OpenGL Prefs.......what do they mean?

Hello,
I have across an odd crash with my game that only happens on Nvidia Quadro Video cards.......why? I found in an earlier post dated to 2003 where someone had the same issue and they suggested to disable some openGL pref: palettedTexture. I tried that and it didn't work. So now I'm dying to know what are all these openGL pref variables and what do they mean? What should be turned off and on? Are some of these settings only supported on certain video cards? It would be nice to know these settings to optimize a person's computer.

$Pref::OpenGL::AllowCompression

$Pref::OpenGL::AllowTexGen

$Pref::OpenGL::Anisotropy

$Pref::OpenGL::CompressionHint

$Pref::OpenGL::DisableARBMultitexture

$Pref::OpenGL::DisableARBTextureCompression

$Pref::OpenGL::DisableEXTCompiledVertexArray

$Pref::OpenGL::DisableEXTFogCoord, win32 only

$Pref::OpenGL::DisableEXTPalettedTexture

$Pref::OpenGL::DisableEXTTexEnvCombine

$Pref::OpenGL::DisableSubImage

$Pref::OpenGL::Force16BitTexture

$Pref::OpenGL::ForcePalettedTexture

$Pref::OpenGL::GammaCorrection

$Pref::OpenGL::InteriorMipReduction, win32 only

$Pref::OpenGL::LightingAmbientColor

$Pref::OpenGL::MaterialAmbientColor

$Pref::OpenGL::MaterialDiffuseColor

$Pref::OpenGL::MaxHardwareLights

$Pref::OpenGL::MipReduction, win32 only

$Pref::OpenGL::NPatch

$Pref::OpenGL::NPatchLevel

$Pref::OpenGL::NoDrawArraysAlpha

$Pref::OpenGL::NoEnvColor

$Pref::OpenGL::NumFSAASamples, mac only

$Pref::OpenGL::SkyMipReduction, win32 only

$Pref::OpenGL::TextureAnisotropy

$Pref::OpenGL::TextureTrilinear

Any Ideas??????
Thx.