Well im looking at ATI graphic cards. Having been an Nvidia user for most of my life. The GeForce 7 series can do up to 8x AA and the 8800 Series supposedly up to 16x What i would like to know is how high AA the HD 2x00 or HD 3x00 cards can do?
as far as i know the 3800 cand do 8x AA single card and 24x crossfirex...and the 2900 can do the same..but the 3800 can do AA better then the 2900...the 3800 doesn't take a big hit when you enable AA like the 2900 does..
24xAA with 2900 single card and addition to that: 24xAA + temporal and + adaptative.. ( available in the CCC, this will not say of course you will don't have a big impact in games with the max level of AA) 3 AA mode: Box (the most used): 2x-> 8x AA Narrow tent: 2x to 12x Wide tent: 2x to 16x Edge detect: 2x 12x ->24x I don't like the narrow and wide tent, it can give a blur on some games with texture.. ( it's perhaps fixed now, not really try it more of that.) Box is fine, you don't have the blur, but 24x AA is a bit too much high for many last games if you don't have a crossfire setup. Personnally i let in most games, 8x AA, and 12xAA edge detect. no need for more, and specially with some last games and depending the graphic engine use, you should use controlled appliccation, and so you will rarely see a games have an higer setup of 8x AA.
r6xx: Anti-Aliasing Modes Standard: 2xAA 4xAA 8xAA comments: These are the standard Multisampling AA modes. They've been around for a while now. CFAA: <=16xCFAA comments: These modes are actually a combination of any one of the standard modes above and an added filter(narrow, wide tent). Depending on the filter, it will blur the scene a bit. Edge Detect: 24xAA(ed) comments: Detects edges and applies AA to them. Must be used in conjunction with a standard MSAA mode above like CFAA. Adaptive Anti-Aliasing: Performance Quality comments: Applies AA to Alpha textures used in many games. It had 2 modes. Performance and quality. Performance used a bit of Super Sampling which cleaned up alpha texture Aliasing. Quality mode used mostly Super sampling to clean up alpha texture aliasing. It is much more performance hungry in games which use a lot of alpha textures. In recent AMDti drivers, these modes have been changed somewhat. Including the performance and quality options, there is also an option to select either Multisampling or Supersampling. In comparison.......... Nvidia G8x/7x Anti Aliasing Modes: Standard: 2x 4x 8x comments: Standard Multisampling RG AA modes. All 3 have been around since the Nv4x. CSAA modes: 8xCSAA 8xQCSAA 16xCSAA 16xQCSAA comments: These modes combine one of the standard modes above with an added coverage sample. The higher the level of CSAA, the more coverage is taken. The Quality(Q) CSAA modes carry a higher performance hit, but the standard CSAA modes are actually quite fast and usable. The performance difference between 8xCSAA and 16xCSAA is about 1% in most situations. Hybrid MS/SS modes: 4xS (2xMSAA+2xSSAA) 8xS (old) (2xMSAA+4xSSAA) 8xS (4xMSAA+2xSSAA) 16xS (4xMSAA+4xSSAA) 32xS (8xMSAA+4xSSAA) 64xS(sli only) (8xMSAA+8xSSAA) comments: These modes are hidden and not available from within the Nvidia Control panel(8xS/4xS use to be in the CP though). They can only be enabled by third party tools like Nhancer and Rivatuner. They combine one of the standard MSAA modes above with an added Super Sampling OG AA component. They do take quite a bit of performance though. But they have an added affect on AF and Alpha textures Pure Super Sampling: 2xSSAA 4xSSAA 16xSSAA comments: These are also hidden modes on Nvidia cards. They can be enabled by third party tools like Rivatuner and Nhancer. These modes are pure Super Sampling AA modes which means they are very very performance hungry. In fact, they are pretty much unusable in every modern game. Plus, they are all Ordered Grid so they don't have near the Image Quality that the Rotated Grid Multisampling AA modes have. They do by their nature, Anti Alias alpha textures though which is a plus. And these modes also tend to have a peculiar effect on Anisotropic filtering. They seem to add more AF than what's available(>16xAF). Transparency Anti Aliasing: Multisampling Super Sampling comments: These modes apply AA to alpha textures similar to AMDTi's Adaptive modes. As like Adaptive, they require the use of any other AA mode available. Nvidia cards offer 2 modes. Multisampling is far less performance hungry but it also use to offer less Image Quality. In recent drivers though, the image quality of Multisampling now rivals the much higher IQ super sampling mode while retaining it's better performance.
If I remember correctly Super Sampling AA modes increase the resolution the game is rendered at internally, which is why AF increases as well when you use them Example 1600x1200 2xSSAA Renders the game at 3200x1200 then applies all the other filters (AF and Transparency AA) then resizes the output to 1600x1200 before it displays in on the monitor. 1600x1200 4xSSAA Renders at 3200x2400 internally. EDIT: BTW If your card can hadnle it 16xS (4xMSAA + 4xSSAA) is beautiful in older games like ut2k4
ATI's new cards (2k and 3k series) have their new Custom Filter AA with Edge Detection which is actually quite spectacular, and at a very little performance drop. What's even more interesting is that it is driver specific, meaning it can be optimized for different games. It really has a lot of potential, and in terms of image quality in general, ATI is noticibly better than nVidia's current offerings.
I wouldn't bet that on GF8 series... those tent stuff modes aren't all that great (blurry image). We had that in GF3 days with QUincunx already...
Not according to Beyond3d. The r6xx cards do have a base level 8xMSAA mode. R6xx cards also don't have the 6x mode anymore. http://www.beyond3d.com/content/reviews/47/2
I'm not sure what you think is very little. The 24xAA(ED) mode takes a rather large performance hit from what I've seen. The CFAA modes do take less performance hits, but also cause some subtle to noticeable blurring of the scene. You should realize that Nvidia's g8x cards' CSAA modes take much less performance hits as well. The performances of their 16xCSAA mode makes using their 8xCSAA mode rather moot. They also don't blur the scene in any way. Nvidia g8x cards also can do filtering to base level AA modes similar to what R6xx cards do now. Dx10 compliancy actually calls for sample manipulation by drivers/software/devs to be available. In fact, Nvidia use to emply 2 modes in older cards/drivers which used a similar blur filter with the base level AA. 2xQ 4x9-tap(hidden) Both gave better edge AA quality than normal MSAA base levels, but caused a slight to noticeable blurring of the scene. Most people hated them and was made fun of by many from the competing side. I just find it funny that that same competing side now loves it. Subjectively, IQ is pretty much even on both IHV's current hardware. Objectively, Nvidia's G8x has the better higher IQ AF. If you want to talk about pure Image Quality and no consideration for performance, then AMDTi has yet to match the IQ give by Nvidia's Hidden 16xS/32xS/64xS modes.
You've got it somewhat right. Super Sampling does increase the resolution, then resizes it back, but no AF or TAA is used. The simple effect of upsizing an image and resizing it back Anti Aliases edges and causes an added AF like effect on the whole scene. It also by it's nature cause a slight blurring of the whole scene. You can actually see this effect by using any image editing software and doing the exact same thing to an aliased image. Nvidia's Super Sampling mixed/pure modes use to cause a slight blur to the whole scene, but in recent drivers, they don't anymore.
the narrow tent CFAA is not that blurred, I think it looks more realistic at high resolutions actually. Especially combined with depth of field. It's up to personal preference though. The CFAA makes the screen slightly blurred at the pixel level because it takes samples from surrounding pixels, but it does eliminate jagged edges pretty effectively for very smooth looking picture. It does take a big hit though since it's done on the shaders. Much bigger hit than on nVidia's. funny because since the x-series ATI used to have less drop when using AA.
