How important is AA?

Eames said:
it depends on your resolution how important AA is, on high resolutions turning off AA has no discernible effect on image quality.

AF effects the quality of distant textures but does not effect textures that are near, it usually comes with little fps penalty so I generally max out this setting.
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Most games are very obvious with jagged edges even at 2560x1600.

Screen size X resolution is what needs to be taken into account.
 
I'm having a real issue atm with metro

My 27 inch monitor is 2560 which is a hard resolution to play at and metro is awkward as at very high you are very restricted at what you can and can't turn off, my crossfire setup is struggling cause I can't turn down the aa (usingdx 11 )

I've never seen a game before where you are restricted like this, let alone on a game so demanding as this
 
Well, if like me you still game at 1280x1024, then there is no point whatsoever in applying more than 4xAA and 8xAF in any game, those settings seems to be the sweet spot for visual appearance in all games at that resolution.

Also, my 1Gb 4850 seems to be able to cope with any of the games i own at those settings, giving me a nice minimum 40fps or so, in anything i throw at it, the most demanding games being GTA4 and BFBC2.

Without 4xAA and 8XAF turned on though in any game......yuk!!!, jaggies and 'flickering' textures, Battlefield 2 looks paticularly gash....
 
AA having no noticeable effect at high resolutions is simply false.

I play at 1920x1200 and the difference between having AA on or off is HUGELY noticeable. While it will be the last settings I look to ramp up and the first to ramp down when I need performance NOT having it is annoying and extremely noticeable.
 
It's the size of the pixels that defines how much you notice AA surely?

For instance, 1920x1200 spread over a 25 inch screen will have far more noticeable jaggies than on a 24 or 22 inch.

The actual resolution has nothing to do with it.
 
It sort of depends on the game too. It usually helps me in FPS, BFBC2 especially, to have at least 2x since it's easier to accurately spot someones head popping up over wall.

Some games play fine without it

That's on 1920x1200 on a 24"
 
I thing anything above 8xAA is pointless, and even then I still use 4xAA in most games. The only time I use 8xAA is if I'm getting absurdly high frame rates with 4xAA.

I always use the highest AF setting available as I'm pretty sure there is minimal or no hit on performance compared to having it off, especially with modern graphics cards.
 
id be interested on people with 27 inch monitors with 2560 resolutions opinions on this

i guess it would be similar to people playing on 22-21 or below inches with 1920
 
al4x said:
id be interested on people with 27 inch monitors with 2560 resolutions opinions on this

i guess it would be similar to people playing on 22-21 or below inches with 1920
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Slightly OT and thanks for the reponses so far, but is there a 22" 1920x1200 monitor? Or are they all 1080p?

If so I can't see any advantage over a 24" 1200p.
 
i was meaning in AA terms asking about the monitors :)

i used to have a 17in laptop with 1920x1200, that was a small dot pitch
 
I really dont understand people saying because they run 1080 etc that they dont need AA! AA is still needed at higher res's than 1080 and makes a massive difference to games, i cant game at all with any "Jaggies", especially when flying on FSX.
 
Jaggies look horrible, ruins immersion for me. I run at 1080p and I'd rather have lower setttings with AA, than no AA at all.

Crysis is an exception purely because high looks epicly better than medium with AA.
 
For me AA is just a way of soaking up a bit of excess gfx power in games where I've still got a good framerate after upping other settings (except for shadows).
 
I think the optimal AA setting is 4x (read it somewhere not sure where now).

AA because it is one of the key differentiating factors between console and PC - the ability to make our games look beautiful.

I love it personally, but many games today use engiens with deferred shading, meaning AA can be implemented quite strangely or not at all :(
 
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