Datasheet

PART I

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INSTALLATION, CONFIGURATION, AND CUSTOMIZATION

visibility. From the Display Properties dialog box, click the Appearance tab

and then click Effects. Select the Use the following method to smooth screen

fonts check box, and then select ClearType from the drop-down list (see

Figure 3.2).

The other setting that affects your viewing quality is off the beaten path,

for reasons known only to Microsoft. From the Settings tab, click Advanced

and then click the Monitor tab (see Figure 3.3). From here you can change

the screen refresh rate. Set the screen resolution and color quality first, and

then set the refresh rate to the highest your monitor supports.

Video cards, drivers, and management applications

Most new video cards come with comprehensive drivers and man-

agement programs that can adjust nearly every aspect of a card’s perfor-

mance. Frequently, they install tabs in place of the standard Windows

ones that change desktop resolution, color quality, and monitor refresh

rates for you.

If you have one of these programs installed you should use it to fid-

dle with your adapter’s settings. Although you can still use the default

Windows dialog boxes, you’re better off playing the game the way the

video card manufacturer intended. Because the interfaces vary dramat-

ically among adapters, an in-depth discussion of specifics is beyond this

chapter. But here are a few tips on getting the best out of your card:

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Make sure your drivers and management applications are up-to-

date. Even though the screamingly newest drivers may have bugs,

any drivers that are more than a couple weeks old are probably

safe to use. And, as with many things in software, the older the

hardware, the more likely the bugs have been pretty well

squashed.

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Most video card help files and user guides are hopelessly obscure.

Find an official or unofficial forum or message board for your

video card, lurk there for a while, and learn from the mistakes of

others.

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If you work in a profession such as graphics design or video edit-

ing, hang out on profession-specific forums. You will find a lot of

advice about specific adapter settings for particular projects,

including tweaks to make the card faster.

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