best gtx 980 nvidia control panel settings

Solution
Ambient occlusion: [Quality]
Antistropic filtering: [16x or Application controlled]
Antialiasing - fxaa: [On]
Antialiasting - gamma correction: [On]
Antialiasing mode: [Application controlled]
antialiasing setting: [Application controlled]
antialiasing - transparency: [Application controlled]
CUDA - GPUS: [All]
maximum pre-rendered frames: [Application controlled]
multi-display mixed gpu acceleration: [Single display performance mode]
Power management mode: [Adaptive]
DSR [check off all the boxes]
Texture filtering - negative LOD bias: []
Texture filtering - quality: [High Quality]
Threaded optimization: [Auto]
Triple buffering: []On
Vertical sync: [Off or Adaptive]
Ambient occlusion: [Quality]
Antistropic filtering: [16x or Application controlled]
Antialiasing - fxaa: [On]
Antialiasting - gamma correction: [On]
Antialiasing mode: [Application controlled]
antialiasing setting: [Application controlled]
antialiasing - transparency: [Application controlled]
CUDA - GPUS: [All]
maximum pre-rendered frames: [Application controlled]
multi-display mixed gpu acceleration: [Single display performance mode]
Power management mode: [Adaptive]
DSR [check off all the boxes]
Texture filtering - negative LOD bias: []
Texture filtering - quality: [High Quality]
Threaded optimization: [Auto]
Triple buffering: []On
Vertical sync: [Off or Adaptive]
 
  • Like
Reactions: hastsoul334
Solution
You should absolutely use DSR. You check off all the boxes under DSR regardless. What that does is open up all the screen resolution options in your in-game settings.

Note, that if you use Quality under Ambient Occlusion, it will force HBAO+ on any game that supports the Ambient Occlusion setting for the highest graphics quality.
 
  • Like
Reactions: hastsoul334
Things like FXAA should not be forced on in the primary 3D settings, that is something that is a game by game choice, and should be set in the specific game profile.

DSR might as well be selected, all it does it give you the option to use it in game. However, smoothness is entirely a personal choice setting. Default is set to 30% I believe, but I've heard some who like 15%, others who like 20% and so on. Experiment.

HBAO+ being forced on is not generally a good idea. That should also be in your personal game profiles. That will prevent you from adjusting the setting in game, and every game I've seen who offers it, has it as a setting in game. You are better off having the choice, rather than having it forced on.

I personally have Adaptive V-sync forced on, but I have a 120hz screen, so going without V-sync at lower FPS does not result in very noticeable tearing. It also prevents any judder/stutter. For the most part, I stick with the defaults and application controlled settings, though DSR is set, as it only gives you more resolution options in games. Power management is one of the other settings you might consider setting to maximum performance if you run into games which aren't fully clocking your GPU, otherwise you can leave it as is.
 
  • Like
Reactions: hastsoul334