SM 3.0 or AA? (nvidia users)

akirru · 7 Nov 2006 at 17:51

What do you use most?

I hate jaggies but I also like to have all the good stuff on, and I'm left with a choice in games like Call Of Juarez. Either AA or SM 3.0 effects which make the game look a lot better imo.

Is there no physical way of the G7 series ever doing both like the x1900 series?

Alexrose1uk · 7 Nov 2006 at 18:00

Nvidia cannot do HDR+AA at the same time, as the hardware is incapable of doing so. The best they may ever come up with would be some kind of emulation, but I wouldnt wait on it, as there focus will have shifted from the seven series now.

Kmodo · 7 Nov 2006 at 18:07

akirru said:
What do you use most?

I hate jaggies but I also like to have all the good stuff on, and I'm left with a choice in games like Call Of Juarez. Either AA or SM 3.0 effects which make the game look a lot better imo.

Is there no physical way of the G7 series ever doing both like the x1900 series?

bud I admit its very nice to be able to do it but at my 1680 by 1050 res the frame hit is massive. trust. I play with the jaggies multiplayer as the games is norm so quick you dont notice, but single player I played with both AA and HDR on but my frames were, at times very low indeed. Being a GRAW player and turning AA on FEAR combat off to get max frames i have got used to jaggies

LoadsaMoney · 7 Nov 2006 at 18:36

Well seen as HDR is not part of SM3.0, i don't understand the question, as Nvidia cards can do SM3.0 with AA. :confused:

Naffa · 7 Nov 2006 at 18:43

What are you asking? :confused:

By SM3.0 do you mean HDR?

lay-z-boy · 7 Nov 2006 at 18:50

akirru said:
What do you use most?

I hate jaggies but I also like to have all the good stuff on, and I'm left with a choice in games like Call Of Juarez. Either AA or SM 3.0 effects which make the game look a lot better imo.

Is there no physical way of the G7 series ever doing both like the x1900 series?

7xxx can only do 24 bit hdr, not 32 bit so cannot do it with aa.

8xxx can however.

your getting sm3 mixed up with hdr and also there are a few versions of hdr, full and semi versions, i.e. source engine uses semi and oblivion uses full, explaining why you can have aa and hdr on css/hl2 but not on oblivion.

LoadsaMoney · 7 Nov 2006 at 18:50

Nvidia cards can do HDR+AA at the same time, hence why they do it in HL2.

Bah bugger i was beaten.

Naffa · 7 Nov 2006 at 18:59

lay-z-boy said:
7xxx can only do 24 bit hdr, not 32 bit so cannot do it with aa.

I think you mean they can do 16bit HDR with MSAA?

Darkwave · 7 Nov 2006 at 19:06

naffa said:
I think you mean they can do 16bit HDR with MSAA?

I thought it was the X1800/X1900 Series that can do 16bit HDR (FP16) with antialiasing, and not Nvidia.

Edit: Nope, just checked. I think the HDR in Far Cry and Oblivion etc. is 64-bit? :confused:

Argh confusing.

lay-z-boy · 7 Nov 2006 at 19:08

naffa said:
I think you mean they can do 16bit HDR with MSAA?

Im not 100% sure, im taking this off the top of my mind.

I dont spend all my time bumming gpu specs

Darkwave · 7 Nov 2006 at 19:10

It's okay, I confirmed it. It's 64-bit HDR that the X1K can do with AA.

Rroff · 7 Nov 2006 at 19:13

my 7950GX2 can't do HDR and AA in farcry at the same time - I generally turn on HDR coz it looks cool and turn off FSAA as I play at such a high-res its not hugely noticeable...

However I'm not sure what kind of HDR is implemented in half-life 2 games it seems a hack job at best - but I can do full HDR and FSAA in lost coast and get almost 300fps steady.

Naffa · 7 Nov 2006 at 19:16

Something wrong there then, Nvidia cards can render FarCry HDR+MSAA as it's fp16 HDR.

lay-z-boy · 7 Nov 2006 at 19:18

his gx2 is just ghey then

Naffa · 7 Nov 2006 at 19:19

Ulfhedjinn said:
It's okay, I confirmed it. It's 64-bit HDR that the X1K can do with AA.

I'm pretty sure no game uses 64-bit HDR.. But if you've read a review or something then I'm probally wrong.

PinkFloyd · 7 Nov 2006 at 19:25

naffa said:
Something wrong there then, Nvidia cards can render FarCry HDR+MSAA as it's fp16 HDR.

You sure about that? (any sources?)

Certainly can't get both working on my rig....

Darkwave · 7 Nov 2006 at 19:27

naffa said:
I'm pretty sure no game uses 64-bit HDR.. But if you've read a review or something then I'm probally wrong.

Read it in some specs on the PowerColor website, I'll dig up the link again if I can find it.

PinkFloyd said:
You sure about that? (any sources?)

Certainly can't get both working on my rig....

Yeah I thought only X1K cards could do HDR+AA in Far Cry too. :confused:

Naffa · 7 Nov 2006 at 19:30

I'm pretty sure, I'll have a look round for you.

Naffa · 7 Nov 2006 at 19:34

Not sure what Ansio means and if it relates to AA/AF at all, but I found this.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/quality_vs_quantity_9.html

Not what I was looking for, but I'll keep on to find the exact article I read.

Darkwave · 7 Nov 2006 at 19:36

Neoseeker said:
ATI have developed the X1000 Series to run at a (relative) minor performance cost with not only full 64 bit HDR enabled, but also multisampled Anti Aliasing turned on, or their new Adaptive AA. This means that you no longer will have to sacrifice HDR for Anti Aliasing or vice versa. This will surely be a selling point for the new cards whether they clobber Nvidia's offerings in raw performance or not.

Just hunted around for information about HDR by the way, and found this quote in a review on Neoseeker.

naffa said:
Not sure what Ansio means and if it relates to AA/AF at all

Aniso = Anisotropic Filtering (AF), texture filtering/sharpening.