Power users and game aficionados are well aware that the graphics hardware on a system is one of the most important components and deserves a lot of attention. Since it is one of the system devices most prone to overclocking, there are many applications especially tailored to provide video card information and performance boosting options.
Among the utilities that aim to take care of both aspects, NVIDIA Inspector is the tool of choice for may owners of nVidia graphics cards. The application runs right out of the box, without requiring installation, so you can deploy it on any system from a portable storage device.
The interface is clearly designed for practical purposes rather than appealing visual effects, yet all the data it displays is easy to read and well structured. In a couple of moments NVIDIA Inspector scans the hardware and provides a lot of information.
With the help of this program you can view not only the GPU type, revision and card BIOS, but also details like memory type, shaders, driver version and interface. You can check out the current temperature, fan usage and speed, GPU, memory and video processing unit loads as well.
NVIDIA Inspector can accurately show you the current, GPU and default clock frequencies and also those corresponding to the memory and to the shader of each clock.
The graphics card fan can be adjusted manually, but it's probably a better idea to leave it on 'Auto' so that the unit can manage it more efficiently and avoid unnecessary stress on this particular component.
Insofar as the overclocking settings are concerned, the software allows you to select the performance level and then tinker with its advanced options. GPU, memory and shader clocks can thus be configured using their assigned sliders.
You also have to possibility to tweak the voltage settings and in case you are not satisfied with the results, simply press 'Apply Defaults'. This way you will have everything restored to the initial state of the selected overclocking level.
All in all, with NVIDIA Inspector you get a powerful tool that can read and display lots of valuable data while also providing overclocking options for advanced users. Quite easy to use, this utility is definitely one of the best choices one can make.
