How do you calibrate your monitor and GPU?

[Lector87]

Looks like I might be getting a new monitor soon, which has sparked my recurring curiosity about how exactly you are supposed to calibrate the darn things. I admit to being totally mystified by the interplay of brightness, contrast, gamma, etc.

So what do you do with a new display? Do you adjust the monitor settings AND the settings in your graphics driver software? What do you consider satisfactory?

Do you fiddle at all with your GPU settings? Do you overclock? When, why, and how?

I realize that the color settings and the GPU settings are very different animals - they are just two things I do not REALLY understand, and are a big part of a game looking good.

I'm not a big tech guy. I just want my games to run smooth and look pretty.

[Hunter Noventa]

Brightness, Contrast and Gamma are pretty subjective, I find I adjust them differently in different place. My monitors at work are setup differently from the ones I have at home, due to them being different models, being under different light conditions, etc. The physical settings of your monitor like that re really about what's comfortable for you given your environment and your eyes.

As for the GPU, i've never tweaked mine all that much directly, other than to adjust when the fans actually turn on with my latest card. but I also don't play super graphically intense cutting edge games, and my monitors are old enough that they're still only 1080p.