Nvidia driver configuration for MSFS
From PMDG Ops
by Ryan Maziarz, PMDG
Contents |
Introduction
Proper configuration of the driver settings for Nvidia's line of video cards is an crucial yet often misunderstood process for many simmers. This guide should lead to better understanding of what the critical steps are and more importantly why you're doing them.
My card is a 512MB 8800GT - there's going to be differences between the way you configure its options vs. those of Nvidia's other cards. The basic rules and the install process are the same, but how you actually configure the card for FS may be different. Unfortunately I can't write a guide for cards I don't have, so I will leave adding that information to this article up to others in the community. The same holds true for ATI/AMD cards as well.
What you will need
Drivers
Nvidia's driver download page is located here. Simply enter your card type and OS and it will direct you to the latest certified driver Nvidia has released. They have drivers for both XP and Vista (be sure to properly select 32-bit or 64-bit if you run Vista) Occasionally Nvidia will release beta drivers to the public - these are fine to try, but they can sometimes cause game issues. Using "leaked" or "hacked" drivers that get posted on sites like Guru3D however is not recommended as these are usually internal testing builds for specific video card manufactures and often have serious bugs and incompatibilities.
I am a firm proponent of always using the latest drivers for all of my hardware, provided they don't cause any specific identifiable problems with my software. You'll often see people on forums claiming this driver or that driver is "faster" overall based on synthetic benchmark scores from programs like 3DMark. It's a load of crap, don't believe it. What is true about newer drivers is that they often improve performance in recently released games. In fact when a really big game gets released, like Crysis for example, Nvidia will often release a special beta version of the driver that includes optimizations for that game so that people have access to them before they get certified and placed into the main driver itself.
nHancer
This is a great freeware utility for configuring and controlling the application profile feature of your card. The actual Nvidia interface for configuring these profiles is extremely convoluted and hard to use. As a result many Nvidia owners don't even realize their card has this capability. nHancer also unlocks some Antialiasing modes that don't exist in the normal Nvidia control panel. One of these is my preferred choice for AA in FS, as we'll soon see.
The latest nHancer is 2.4.1 available here.
- nHancer requires the Microsoft .NET framework. The latest version is available here.
Wait to install nHancer until we're done with the main driver install.
Driver Sweeper
This is another vital free utility that ensures that you've fully removed remnants of the previous version of the Nvidia driver before you install a new set. We'll cover its use later in this article.
The latest version is currently 1.5.5 and you can download it here.
Installing new drivers
Below you'll find step by step instructions for getting a new driver set up and running, starting with the uninstall of the old version and proceeding through the install of the new one.
Uninstall the old version
- Open up the Control Panel and go to Add/Remove Programs in XP or Programs and Features in Vista.
- Scroll down to Nvidia Drivers and double click it, which should pop up the uninstaller.
- WARNING: if you have an Nvidia chipset based motherboard (usually has the name "nForce" on it), you will also see the various drivers for that listed in the uninstaller. You want to make sure that you are only selecting the Nvidia Display Driver for uninstallation. If your motherboard isn't an Nvidia one, you won't see this and it will proceed straight to the Nvidia Display Driver uninstall.
- Proceed with the uninstall process, however at the end DO NOT let it reboot.
Using Driver Sweeper
Driver Sweeper works by cleaning up all the driver files and registry entries that are left over by the Nvidia uninstaller. It ensures that you start over absolutely clean as if you'd just installed a fresh Windows copy. I do this every time I install a new driver version. Nvidia says it isn't necessary, but I've seen problems happen many times that were traceable back to old configuration files and stuff that didn't get properly uninstalled.
- Run Driver Sweeper
- The first thing you want to do is click Desktop Icons on the left side. Then press Save. This stores the location of all your desktop icons, which can change because the system may boot up in a low resolution after the driver uninstall.
- Press Analyze
