It supports multiple profiles, rumble feedback, and chorded input, which allows for more commands than the number of buttons would normally permit. Xpadder emulates a mouse and keyboard with the buttons and directional thumbpad of your game controller. The answer here is a program called Xpadder. Sure, you can get by with WASD and the spacebar, but it’s not 1992 anymore, so you shouldn’t be forced to just get by when you’ve got that shiny, $60 wireless gamepad sitting two feet away. Platformers and bullet-hell titles are a perfect example of this. The other side of the problem happens mostly with casual Web or Flash games, many of which would do well to implement gamepad controls. Key assignments are visually displayed during setup, including a useful row of media player controls on the top row. It also provides a handy configuration window that allows more calibration and customization than many native drivers do. Doing the job Microsoft should have done, x360ce intercepts and translates XInput calls so that DirectInput controllers can understand them. The free and open-source x360ce project was designed to address these problems. Moreover, good Xbox controllers aren’t cheap. While Xbox-style controllers for Windows are satisfactory, many gamers prefer classic, high-quality Saitek designs, and have even mastered their ergonomics. With the introduction of the XInput API along with the Xbox 360, the company rendered all previous Windows gaming controllers obsolete by making XInput incompatible with the previous DirectInput API. Microsoft is partially to blame for this mess. Most controllers already have profiles available for automatic download to x360ce, requiring little user intervention. It’s equally easy to come across a stunning indie game only to find a horrendous and unalterable keyboard control layout, dictated by programming or browser platform restrictions. ![]() Due to crummy console ports, Flash limitations, Windows API changes, and more, it’s easy to buy an expensive gamepad only to find it doesn’t work with half your game library, despite being expressly designed for Windows. You’d think for developers this would be a given, considering how long PC gaming has been around, but that isn’t the case. No matter how fast your system is, you can’t game properly without precise, reliable controllers. MSI Afterburner may not be the most feature-laden overclocking tool, but that makes it easier to use. You won’t get the details provided by the other utilities here, but you won’t find the more focused, no-nonsense approach Afterburner takes with those others either. You’ll find voltage, core, and shader clock controls, memory speeds, and fan settings, along with profile presets, startup options, and a videocard hardware monitor. The controls here are much simplified, dressed up with gray gradients and green glowing boxes for the sake of appearance, but the basics are well-represented. MSI Afterburner is designed to work with MSI’s own products, but in actuality it works with most modern hardware. Platform-agnostic users have MSI’s venerable Afterburner utility to tweak their card collection. Like OverDrive, Nvidia Inspector is free. ![]() Moreover, monitoring tools display a running graph of input from card sensors in real time-very useful when troubleshooting problems. This straightforward approach means everything from driver options to crazy clock speeds are in easy reach, controlled by simple sliders. It also doesn’t stay resident in memory once your changes are made. This package takes a different tack from older video card utilities, eschewing the system tray for a simple, extensible-pane interface that puts information and card controls front and center. Hardware controls are front and center in overclocking utility Nvidia Inspector.įor Nvidia aficionados, there’s Nvidia Inspector. If you’re running an AMD rig, this one-stop application is a must for system-tuning. OverDrive is also the quickest and easiest way to disable Cool and Quiet downclocking technology when you’re looking for consistent performance or high-clock-speed stability. Nice touches include fan controls, a simple benchmark, and a burn-in stability test. The AMD OverDrive utility not only replicates the OverDrive clocking controls built into Catalyst drivers, it also provides a full range of BIOS-style CPU speed, voltage, and system controls unified in a tabbed window. ![]() Although many utilities to tweak graphics cards exist, three in particular are worth a closer look.įeature-laden AMD OverDrive is a powerful overclocker.ĪTI stalwarts have AMD to thank in recent years for stepping up factory support for overclocking virtually every aspect of system operation. When overclocked, most video cards push past their posted limits with ease and offer better gains than CPU boosts when it comes to gaming. But there’s a cheaper way to squeeze performance out of your aging system: overclocking.
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