How to Disable Anti-Aliasing With NVIDIA

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No matter how advanced they appear, all computer graphics ultimately consist of pixels. Because of the square shape of pixels, seemingly curved and diagonal lines are actually made up of tiny staircase-shaped groups of pixels, making them appear jagged. Anti-aliasing blurs the pixels around such lines, reducing the rough appearance. This comes at a cost in processing power, which may degrade other graphical performance. The NVIDIA Control Panel allows users to disabling anti-aliasing, reallocating the video card's power elsewhere.

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Step 1

Right-click the Windows desktop and select "NVIDIA Control Panel" on the pop-up menu to open the settings window. If the option does not appear on the menu, open it from within Windows Control Panel instead by clicking the "Start" button and selecting "Control Panel."

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Step 2

Click "Manage 3D Settings" in the left-hand panel. The Manage 3D Settings options will open in the right panel, starting on the Global Settings tab.

Step 3

Locate the "Antialiasing - Mode" listing in the settings window. By default, this option will read "Application-controlled." On this setting, your video card will obey whatever anti-aliasing options you set within each program. Click on "Application-controlled" and change the setting to "Off."

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Step 4

Click the "Program Settings" tab to modify the anti-aliasing setting for specific programs. Options set in this tab will override both the global setting and any settings made within the program's own options.

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Step 5

Pick a program to modify from the list of applications or add a new program to the list by pressing "Add" and identifying the program's executable file.

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Step 6

Modify the Antialiasing - Mode option for the specific program. You can use this method to allow a single program to use anti-aliasing while leaving the global setting off, or you can disable a single program's anti-aliasing without changing the global setting.

Step 7

Click "Apply," then close the NVIDIA Control Panel.

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