Taken from the NWVault

INTRODUCTION
What follows is a guide to some of the things you can do to increase the graphical performance of Neverwinter Nights 2. Keep in mind that these are just suggestions for various things you can do and settings you can alter in order to increase the framerate. It is important to note that changing graphical settings to increase the performance can have a negative effect on the quality of the graphics. It is encouraged that you play around with the various settings in order to settle on a balance between performance and visual quality that you find agreeable.


WHAT ELSE CAN BE GOING ON?
The following are some things you can do outside of Neverwinter Nights 2 to improve its performance.

Applications running in the background: While playing Neverwinter Nights 2, having some non-critical applications also running can seriously reduce the amount of system resources available to run the game. This could be especially important to lower-end systems. A few examples could be downloading music, running other games, having a spreadsheet open, etc.

Miscellaneous Hardware: Unplugging non-critical hardware such as cell phones, bluetooth devices, controllers and external video devices can also free up resources that would otherwise be unavailable to the game.

Dual core CPUS and dual video cards: Sometimes, turning off the extra CPU or video card (SLI or Crossfire modes) can lead to an increase in performance.


SYSTEM SPECS USED
The machine used for most of this guide contains the following hardware:
Intel Pentium D 2.8GHz CPU
1GB RAM
nVidia 7800GT 256MB Video Card


THE BIG 5
The following five settings have been found to have the greatest impact on the framerate. Of course, depending on the makeup of the area that you are in, some could yield little results, or even none at all.

Resolution: Adjusts width and height of the screen. As a general rule of thumb, the smaller the resolution, the greater the framerate given the same graphical settings. However, in most cases, going below 1024x768 will not significantly increase the framerate, if at all.

Shadow Options: This setting alters the amount and type of shadows drawn. On some systems, this can have a very significant effect on the performance of the game. Changing this setting to either Low or None can double your framerate, maybe more.

Point Light Shadows: Allows shadows to be cast from point lights (torches, fires, etc.). This options only affects areas that have a significant amount of light sources. Indoors areas usually have the greatest negative impact on performance as they are more likely to be lit by torches, fires, etc. By turning this option off, it is possible to have a significant increase in your framerate.

Water Reflections and Water Refraction: Enables reflectivity and detailed refraction of water, respectively. As with the Point Light Shadows setting, these two options have varying effects depending on the area you are in. Only areas that have water in them will affect the framerate. Also, the more water you have visible on-screen will mean a greater performance drop in the framerate. Turning either or both of these off can yield a significant increase in framerate.

Normal Mapped Terrain: Enables normal mapping on terrain textures, increasing the lighting detail on terrain. Only outdoor areas are affected by this setting. Turning off this setting and can have a very noticeable effect on the framerate.


AND THE REST...
Below is a quick rundown of the possible effects the settings not listed above can have on your experience with Neverwinter Nights 2. It is important to note that depending upon the type of hardware in your system and also the design of the area you are in, some effects will be more or less noticeable than what is stated.

Texture Resolutions: Dictates which size texture set to use. There is usually a negligible difference between Low and Medium. There is, however, a small decrease in performance on High.

Draw Distance: Allows you to bring the far clip pane in closer for better performance. There isn't any remarkable difference in performance between 100 and 300. Once you start dropping below 100, that's when you can start seeing a noticeable improvement. The dramatic difference comes in around 65 and below.

Full Screen: Whether or not to play the game in Full Screen mode. Playing the game in Full Screen mode should yield a slight increase in framerate over playing in Windowed mode.

Softer Shadows: Softens the edges of shadows. No discernible difference when Shadow Options set to None or Low (as expected). Very slight drop in fps on Medium and High.

Character Shadow Map Size: Size of the shadow map used for detailed character shadows. Used for characters within a certain proximity of the camera. Also used for point light shadows. When Shadow Options is set to None or Low, there will be no difference in the framerate. When Shadow Options is set to Medium and High, a negligible difference exists between 512 and 1024. Changing this setting to 2048 can have a small impact in the framerate. Having the Point Light Shadows set to ON can greatly increase the impact of this setting, depending upon the number of point lights near the camera.

High Res. Env. Shadow Map: Size of the shadow map used for environmental objects further off in the distance. Only affects framerate when Shadow Options set to High. 2048 has a small drop in framerate. 4096, on the other hand, can drop the framerate considerably.

Low Res. Env. Shadow Map: Size of the shadow map used for environmental objects closer to the camera. Only affects framerate when Shadow Options set to High. 2048 has a negligible difference in fps. 4096 drops the framerate a little bit.

Bloom Effects: Enables "Bloom" effect which softens lighting and edges. Can have a negligible to a very slight drop in fps with most video cards.

Enable Light Sources From Party Members: When enabled, any light sources that are active on a party member will be displayed even when you aren't actively controlling that party member. When Shadow Options is set to off, this will have a negligible difference in framerate. The higher the Shadow Options setting, the greater the drop in framerate. Also, it depends on how many characters you have in your party, as well as the equipment they are wearing.

Texture Minification Filtering: Minification filtering controls how a texture is interpolated when a scene pixel maps to multiple texture pixels (i.e. the texture has less than a one-to-one correspondence with the screen). Very small difference in framerate, even when set to Anisotropic and the Maximum Texture Anisotropy (see below) is set to High.

Texture Magnification Filtering: Magnification filtering controls how a texture is interpolated when a scene pixel maps to less than one texture pixel (i.e. the texture has greater than a one-to-one correspondence with the screen). Negligible difference between Point and Linear. Anisotropic can have a very small impact on the framerate when Maximum Texture Anisotropy (see below) is set to High.

Mip-map Filtering: Mip-map filtering governs how the video card blends between two different mip-maps. Negligible difference in framerate between None, Point and Linear.

Maximum Texture Anisotropy: No difference in framerate unless either Texture Minification Filtering or Texture Magnification filtering is set to Anisotropic, at which point the difference is usually very small.

Number of Lights per Object: This setting determines the maximum number of light sources that will influence each object in the game. The difference between the available options is negligible.

EAX Settings: Sometimes, disabling EAX can improve game performance.


SUGGESTED SETTINGS
Below you will find settings that have been suggested by our testing staff for various video cards. Keep in mind that these are only suggestions for settings and that different system configurations will yield results that deviate from those indicated for a specific video card. The number shown in parentheses after the video card is the average framerate (measured in frames per second) experienced across various areas in the Neverwinter Nights 2 Campaign.

ATI 9800 256MB (20-30fps):
Shadow Options - OFF
Texture Resolutions - LOW
Normal Mapped Terrain - OFF
Point Light Shadows - OFF
Softer Shadows - OFF
Character Shadow Map Size - 512
High Res. Env. Shadow Map - 1024
Low Res. Env. Shadow Map - 1024
Bloom Effects - OFF
Enable Light Sources From Part Members - OFF
Texture Minification Filtering - POINT
Texture Magnification Filtering - POINT
Mip-map Filtering - NONE
Maximum Texture Anisotropy - LOW
Water Reflections - OFF
Water Refraction - OFF

ATI X1300 256MB (20-30fps):
Shadow Options - OFF
Texture Resolutions - LOW
Normal Mapped Terrain - OFF
Point Light Shadows - OFF
Softer Shadows - OFF
Character Shadow Map Size - 512
High Res. Env. Shadow Map - 1024
Low Res. Env. Shadow Map - 1024
Bloom Effects - OFF
Enable Light Sources From Part Members - OFF
Texture Minification Filtering - LINEAR
Texture Magnification Filtering - LINEAR
Mip-map Filtering - POINT
Maximum Texture Anisotropy - LOW
Water Reflections - OFF
Water Refraction - OFF

ATI X1600 512MB (30-40fps):
Shadow Options - LOW
Texture Resolutions - HIGH
Normal Mapped Terrain - ON
Point Light Shadows - ON
Softer Shadows - ON
Character Shadow Map Size - 1024
High Res. Env. Shadow Map - 2048
Low Res. Env. Shadow Map - 2048
Bloom Effects - ON
Enable Light Sources From Part Members - ON
Texture Minification Filtering - ANISOTROPIC
Texture Magnification Filtering - ANISOTROPIC
Mip-map Filtering - LINEAR
Maximum Texture Anisotropy - HIGH
Water Reflections - OFF
Water Refraction - ON

ATI X1900 512MB (30-40fps):
Shadow Options - LOW
Texture Resolutions - MEDIUM
Normal Mapped Terrain - ON
Point Light Shadows - ON
Softer Shadows - ON
Character Shadow Map Size - 512
High Res. Env. Shadow Map - 1024
Low Res. Env. Shadow Map - 1024
Bloom Effects - ON
Enable Light Sources From Part Members - ON
Texture Minification Filtering - LINEAR
Texture Magnification Filtering - LINEAR
Mip-map Filtering - POINT
Maximum Texture Anisotropy - LOW
Water Reflections - ON
Water Refraction - ON

nVidia 6800GT 256MB (30-40fps):
Shadow Options - LOW
Texture Resolutions - MEDIUM
Normal Mapped Terrain - OFF
Point Light Shadows - OFF
Softer Shadows - OFF
Character Shadow Map Size - 1024
High Res. Env. Shadow Map - 2048
Low Res. Env. Shadow Map - 2048
Bloom Effects - ON
Enable Light Sources From Part Members - ON
Texture Minification Filtering - ANISOTROPIC
Texture Magnification Filtering - POINT
Mip-map Filtering - POINT
Maximum Texture Anisotropy - LOW
Water Reflections - OFF
Water Refraction - OFF

nVidia 7800GT 256MB (30-50fps):
Shadow Options - LOW
Texture Resolutions - HIGH
Normal Mapped Terrain - OFF
Point Light Shadows - OFF
Softer Shadows - OFF
Character Shadow Map Size - 1024
High Res. Env. Shadow Map - 2048
Low Res. Env. Shadow Map - 2048
Bloom Effects - OFF
Enable Light Sources From Part Members - ON
Texture Minification Filtering - ANISOTROPIC
Texture Magnification Filtering - LINEAR
Mip-map Filtering - LINEAR
Maximum Texture Anisotropy - HIGH
Water Reflections - OFF
Water Refraction - OFF


CONCLUSION
Please remember that this guide you've just read is merely a starting point to better the performance of Neverwinter Nights 2 for you. As visual quality varies greatly from person to person, there will undoubtedly be settings that you may not wish to lower or turn off in order to maintain graphics that appeal to you. If you're still having trouble with performance, check out the section in the readme file entitled, "11. Contact Information and Technical Support."