GUIDE · BEST SETTINGS · EVIDENCE REVIEW 8 NOV 2026
The NPI settings that actually matter (and the ones that don't)
Most NPI settings do nothing measurable for FPS. The changes with real support are a frame cap a few FPS under your refresh rate with G-SYNC, a DLSS preset override in DLSS games, forcing Resizable BAR in some games, and, for stutter, leaving the shader cache on. "Potato graphics" configs mostly cut image quality for little or no gain. We measured nothing ourselves; this is a review of NVIDIA's documents and independent tests, so change one setting at a time and back up first.
The short answer by goal
| Goal | What has support | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Smoothness and low input lag | A frame cap a few FPS under your refresh rate, V-Sync on with G-SYNC, Reflex where the game has it, otherwise Ultra Low Latency On. | G-SYNC and low latency |
| Best image in DLSS games | A DLSS preset override. NVIDIA recommends K for most modes, and M or L on RTX 40 and newer. | DLSS override |
| More FPS in some games | Forced Resizable BAR in games NVIDIA has not whitelisted, tested one game at a time. | Resizable BAR |
| Less stutter | Keep the shader cache on; the default size is NVIDIA's own choice. | Shader cache |
Our verdicts on the popular tweaks
A verdict here means “what the evidence supports”, not a measurement of ours. We have no NVIDIA hardware, so every row cites what NVIDIA or independent testers published, and says “no evidence found” where there is none.
| ↗ | Frame Rate Limiter V3 | A cap a few FPS under refresh | Blur Busters and NVIDIA agree on a cap below refresh with G-SYNC; limiter choice changes latency and frame-time consistency. | Worth changing |
| ↗ | Vertical Sync | Force on (with G-SYNC) | Recommended by Blur Busters and NVIDIA with G-SYNC. Adds latency without it. | Worth changing with G-SYNC |
| ↗ | Ultra Low Latency - CPL State | On or Ultra | NVIDIA: use Reflex where available; otherwise On. Only in DirectX 9 and 11. | Situational |
| ↗ | Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames | 1 | NVIDIA says Low Latency Mode On equals 1, and the game decides in DirectX 12 and Vulkan. | Situational |
| ↗ | DLSS - Forced Preset Letter | K, L or M | NVIDIA's own defaults and cost tables; reviewers found M costs 4 to 5 percent more than K on RTX 40 and 50, about 12 percent on RTX 30 and 20. | Worth changing in DLSS games |
| ↗ | rBAR - Enable | Enabled everywhere | Mixed results: gains in some games, none in others, and NVIDIA turns it off for 16 games. | Situational, per game, never Global |
| ↗ | Shader Cache - Cache Size | 100 GB or Unlimited | No published test shows a gain over the 16 GB default; one report found no benefit. | Leave default unless stutter |
| ↗ | Power Management - Mode | Prefer maximum performance | The FPS Review found no consistent gain and 33 to 42 W more idle power. NVIDIA lists an open issue about it not applying. | Leave default |
| ↗ | CUDA - Force P2 State | Off | BabelTechReviews saw no significant average FPS change across 15 games. Compute users report it frees memory clocks for CUDA work. | Leave default for gaming |
| ↗ | Threaded Optimization | On | Phoronix found mixed results on Linux, including a big loss in one OpenGL game. It stays off by default. | Leave default |
| ↗ | Texture Filtering - Quality | High performance | Phoronix: no difference in most titles. A commercial guide claims 3 to 5 percent in one game without a method. | Leave default; no independent gain found |
| ↗ | Anisotropic Filtering - Mode | User-defined, 16x | Intel and PC Gamer: 16x costs little FPS compared with other settings. | Worth changing for image quality |
| ↗ | Texture Filtering - Negative LOD bias | Clamp | Image effect only. A negative bias with DLSS can cause flicker; some games forbid LOD tweaks. | Situational, check the game rules |
| ↗ | Prefered Refreshrate | Highest available | Only matters when a game opens at a lower rate than your monitor. No test found. | No evidence found |
| ↗ | Triple Buffering | On | An OpenGL and Vulkan option; no test found. | No evidence found |
| ↗ | Antialiasing - MFAA Enabled | On | A legacy antialiasing mode; no test found. | No evidence found |
| ↗ | Antialiasing - FXAA Enabled | On | A post-process filter that costs little; an image choice, not a speed one. | Situational |
REPORTED · E075 to E088 NVIDIA’s open issue about power management is in the 616.64 release notes. OFFICIAL · NVIDIA 616.64 notes
What we measured
Nothing, on purpose: we have no NVIDIA hardware, and a chart of our own would be invented. Instead, each guide page collects the independent tests: DLSS preset costs, Resizable BAR results and limiter and latency findings. A headline such as “free performance from ReBAR” can rest on a synthetic benchmark: the widely shared 2025 story is a 3DMark gain of up to about 10 percent, not a game average. REPORTED · Tom's Hardware, Jun 2025
One example of how to read a claim: the NVIDIA App’s overlay was reported at about 72 FPS on against about 83 FPS with the app uninstalled in one Cyberpunk 2077 test, while other users saw no difference. COMMUNITY · Reddit r/nvidia, Dec 2024 Measure on your own system before you believe either.
“Potato graphics” and “0 delay” configs
Viral .nip files bundle many of the settings above plus visual cuts. We did not download any, so we have no decoded list to show. You can do it yourself in seconds: open the file in NIP Studio, which lists every profile, executable and setting, flags risky ones and compares two files. A file that changes the Base Profile affects every game you play. A commercial guide claims a 3 to 5 percent gain from high-performance texture filtering in one game without showing a method; we found no independent number.
REPORTED · hone.gg, no method shown
Recipes
We do not publish a global “best settings” file: nothing we could verify justifies one. Per-game recipes, validated in NPI and tied to NVIDIA’s own profile for the game, are on the games page. A recipe belongs in a game’s profile, not Global, and the .nip files page shows how to import it with Merge.
If you came here for NVIDIA Control Panel settings
The Control Panel is retired for GeForce since driver 610.47, and the Control Panel page maps every Manage 3D Settings option to its NPI setting. The most searched ones: Low Latency Mode is ↗, Max Frame Rate is ↗, Power management mode is ↗, Texture filtering - Quality is ↗, Shader Cache Size is ↗ and Vertical sync is ↗.
Two niche levers live elsewhere: RTX HDR and sharpening and compatibility bits for older games.
How to apply and undo
Export a backup
Export all customized profiles first (how).
Change one setting at a time, in the game's profile
Open the game’s profile and change a single row. How to use NPI shows the window.
Apply and test
Click Apply Changes, restart the game and compare with a stopwatch scene or an FPS counter.
Undo what does not help
Reset the row or restore the backup (reset page).
Questions people ask
Does NVIDIA Profile Inspector increase FPS?
Rarely by itself. The published tests we found show no consistent FPS gain from most of the usual settings. Some games gain from forced Resizable BAR and a frame cap or Reflex improves smoothness and latency, but not average FPS.
What are the best NPI settings for low input lag?
Reflex in games that have it, otherwise Ultra Low Latency On, with V-Sync on and a cap a few FPS under your refresh rate on a G-SYNC monitor. The G-SYNC page has the calculator.
Should I set power management to Prefer maximum performance?
The FPS Review found no consistent FPS gain and about 33 to 42 watts more whole-system idle power. NVIDIA also lists an open issue that the setting may not be applied correctly.
Are NPI potato graphics settings worth it?
A commercial guide claims 3 to 5 percent in one game with no method shown. We found no independent measurement. Lower texture quality is the price.
Is it better to change settings in Global or per game?
Per game, unless you want the value everywhere. Global changes affect every program, including online games.
Sources
- NVIDIA 616.64 release notes (open issue list) nvidia.com · accessed 8 Nov 2026 · official
- NVIDIA DLSS SR Programming Guide github.com · accessed 8 Nov 2026 · official
- The FPS Review fpsreview.com · accessed 8 Nov 2026 · reported
- BabelTechReviews babeltechreviews.com · accessed 8 Nov 2026 · reported
- Tom's Hardware tomshardware.com · accessed 8 Nov 2026 · reported
- Blur Busters blurbusters.com · accessed 8 Nov 2026 · reported