Which NVIDIA Profile Inspector Settings to Change

Most players need only a few NVIDIA Profile Inspector settings: Texture Filtering - Quality, Power Management - Mode, the frame cap, low latency, and some DLSS and shader cache rows. Set them on the game's own profile. Each goal gets a starting value, its hex code and its undo value. The frame cap and low latency get a link to their own guides instead. Most other named entries can stay at default.

Best NVIDIA Profile Inspector settings by goal

The best starting values depend on your goal: more FPS on a weak PC, lower input latency, sharper image quality, fewer stutters or longer laptop battery life.

Every value in the goal table goes on one game's profile and only counts after Apply Changes, as the walkthrough for opening a game profile shows. The two exceptions are the laptop and shader pre-compile rows, which belong to the global profile.

The README warns that a value that helps one game can do nothing in another, or even cause trouble there. So treat each row as a starting point. Change one thing, play a normal session, then decide.

The Undo value column shows the tool's neutral value, such as Adaptive, Application-controlled or Disabled. Where NVIDIA names a GeForce default, that value is used instead.

Goal	Setting	Start with	Hex	Undo value	Condition
More FPS	Texture Filtering - Quality	High performance	0x00000014	Quality, 0x00000000 (NVIDIA's GeForce default)	NVIDIA: "the highest frame rate possible"
More FPS	Power Management - Mode	Prefer maximum performance	0x00000001	Adaptive, 0x00000000	Game profile only
Image quality	Anisotropic Filtering - Mode	User-defined / Off	0x00000001	Application-controlled, 0x00000000	Must be set before the Setting row applies
Image quality	Anisotropic Filtering - Setting	16x	0x00000010	Follows Mode	6x shares the hex value of 4x
Image quality	Texture Filtering - Quality	High quality	0xFFFFFFF6	Quality, 0x00000000	Trilinear Optimization is ignored at High quality
Fewer stutters	Shader Cache - Pre-compile Shader Options	Low	0x00000001	Disabled, 0x00000000	Global profile; DX12 only, driver 595.97 or newer, off by default
Laptop	Power Management - Mode (global)	Keep Adaptive	0x00000000	Adaptive, 0x00000000	Raise to Prefer maximum performance on game profiles only

Lower latency and the frame cap both live in group 02. The latency queue rows act only in DirectX 9 or 11 games.

In 3.x, the filter for modified settings lists only the rows you changed, so use it after a few sessions to prune what did nothing. The Defaults button returns a whole profile to NVIDIA's values, and the steps to reset one setting, one profile or all of them start with a single row.

Low-end PC and potato graphics

For a weak PC, the texture row that reliably buys frames is Texture Filtering - Quality at High performance. NVIDIA's Control Panel help says that value offers "the highest frame rate possible".

Expect softer texture filtering in return. High performance will not drop your resolution or switch off effects, so the game's own low or potato preset still does the heavy lifting.

Best image quality settings

Set Anisotropic Filtering - Mode to User-defined / Off, then Anisotropic Filtering - Setting to 16x, and Texture Filtering - Quality to High quality. Mode must read User-defined / Off before the Setting row applies, and LOD bias and texture filtering lists the AF levels to skip.

Driver sharpening (Sharpening Filter - Enabled) is Off (0x00000000) by default, and NVIDIA's help names no recommended sharpening level. Its strength row, Sharpening - Value (0x002ED8CD), runs from 0.00 to 1.00.

Shader stutter and Pre-compile Shader Options

Shader Cache - Pre-compile Shader Options (0x00EAD189, group 07) builds DirectX 12 shaders in the background before you play. The XML ties the row to NVIDIA Auto Shader Compilation. Set it on _GLOBAL_DRIVER_PROFILE (Base Profile), where the NVIDIA App places the same switch.

NVIDIA's March 2026 announcement says the feature rebuilds DirectX 12 shaders "while your system is idle". It needs Game Ready driver 595.97 WHQL or newer and is off by default. In the NVIDIA App, the same switch sits only under Graphics, Global Settings, Shader Cache, with a Compile Now button.

The tool's CustomSettingNames.xml lists four values for this row.

Value	Hex	What it means
Disabled	0x00000000	Off, the default
Low	0x00000001	The background compile uses the least of the system
Medium	0x00000002	A middle share
High	0x00000003	The background compile uses the most of the system

Low is the gentle start, because it leaves the most of the PC free while the compile runs. A missing row points to an old driver: Orbmu2k confirmed in issue #449 that it only shows on driver 595.97 or newer.

Two limits apply. The feature only covers DirectX 12 games. And a game you just downloaded still builds its shaders in-game the first time. Set the row to Disabled to undo it. Whether a driver update clears the existing cache is covered in the shader cache size guide.

Laptops and battery life

On a laptop keep Power Management - Mode at Adaptive on the global profile and raise it only on game profiles. The power management and CUDA guide lists the values and what NVIDIA says about each.

NVIDIA Profile Inspector settings explained in 7 groups

3.0.2.1 names 115 settings, split into 7 groups. The biggest, 05 - Upscaling and Frame Generation, holds 30 of them, about a quarter of the list. The settings file on GitHub has since grown to 117. It adds DLSS - Enable Streamline Override (0x10E41E06) to 05 and rBAR - Enable v2 (0x000BFA21) to 07. Neither is named in 3.0.2.1, so each shows under the driver's own name or as the bare ID, by default only once the profile holds a value.

The group names are fairly new. Release 3.0.1.11 (April 2026) reworked the setting names, and its notes describe "new groups and ai generated descriptions". Any guide older than that shows a different layout from the one on your screen.

Group names and entry counts come from the 3.0.2.1 CustomSettingNames.xml.

Group in the tool	Entries in 3.0.2.1	What it controls	Settings worth knowing	Full guide
01 - Compatibility	4	Compatibility bits that let forced AA and AO work in DX9 and DX1x games	Antialiasing - Compatibility (DX9), Ambient Occlusion - Compatibility (bitfield, no value list)	Covered in the AA and sharpening guide
02 - Sync and Refresh	20	Frame caps, V-Sync, G-SYNC, the low latency queue	Frame Rate Limiter V3, Ultra Low Latency - Enabled, Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames	frame cap, low latency
03 - Antialiasing and Sharpening	14	Driver MSAA, FXAA, transparency AA, sharpening	Sharpening Filter - Enabled, Antialiasing - Transparency Supersampling	AA and sharpening
04 - Texture Filtering	12	Anisotropic filtering, LOD bias, filtering quality	Texture Filtering - Quality, Anisotropic Filtering - Mode, Anisotropic Filtering - Setting	Covered in the LOD bias and texture filtering guide
05 - Upscaling and Frame Generation	30	DLSS Super Resolution, Ray Reconstruction, Frame Generation and Multi Frame Generation overrides, Smooth Motion	DLSS - Forced Preset Letter, Smooth Motion - Enable	force a DLSS preset or DLAA
06 - Rendering Features	16	RTX HDR, RTX Dynamic Vibrance, DXR and Vulkan ray tracing switches, Ansel, ambient occlusion	RTX HDR - Enable, Ambient Occlusion - Setting	RTX HDR and Dynamic Vibrance
07 - System, Memory and Compute	19	Shader cache, Resizable BAR, power mode, threaded optimization, CUDA, PhysX, OpenGL entries	Shader Cache - Cache Size, rBAR - Enable, Power Management - Mode	shader cache, ReBAR, power and CUDA

The wider Reference.xml file adds two more groups, 08 - SLI and NVLINK and 10 - OpenGL. With one graphics card in the PC, the SLI and NVLINK group has nothing to act on.

Which settings matter for your type of game?

Your game's graphics API decides which groups can touch it. DirectX 9 and 11 games respond to more driver overrides than DirectX 12 and Vulkan games, which control their own frame queue.

Competitive shooters such as Fortnite and Counter-Strike 2 also get their own setting pages. Driver profile edits never touch game files, yet only the publisher rules on bans, as whether driver tweaks are safe in online games explains.

Check the API in the game's graphics menu or on PCGamingWiki, then find the matching game type in the table.

Game type	Groups that matter	What does not apply
DirectX 12 or Vulkan game	02 frame cap; 05 DLSS and Smooth Motion entries	Ultra Low Latency and pre-rendered frames (the game decides the queue)
DirectX 9 or 11 game	01 compatibility bits, 03 AA, 04 anisotropic filtering, 02 latency rows (see low latency guide)	Every group can apply
OpenGL game	Triple Buffering (with V-Sync), the OpenGL entries in 07 (Extension Limit (OGL), Version Override (OGL), Shader Cache - Enabled (OpenGL)), Texture Filtering - LOD Bias (OGL)	DirectX-only entries such as Trilinear Optimization
DirectX 12 game with shader stutter	07 Shader Cache - Pre-compile Shader Options	The first launch of a new game still compiles shaders

Does NVIDIA Profile Inspector increase FPS?

NVIDIA Profile Inspector does not raise FPS by itself; FPS rises only when a changed row cuts GPU work or adds generated frames in a game that supports it. NVIDIA Profile Inspector settings only change driver values.

Videos and Reddit posts promise big gains from long tweak lists. In practice, four things can move the FPS counter:

• Texture Filtering - Quality at High performance (0x00000014).
• The DLSS mode and preset, which the DLSS override guide shows how to force. A lower render resolution gives the GPU less work per frame.
• Power Management - Mode at Prefer maximum performance on the game profile, which helps only in GPU-bound games.
• Smooth Motion, which adds generated frames on supported cards. It runs on RTX 40 and 50 cards, so check yours before you turn on Smooth Motion for frame generation.

Latency rows change how fast the game responds, not the counter. A frame cap lowers FPS on purpose. Power and filtering rows do nothing when the CPU holds the game back.

Measure the same scene before and after each change with any FPS counter you trust. If the number does not move, undo the change and keep the profile clean.

Settings to leave alone and why

Some NVIDIA Profile Inspector settings only track a Control Panel state, draw a debug overlay or serve hardware you do not have. Skip the entries in the table, because changing them does nothing useful in a game.

Entry	Hex ID	Why leave it	If you changed it
Ultra Low Latency - CPL State	0x0005F543	Only mirrors the Control Panel; the working switch is Ultra Low Latency - Enabled	Off
Triple Buffering	0x20FDD1F9	NVIDIA's help calls it an OpenGL setting that improves performance when V-Sync is also on, so NVIDIA documents no effect in DirectX games	Off
Debug and indicator overlays: Flip Indicator, Multi-Plane Overlay Indicator, GSYNC - Indicator Overlay, GSYNC - Support Indicator Overlay, Antialiasing - FXAA Indicator Overlay, PhysX - Indicator Overlay	0x002CF156, 0x00A88888, 0x10029538, 0x008DF510, 0x1068FB9C, 0x1094F16F	On-screen markers for checking a feature, not for play	Off or Disabled (Flip Indicator uses Disabled; for PhysX, Off is 0x34534064)
Smooth Motion - Debug Bars, Smooth Motion - Debug Log Level	0xB01B8B02, 0xB053C379	Diagnostics only; see the Smooth Motion guide	Off
Vertical Sync - Smooth AFR Behavior	0x101AE763	Only for multi-GPU AFR setups	Off
Texture Filtering - LOD Bias Auto-Adjust (for SGSSAA)	0x00638E8F	Acts only when sparse grid supersampling is on	Off
rBAR - Enable on the global profile	0x000F00BA	The README asks for profile-specific changes	Disabled
Power Management - Mode at Prefer maximum performance on a laptop's global profile	0x1057EB71	Keeps the GPU at full speed for every program, which drains a laptop's battery	Adaptive, 0x00000000
WKS_MEMORY_ALLOCATION_POLICY_ID	None (raw driver name)	A user reports it is gone after 2.4.0.9	Single user report, issue #321, no maintainer reply

ReBAR belongs on one game at a time, and the ReBAR guide shows how to force it there.

Hidden and unknown settings in Profile Inspector

NVIDIA hidden settings are driver profile entries the Control Panel never shows. Profile Inspector exposes them, and the README warns that many are experimental, deprecated, tied to one driver version or undocumented by NVIDIA.

The filter button next to search (tooltip "Filter setting and value sources") lets you add sources beyond Common (CSN): Driver API, Driver Constants, Reference and Predefined Scan. The 115 named settings are the Common (CSN) source. The other sources add many more, shown by hex ID or a raw driver name, often with little or no description. Hidden rows also appear inside existing profiles, which is why a familiar game can show extra entries you never set.

Leave a row with no description alone unless you know exactly what it does. When a forum post tells you to change one of these secret settings, ask where the value came from. If you still want to try, export a backup first, test it on one game and undo it if nothing changes.

CustomSettingNames.xml and Reference.xml

CustomSettingNames.xml gives the common settings their names, groups, value lists and descriptions. Reference.xml holds a wider reference that adds the SLI and NVLINK and OpenGL groups.

Both files ship with the tool. You never need to download, replace or edit either one to use a value here. When a guide quotes a hex ID or a value code, these two files are where the tool gets it.

Minimum driver version for new settings

A missing row usually means an old driver. Each newer entry lists a minimum driver version in the XML, and on an older driver the tool hides that row.

Setting	Hex ID	Minimum driver	Group
Ultra Low Latency - Enabled	0x10835000	430.00	02
Frame Rate Limiter V3	0x10835002	441.87	02
Sharpening Filter - Enabled	0x00598928	441.87	03
Smooth Motion - Enable	0xB0D384C0	571.86	05
PhysX - Enable 32-bits GPU Acceleration (RTX 50)	0x5067ECC4	591.44	07
Shader Cache - Pre-compile Shader Options	0x00EAD189	595.97	07
0x000BFA21, not named in 3.0.2.1 (rBAR - Enable v2 in newer settings files)	0x000BFA21	616.56	07

Install a current Game Ready driver first, then open the tool again. Values that change back on their own after an update are a different problem, covered under values that change back after a driver update.

Old v2 setting names and their v3 names

A 2.4-era guide still works if you match settings by hex ID. The hex ID is what the driver uses, so it stays the same when the label changes.

The 2.4.0.9 named list had six active groups: 1 Compatibility, 2 Sync and Refresh, 3 Antialiasing, 4 Texture Filtering, 5 Common and 6 SLI. The old 5 - Common catch-all split three ways. DLSS and Smooth Motion went to group 05. RTX HDR, ray tracing, ambient occlusion and Ansel went to 06. Shader cache, rBAR, threaded optimization, power, CUDA, the PhysX indicator and the OpenGL entries went to 07. No 3D Vision stereo entries are in the current named list.

The old names come from the settings file at tag 2.4.0.9.

Old name (2.4.0.9)	Hex ID	Name now	Group now
rBAR - Feature	0x000F00BA	rBAR - Enable	07
Shadercache - Cachesize	0x00AC8497	Shader Cache - Cache Size	07
Shadercache - Enabled	0x00198FFF	Shader Cache - Enabled	07
Ansel - Enabled	0x1075D972	NVIDIA Ansel - Enabled	06
Texture Filtering - Driver Controlled LOD Bias	0x00638E8F	Texture Filtering - LOD Bias Auto-Adjust (for SGSSAA)	04

FAQ

Conclusion

Pick one goal from the table, set its row on the game's own profile, click Apply Changes and play a normal session before you judge the result. A row that moves nothing goes back to its undo value, and entries with no description stay at default. If DLSS is the lever you want for frame rate, learn what each DLSS preset letter means before you force one.