ok so i got me a new PC and i havent really played games on PC in a VERY long time, my question is, before starting a game how do i know which quality settings to go with? and whether to turn on v-sync or not and the frame rate. would be cool if i got some help on this. i just installed tomb raider and i want to get the best out of my PC

anyways here are my pc specs

core i7 3770k 3.41 ghz

GTX 660 2GB DDR5

8GB ram 1600 mhz

What.

the video card memory

well well... try it out I'd say.

Get Fraps (demo/limited version) and you're going to see the FPS in one of your corners.
There's usually a button in every game that analyzes your specs and automatically selects the "best" ones. Though you'd still be better off doing it manually once you know what you're doing.

V-Sync is only really helpful if your FPS jumps too often. I'd say disable it and only enable it If you notice screen tearing.

With those specs you can shove nearly every game onto its highest settings at 1920x1080 resolution (1080p). There are a few exceptions (Crysis 3, Tomb Raider you may need to drop TressFX, Witcher 2 has a setting designed for dual GPUs etc.) but usually it only means dropping a couple of settings down to "High" instead of "Ultra High". Most games should run fine though.

Also, I've noticed a few games have a benchmarking tool (Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite and Arkham City come to mind) which you can use to test your performance. Using my 7870 (only slightly more powerful than your GPU I think) most games fall between 30-60fps on the highest graphics settings.

Oh, and anti-aliasing, I normally don't bother going over 4xMSAA as I can't tell the difference at higher settings. Also, 2x SMAA (newer anti-aliasing technique) achieve similar results but will have less of a performance penalty than MSAA.

In conclusion, nearly every modern PC game you play will look spectacular and play smoothly.

Unless you have 4k monitor, you should be able to run max everything (tho V-sync and #xAA changes from game to game).

i think there is a problem with my PC, i was trying it out, and at high settings, with res of around 720P would the game only run, and it was obvious it wasnt at 30FPS, there was also problems with the water texture. 

then ther is obviiously something wrong, because it was at barely running at high settings with 720P res

Hmm no idea why.  Overall your system looks better than mine, and mine shouldn't have a problem with TR.

thanks, ill check out the benchmark you gave me. though my 660 isnt Ti, its the standerd one.