NVIDIA GeForce Experience DU-05620-001_v02 October 9, 2012 User Guide
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 NVIDIA GeForce Experience User Guide... 1 About GeForce Experience... 1 Installing and Setting Up GeForce Experience... 2 System Requirements... 2 General System Requirements... 2 Requirements for Driver Updates... 2 Requirements for Optimal Settings... 2 Software Installation... 2 Initial Setup... 3 About GeForce Experience... 3 Using GeForce Experience... 4 Managing Driver Updates... 4 Installing a Driver Update... 4 Getting Notified About Updates... 5 Managing Driver Updates and Notifications... 6 Managing Optimal Game Settings... 7 Scanning for Installed Games... 9 Help with Finding Your Games... 10 Applying Optimal Game Settings to Individual Games... 10 Applying Optimal Settings to All Games at Once... 11 Reverting Optimal Game Settings... 11 Managing and Automating Optimal Game Settings... 11 Playing games... 12 Sending Feedback to NVIDIA... 13 Configuring GeForce Experience... 14 Selecting Your Language... 14 Logging Events... 15 For More Information... 17 GeForce Experience FAQ... 17 List of Supported Games... 17 NVIDIA GeForce Experience DU-05620-001_v02 ii
01 NVIDIA GEFORCE EXPERIENCE USER GUIDE About GeForce Experience GeForce Experience lets you automatically achieve the best experience when running games on GeForce GPUs. It does this by connecting you to NVIDIA's cloud servers to get the latest optimal game settings and software. Optimal game settings - GeForce Experience automatically optimises your in-game settings based on your hardware configuration, giving you the optimal combination of image quality and frame rates for your PCs GPU, CPU, and display. Driver Updates - GeForce Experience automatically notifies you of driver updates and provides a simple, one-click installation, ensuring you always have the latest NVIDIA software to play your games. This document describes GeForce Experience in the following sections: Installing and Setting Up GeForce Experience on page 2 Using GeForce Experience on page 4 NVIDIA GeForce Experience DU-05620-001_v02 1
Installing and Setting Up GeForce Experience System Requirements General System Requirements Operating System: Windows Vista or Windows 7 RAM: 2 GB system memory Hard Disk space: 20 MB minimum Internet connectivity Requirements for Driver Updates GPU: Desktop GPUs: GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600 Series or higher. Notebook GPUs: GeForce 8M, 9M, 100M, 200M, 300M, 400M, 500M, 600M Series or higher. Requirements for Optimal Settings GPU: Fermi or Kepler-based GeForce 400, 500, 600 Series or higher (desktop and notebook) GPUs CPU: Intel Core i3/i5/i7 or AMD Phenom II/Athlon II/Phenom X4 or higher (desktop and notebook) CPUs Display: Any display capable of 1024x768 to 2560x1600 resolution DirectX 11 runtime must be installed. Software Installation 1 Locate the GFExperienceSetupInt.exe file and double-click it to launch the installation. 2 At the NVIDIA Software Licence Agreement page, click AGREE AND CONTINUE. The files are installed on your system as indicated by the progress bar. 3 When the NVIDIA GeForce Experience Installation is finished, click Launch to start GeForce Experience. NVIDIA GeForce Experience DU-05620-001_v02 2
Initial Setup If a driver update is found, GeForce Experience opens to the Drivers tab where you can download and install the latest driver. See Installing a Driver Update on page 4 for instructions. If no driver update is found, GeForce Experience opens to the Games tab where you can scan your system for supported games. About GeForce Experience To view version information, the licence agreement, and other policies, click the Preferences tab and then click General from the left side pane. NVIDIA GeForce Experience DU-05620-001_v02 3
Using GeForce Experience To launch GeForce Experience, double-click the GeForce Experience shortcut on your desktop, or click the GeForce Experience icon from the Windows notification tray. This section explains the following features: Managing Driver Updates on page 4 Managing Optimal Game Settings on page 7 Sending Feedback to NVIDIA on page 13 Configuring GeForce Experience on page 14 Managing Driver Updates Click the Drivers tab to manage driver updates. The Drivers tab shows: Information about the GeForce graphics driver installed on your system. Information about any new driver that might be available for your GPU. Installing a Driver Update The Updates pane shows the updates that are available for your system, based on the most recent check. When a New Driver is Available If a new driver is listed and accompanied by the Download button, then either GeForce Experience was just installed or the Automatically download driver updates tick box on the Preferences->Updates page is not ticked. Otherwise, GeForce Experience will begin downloading the driver automatically. When Your Driver is Up to Date If no updates are listed, you can force the software to check immediately for updates by clicking Check for updates. If an update is found, then GeForce Experience will begin downloading the new driver automatically, unless the Automatically download driver updates tick box on the Preferences-> Updates page is not ticked, in which case GeForce Experience will list the new driver along with the Download Driver button. NVIDIA GeForce Experience DU-05620-001_v02 4
Downloading and Installing the Driver Update 1 If necessary, click Download driver to download the driver for installation. GeForce Experience will begin downloading the driver. The activity of the progress bar shows that the update is being downloaded. You can pause, continue, or cancel the download by clicking the appropriate icon to the right of the installation progress bar. 2 After the download has completed, click Express Installation or Custom Installation to install the driver. Custom Installation lets you select which driver components to install. The activity of the progress bar shows that the driver is being installed. When completed, the NVIDIA Update window shows the installation success of each driver component. 3 When finished, click Close. Getting Notified About Updates By default, GeForce Experience notifies you when an update is available through a pop-up above the Windows notification tray. Click the pop-up to install the update using GeForce Experience. Click the X to close the pop-up without installing the update. You can open GeForce Experience later and install the update at that time. NVIDIA GeForce Experience DU-05620-001_v02 5
Managing Driver Updates and Notifications 1 To manage driver updates and notifications, open the GeForce Experience and click the Preferences tab, then click Updates from the left side pane. 2 From the Preferences->Updates page you can select: Whether or not to check for updates automatically. Tick or clear the Automatically check for updates tick box as needed. How often you want GeForce Experience to automatically download driver updates. Tick the Automatically download driver updates... tick box and then click the list arrow and select your preference. Which updates to check, including SLI, 3D Vision, and other game and program profiles. Whether to include beta drivers in the updates. Whether to be notified when updates are available through the pop-up on the Windows notification tray. Tick or clear the Notify me when updates are available check box as needed. Your preferences are applied immediately. NVIDIA GeForce Experience DU-05620-001_v02 6
Managing Optimal Game Settings Click the Games tab to manage optimal game settings. The Games tab shows: The names, icons, and optimal settings status of games that are installed on the system and supported by GeForce Experience. Icon Meaning Game is optimised Game is not optimised Game cannot be optimised or your system does not meet the minimum requirements for the game NVIDIA GeForce Experience DU-05620-001_v02 7
Settings information for each game; including the ability to launch the game, apply the optimal settings, or revert back to your previous settings. Interactive screenshots for each game which highlight select graphics features. NVIDIA GeForce Experience DU-05620-001_v02 8
Scanning for Installed Games To scan for installed games, click the refresh icon at the bottom of the list of games on the left side pane of the Games tab. To set up the software to search for games once a day automatically: 1 Click the preferences icon at the bottom of the list of games to open the Preferences tab. 2 Click Games from the left side pane, then click the Automatically scan for games daily tick box. NVIDIA GeForce Experience DU-05620-001_v02 9
Help with Finding Your Games By default, the software searches the system s Program Files and Games folders for installed games. You can add other locations that you want the software to search for installed games as follows: 1 Click the preferences icon at the bottom of the list of games to open the Preferences tab. 2 Click Games from the left side pane. 3 Under Locations, click the + icon to the right. The Windows Select Folder dialogue appears. 4 Specify the folder you want to add, then click Select Folder. The new location is added to the Locations list box. 5 To remove a folder from the list, select the folder entry from the Locations list box, then click the icon. Applying Optimal Game Settings to Individual Games 1 Select a game from the list on the left side pane that is not optimised, as indicated by the grey check mark icon. The right side pane shows the available settings, and the current and optimal values for each setting. 2 Review the proposed setting values and then click Optimise if you want to apply the optimal game settings. NVIDIA GeForce Experience DU-05620-001_v02 10
Applying Optimal Settings to All Games at Once You can optimise all games for which there are optimal settings by clicking the Optimise all icon below the list of games. Reverting Optimal Game Settings 1 Select a game from the list on the left side pane that has been optimised, as indicated by the tick mark icon. The right side pane shows the available settings, and indicates that the game is using the optimal game settings. 2 Click Revert to revert back to your previous settings. Managing and Automating Optimal Game Settings To manage how and whether optimal settings are applied, 1 Click the preferences icon at the bottom of the list of games to open the Preferences tab. 2 Click Games from the left side pane. NVIDIA GeForce Experience DU-05620-001_v02 11
3 From the Preferences->Games page you can select:. Whether or not to have GeForce Experience recommended optimal game settings. Check or clear the Recommend optimal settings check box. Whether or not to be notified when optimal settings are updated. Check the Recommend optimal settings check box, then check or clear the Notify me when optimal settings are updated check box. Whether to have GeForce Experience apply optimal settings automatically. Check the Recommend optimal settings check box, then check or clear the Automatically apply optimal setting updates check box. Whether to have GeForce Experience scan for games automatically on a daily basis and whenever settings are downloaded. Playing games You can launch games directly from GeForce Experience. To launch a game, select the game to play from the left side list, then click Launch game. NVIDIA GeForce Experience DU-05620-001_v02 12
Sending Feedback to NVIDIA The bar at the bottom of the GeForce Experience window includes a way for you to give feedback to NVIDIA. 1 Click Send feedback to open the feedback form, where you can provide feedback by selecting a feedback category and/or typing your comments directly into the Comments section. 2 After filling out the form, click Send to send your feedback to NVIDIA. NVIDIA GeForce Experience DU-05620-001_v02 13
Configuring GeForce Experience The Preferences->General page provides controls for configuring GeForce Experience. From this you can view version information, the licence agreement, and other policies. Selecting Your Language By default, the software text should match the language setup of the operating system. You can change the language as follows: 1 Click the Preferences tab, then click General from the left side pane. 2 Under Language, click the arrow and select the language you want to use, then click Set. GeForce Experience will close and need to be restarted. NVIDIA GeForce Experience DU-05620-001_v02 14
Logging Events You can configure the software to log relevant events for tracking purposes. The following events are reported: Updates checked (scheduled) Updates checked (manual) Optimal game settings downloaded Optimal game settings applied (auto) Optimal game settings applied (manual) Game scan run (scheduled) Game scan run (manual) Game found Game removed To log events, 1 Click the Preferences tab and then click General from the left side pane. 2 Check the Enable logging check box. To view events, 1 From the Preferences->General page, click Open Event Viewer. The Windows Event Viewer dialogue opens. 2 In the left pane, click Windows Logs->Applications. NVIDIA GeForce Experience DU-05620-001_v02 15
3 In the Applications pane, click Source to sort by source, then scroll to see all the NVIDIA GeForce Experience Service events. 4 Double-click an event to view the details of the event. NVIDIA GeForce Experience DU-05620-001_v02 16
For More Information GeForce Experience FAQ Visit www.geforce.com/drivers/geforce-experience/faq. List of Supported Games Visit www.geforce.com/drivers/geforce-experience/supported-games. NVIDIA GeForce Experience DU-05620-001_v02 17
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