers in the list,
select 'uninstall'

* click start > run type 'msconfig' and hit enter, in the box that appears click the 'startup' tab,
identify the programs that make your antivirus load at startup, you don't want your antivirus running
when you are installing graphics drivers, simply undo this change later to make the antivirus load again.

* reboot the pc, when the windows hardware wizard identifies new graphics hardware EXIT the wizard,
double click the nvidia driver setup file to begin the installation

*DONT install graphics drivers over the top of existing drivers, as elements of the older drivers
wont be updated/replaced, and incompatibilities will occur, at best, the driver won't work as well as intended,
at worst, your PC will fail to boot up, and show you lots of blue screens about the graphics hardware and driver


3RD Party FPS boost
-------------------

This program i swear by, i don't run WoW without it, and the improvements i get are very, very noticeable,
it's called rivatuner, and the main reason i use it is to modify the shader settings on my card to deliver
a massive 40% increase in fps, there are also other settings you can you to your advantage, by your own experimentation,
It's downloadable from here:

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163

install the program, if your driver is supported, then the main window will show 2 boxes,
'target adapter' and 'driver settings' - both options will have a small 'customize' box and a small arrow
icon next to them, now click the arrow next to 'customize' on the lower box, a row of icons will appear,
click the 2nd left 'direct draw and 3d settings' in the window that appears, click 'shaders' tab,
for both options select 'force 1.1' click 'ok' then 'ok' and reboot,

if you are using fraps to monitor your FPS, you will already notice a massive boost in FPS ON THE WoW
loading screen, the main way to compare the change is before and after on the character selection screen,
click the button that makes your character rotate around,
on a badly set graphics the character will spin rather slowly, about once every 4 seconds,
on a tweaked system the character will be spinning about once every 0.75 of a second ( looks kinda funny :P)
now you know you have made a difference!

enter game and enjoy,
hope this helps those who are willing to help themselves by doing a little tuning,


disclaimer:
-----------


none of the settings i have mentioned above will damage your hardware at all, they are all software
settings designed to be taken advantage of by the power user,
however i cannot accept any responsibilty in the event of any failure caused coincidentally
upon the application of the info contained in this guide, the above settings are all fully reversible.