What is Anisotropic Filtering and Antialiasing??

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Chris

Alright i am planning to update from a g4 ti 4400 to a Radeon 9800 pro so i
can finally use Anisotropic Filtering and Antialiasing. So I would like to
know a bit about the 2. What does each one do? And if i enable what kind of
performance decrease will i get and what visual ewnhancements will i get? Im
running a p4 2.6ghz with 1 gig pc 3200 ram and soon to be Radeon 9800 pro.
So i think i should be able to use these 2 settings without too much
slowdown. Anyway thanks for your time :)
 
With 4 x Antialiasing and 8 x Anistropic Filtering enabled on a 9800 pro you
will experience better frame rates and smoother game play than your current
card with none of that activated. How much better will vary. A lot of
people see a marginal increase in frame rates. But, and that is a big but,
your 3D image will be sharper and more detailed than you have ever seen it
before. Antialiasing removes the jaggies from the edges of 3D images which
are most noticeable at lower resolutions. Anistropic filtering improves the
amount of detail that you can see in the textures, not only up close but in
the distance as well. What you end up with is a more realistic and detailed
image. It works wonders on older games like Quake III, and new DX 9 games
like flight sim 2004 can be seen in all their glory as the developers had
meant them to be seen. In two words, "eye candy".

JK
 
Chris said:
Alright i am planning to update from a g4 ti 4400 to a Radeon 9800 pro so i
can finally use Anisotropic Filtering and Antialiasing. So I would like to
know a bit about the 2. What does each one do? And if i enable what kind of
performance decrease will i get and what visual ewnhancements will i get? Im
running a p4 2.6ghz with 1 gig pc 3200 ram and soon to be Radeon 9800 pro.
So i think i should be able to use these 2 settings without too much
slowdown. Anyway thanks for your time :)
Click to expand...

The best way to understand what they do is to turn them on (I always run
with 4x AA and 4x Aniso with my 9800Pro) and see for yourself how amazing
your games look. You can go to ATI's site and DL the "Chimp" and "Nature"
demos to really see what your card can do. My jaw hit my keyboard the first
time I ran "Nature". There's a lot of people that argue that AA doesn't do
anything if you run your games at high res. I disagree. I think that most of
these guys have Nvidia cards and can't enjoy AA even if they wanted to. I
run my games at 1024x768 and with 4xAA my games look fantastic, and run
faster then they did when I had my Ti-4200 with no AA. With your rig you
should be able to really enjoy your games with the eye candy set to max.
Another benefit of running a ATI card is the fact that they do 2D better
then Nvidia. You'll notice right away how much better your desktop looks.
Just make sure you remove all trace of your old Nvidia drivers. You can do
this easily by removing them through Add/Remove in control panel. Then
reboot into safe mode and do a search for nv*.* This will get what ever is
left. If you're concerned about your reg., back it up and do a reg search
for Nvidia. Remove all keys that come up.
If you want the one of the best deal's around take a look at Newegg.com.
They have the Sapphire 9800Pro OEM for $210 shipped. I have this card and
I'm very happy with it. Come back after you play around with your card and
let us know how you like it! Enjoy. JLC
 
Chris said:
Alright i am planning to update from a g4 ti 4400 to a Radeon 9800
pro so i can finally use Anisotropic Filtering and Antialiasing. So I
would like to know a bit about the 2.
What does each one do? And if i
enable what kind of performance decrease will i get and what visual
ewnhancements will i get?
Click to expand...

Visually with aa and af turned on the lines are cleaner,no jagged/stepped
edges in games.It just looks a whole lot better.

Performance decrease wise I'll give examples using Q3(1.32) with a clean
standard config,timedemo's using demo four.

1st figure 6xAA+16xAF - 2nd figure no AA or AF

640x480 224 FPS - 228 FPS
800x600 222 FPS - 227 FPS
1024x768 200 FPS - 225 FPS
1280x1024 140 FPS - 222 FPS
1600x1200 100 FPS - 213 FPS

As you can see once you hit 1024x768 on my xp2400 sys fps starts to suffer
over that res with AA+AF on full.
 
John said:
Visually with aa and af turned on the lines are cleaner,no jagged/stepped
edges in games.It just looks a whole lot better.

Performance decrease wise I'll give examples using Q3(1.32) with a clean
standard config,timedemo's using demo four.

1st figure 6xAA+16xAF - 2nd figure no AA or AF

640x480 224 FPS - 228 FPS
800x600 222 FPS - 227 FPS
1024x768 200 FPS - 225 FPS
1280x1024 140 FPS - 222 FPS
1600x1200 100 FPS - 213 FPS

As you can see once you hit 1024x768 on my xp2400 sys fps starts to suffer
over that res with AA+AF on full.
Click to expand...
Yes but I really don't see that much difference between 4x and 6x AA running
at 1024x768. The performance hit between 4x and 6x AA is considerable. As
for AF I really don't see a need to go all the way to 16x. I run all my
games at 4x AA 4x AF at 1024x768 and they look great without much of a hit
to fps. JLC
 
JLC said:
so get?

The best way to understand what they do is to turn them on (I always run
with 4x AA and 4x Aniso with my 9800Pro) and see for yourself how amazing
your games look. You can go to ATI's site and DL the "Chimp" and "Nature"
demos to really see what your card can do. My jaw hit my keyboard the first
time I ran "Nature". There's a lot of people that argue that AA doesn't do
anything if you run your games at high res. I disagree. I think that most of
these guys have Nvidia cards and can't enjoy AA even if they wanted to. I
run my games at 1024x768 and with 4xAA my games look fantastic, and run
faster then they did when I had my Ti-4200 with no AA. With your rig you
should be able to really enjoy your games with the eye candy set to max.
Another benefit of running a ATI card is the fact that they do 2D better
then Nvidia. You'll notice right away how much better your desktop looks.
Just make sure you remove all trace of your old Nvidia drivers. You can do
this easily by removing them through Add/Remove in control panel. Then
reboot into safe mode and do a search for nv*.* This will get what ever is
left. If you're concerned about your reg., back it up and do a reg search
for Nvidia. Remove all keys that come up.
If you want the one of the best deal's around take a look at Newegg.com.
They have the Sapphire 9800Pro OEM for $210 shipped. I have this card and
I'm very happy with it. Come back after you play around with your card and
let us know how you like it! Enjoy. JLC
Click to expand...
LMAO, comparing a 9800 Pro to a TI4200. Like comparing 4 and 8 cylinder
engines. Theres only how many YEARS between these cards?
 
JLC said:
Yes but I really don't see that much difference between 4x and 6x AA
running at 1024x768. The performance hit between 4x and 6x AA is
considerable. As for AF I really don't see a need to go all the way
to 16x. I run all my games at 4x AA 4x AF at 1024x768 and they look
great without much of a hit to fps. JLC
Click to expand...

Nor do i,he asked for info on what the performance hit would be on or
off so i posted max and min settings using q3 cos it was quick to do to give
him some idea.I'm sure he knows he will be able to mix and match the
settings to meet a good compromise over looks/performance.
 
I read a website that points out that AF doesn't make a visible difference in
ATI drivers until you get to at least 8x AF.
Yes but I really don't see that much difference between 4x and 6x AA running
at 1024x768. The performance hit between 4x and 6x AA is considerable. As
for AF I really don't see a need to go all the way to 16x. I run all my
games at 4x AA 4x AF at 1024x768 and they look great without much of a hit
to fps. JLC
Click to expand...


-Bill (remove "botizer" to reply via email)
 
Wblane said:
I read a website that points out that AF doesn't make a visible difference in
ATI drivers until you get to at least 8x AF.
Click to expand...

Bill, how about 16 and 8? I use 16 (max) all the time.
--
"You'd think we could just attract ants like normal people."
--Wolverine (X-Men:TAS)
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip Pi (Ant) @ The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Remove ANT if replying by e-mail from a newsgroup/mailing
( ) list.
 
BK24 said:
LMAO, comparing a 9800 Pro to a TI4200. Like comparing 4 and 8 cylinder
engines. Theres only how many YEARS between these cards?
Click to expand...
I believe the G4 Ti-4200 came out around 4/02 and the 9800Pro around 7/03 so
a little over a year apart. Since the 4200 was one of the best cards for the
buck, and was a huge seller, I don't see why comparing the two is that far
off. I also had my card running as fast as a 4600. Do a little research and
you'll find that the Nvidia's G4 line still hold up well against their new
FX cards. In fact some of the FX cards are slower. JLC
 
I heard about the article on this newsgroup. It was about AA and AF (for both
Nvidia and ATI). It said for ATI only 8X AF and up will make any visible
difference and even had proof so yes 16x AF the max would qualify as making a
difference. The article points out though that even at max settings AF doesn't
make that much of a difference. Wish I could find that article again.
Bill, how about 16 and 8? I use 16 (max) all the time.
--
"You'd think we could just attract ants like normal people."
--Wolverine (X-Men:TAS)
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip Pi (Ant) @ The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or
Click to expand...


-Bill (remove "botizer" to reply via email)
 
Has anyone notice any differences from 8X and 16X in any games?


Wblane said:
I heard about the article on this newsgroup. It was about AA and AF (for both
Nvidia and ATI). It said for ATI only 8X AF and up will make any visible
difference and even had proof so yes 16x AF the max would qualify as making a
difference. The article points out though that even at max settings AF doesn't
make that much of a difference. Wish I could find that article again.
Click to expand...
--
"You'd think we could just attract ants like normal people."
--Wolverine (X-Men:TAS)
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip Pi (Ant) @ The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Remove ANT if replying by e-mail from a newsgroup/mailing
( ) list.
 
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