FXAA, MSAA and TXAA

[Knoxx29]

Hi lads.

Quick question.

Is it necessary to use all three AA, FXAA, MSAA and TXAA at the same time?

Some people say that if you use TXAA there's no need to use MSAA and if you keep it on should be set at ×2.

 

[Recon-UK]

TXAA looks like shit.
FXAA when implemented well looks good.
MSAA is a good one but you need 8xMSAA depending on the game.
SSAA is superior to everything.
DSR makes things blurry.

 

[RejZoR]

Actually DSR doesn't make everything blurry, you just need to decrease the filter it uses in NV CP. I don't get it why NVIDIA defaults to 33%. I usually use 20% or even down to 10%. But I mostly don't use it at all because it doesn't run at 144Hz...

There is also SMAA which is actually superior to all of them on average. Superior filtering with minimal performance impact. For some reason hardly anyone uses it. I have no clue why. WHat I'm even more surprised is why AMD only offers MLAA, NVIDIA only FXAA. Why can't both provide FXAA, MLAA and SMAA as selectable option in control panel? Instead, you're forced to use injectors like SweetFX to use SMAA which frankly sucks and risks you getting banned from MP servers. Plus it's clumsy to use.

 

[Knoxx29]

TXAA looks like shit.
FXAA when implemented well looks good.
MSAA is a good one but you need 8xMSAA depending on the game.
SSAA is superior to everything.
DSR makes things blurry.

Doesn't it depends on your monitor too?

 

[RejZoR]

Not really. It of course looks better when applied to screen of larger resolution, but 1080p is a standard now and it looks great. Only DSR is really affected by resolution when using odd multipliers which make things blurry. Using 2x or 4x mode on 1080p gives rather good results.

 

[Knoxx29]

Not really. It of course looks better when applied to screen of larger resolution, but 1080p is a standard now and it looks great. Only DSR is really affected by resolution when using odd multipliers which make things blurry. Using 2x or 4x mode on 1080p gives rather good results.

I have a monitor 2560 x 1440 144Hz

 

[rtwjunkie]

TXAA looks like shit.
FXAA when implemented well looks good.
MSAA is a good one but you need 8xMSAA depending on the game.
SSAA is superior to everything.
DSR makes things blurry.

Actually it's FXAA that looks like shit no matter what. It has the least impact on your system, that's why it is popular.

FXAA waits until the entire scene is processed and then throws a coating of blur on the whole scene, not just jagged edges. That's how it works, and hardly what you want to see if you've got an expensive system that made that whole scene look awesome, before FXAA got involved.

 

[Vayra86]

For me personally, it's SSAA x4 if I can push it, SMAA only if it looks really, really good (well implemented, depends on engine alot), and if those are both problematic I run without AA and accept jaggies.

I hate blurry shit. MSAA x8 looks OK but is a huge perf hit, close enough to SSAA x4 (forceable from NVCP) and just a bit lacking in some ways. I always prefer SSAAx4 above MSAA x8. All or nothing tbh. It's the same with FPS: I want consistency above all else. If I can't comfortably push 100+ fps, I lock the game at 60.

To answer your original question: pick one, and see whatever you like best.

DSR introduces a slew of other issues, including UI that scales down so far that you can't read it, and on my monitor it always screws up the blacks and gamma altogether - I get a greyish hue across the entire image. Maybe related to it being 120hz refresh. In addition, DSR heavily impacts input lag - AA does not.

When I was looking closely at SSAA perf impact, it actually isn't all that bad. 25-30% performance loss at x4 on average.

 

[Drone]

None of them should be used together. Basically it's all about FXAA and SSAA.

FXAA (post processing method) is an approximated algorithm which goes easy on gpu, it's good for weak machines and gives good results.

SSAA is brute-force algorithm, hence maximum load and best results. Choosing maximum SSAA is overkill.

MLAA is better than FXAA but uses little bit more recourses (it takes aa weight from gpu's shoulders and puts it on cpu). However, it gives a sharper picture.

 

[Knoxx29]

To answer your original question: pick one, and see whatever you like best.

That's what i do, each of you has different preferences so it's hard to decide from your advices which one would be better, I would like something with minimal performance impact but at the same time with good quality picture.

 

[P4-630]

Actually it's FXAA that looks like shit no matter what.

Well it probably depends on the game then, since I use it in GTA V on my gaming laptop and it takes away all jagged edges and it looks great on that laptop!

 

[Knoxx29]

Could someone confirm this:

For nvidia users MSAA should be set to x2 and TXAA on.

Also, if you've got a compatible Nvidia video card you should turn on MFAA in the control panel. You'll get 4x MSAA quality at 2x MSAA performance. I got a pretty big frame rate boost.

Well it probably depends on the game then,

I play Titanfall.

 

[P4-630]

Could someone confirm this:

For nvidia users MSAA should be set to x2 and TXAA on.

Also, if you've got a compatible Nvidia video card you should turn on MFAA in the control panel. You'll get 4x MSAA quality at 2x MSAA performance. I got a pretty big frame rate boost.


I play Titanfall.

I don't own that game, but I did notice using TXAA makes things worse in GTA V, I only use MSAA x4 and FXAA , + x4 Reflection MSAA in GTA V which looks great at GTA V @60fps.

I guess you just have to test it out for yourself in every game.

 

[RejZoR]

SMAA actually has slightly higher performance hit than FXAA, but doesn't affect textures or text much and doesn't cause MLAA's corner rounding (which is the reason which ruins text). Which is why it's so baffling no one uses SMAA. Why not?! Performance hit is smaller than 2x MSAA while delivering like 16x anti-aliasing in most cases. Rarely it fails to smooth things, usually if scenes are very bright as whole.

I'd gladly see FXAA being replaced with SMAA in NVIDIA Control Panel.

 

[Knoxx29]

Normally i don't touch my Game's video settings i optimize it with Geforce experience, but this time i wanted to try some different settings, btw, i have enabled MFAA in Nvidia control panel and i got a big FPS boost (30 FPS) after that i have switched from MSAA to TXAA x4 and been honest i have noticed that i can play without MSAA enable or i can use MSAA x4 + MFAA, with both settings my FPS are 85fps/90fps instead 60 FPS that i was getting when using just MSAA x8 enable.

 

[RejZoR]

MSAA knows where edges are and is more precise, filtering all of them without exceptions, but doesn't work with all games and is more taxing because of that.

MFAA enhances MSAA modes by alternating filtering grid pattern between frames and then merging them, effectively doubling the visual efficiency of MSAA at nearly no performance hit. AMD (ATi back then) had similar feature called TAA (Temporal AA) which alternated sample grid between frames as well, but was just outputting them directly without mergin and it was framerate dependent. If framerate was too low, edges started flickering. MFAA afaik is immune to this issue.

TXAA/MSAA/SMAA/FXAA/MLAA modes are post-process fiters that have to roughly figure out where edges are with various edge detection algorithms. Because of that, they are significantly cheaper, but less accurate and may soften image if they misdetect edges location and filter a non edge "surface". Or they simply use very primitive technique which almost has no performance hit, but makes image blurry as whole (FXAA for example).

 

[Knoxx29]

(FXAA for example).

+1
I tested FXAA even knowing that it's shit and as you said was blurry, for me as i have mentioned before MFAA in NCP + TXAA x4 or MFAA + MSAA x 4 work great.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

I've been disappointed with all AA techniques since dx10 showed up. Feels like the simple 16x/16xQ stuff worked far better than what we have today. Nowadays I barely see a difference and even the most taxing settings leave jaggies everywhere.

 

[Knoxx29]

Nowadays I barely see a difference and even the most taxing settings leave jaggies everywhere.

Perfection doesn't exist.

 

[Toothless]

What about CSAA? Anyone know about that?

 

[Knoxx29]

What about CSAA? Anyone know about that?

running 8xCSAA gives you comparable image quality to 4xMSAA and may provide a performance boost depending on your card/game.

 

[Toothless]

running 8xCSAA gives you comparable image quality to 4xMSAA and may provide a performance boost depending on your card/game.

So 32xCSAA is just 16xMSAA? I might have to try 64xCSAA since NVIDIA gives me that option.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Personaly I have found out that the best AA is the one called TSSAA, then SMAA. Those are the ones without performance impact and best quality.

The TXAA junk is basically 4xMSAA+FXAA.

 

[Knoxx29]

So 32xCSAA is just 16xMSAA?

That's right but 32 x CSAA would be slightly more performance hit than 16XMSAA.

TSSAA, then SMAA.

I have thought the same until last night.

 

[Prima.Vera]

I have thought the same until last night.

What do you mean?
The AA in DOOM is the best I have experienced in a game except the SSAAx8 which is still the best ever exists but kills all your performance.