Anit_aliasing turned on

[eviltoon]

I was wondering just what sort of a performance hit one can expect from turning this on. Just got a Geforce ti 4200 128mb. When playing UT 2003 I'm thinking my frame rates dropped a lot when I set it to 4x. With Castle wolfenstein, I noticed no difference. And, just what the heck is Anisotropic Filtering ? I have mine turned off just because I'm not sure what to expect to see if I turn it on. Since it's turned off by default I think it will also be a performance killer too. Can anyone enlighten me on these. Strange that my video card booklet doesn't educate me, just tells me how to use them.

 

[CurtCold]

Basically anti-Alaising smooths out the "jagged edges" you see when you play games. This gives the games a more smooth effect and makes gaming graphics more realistic. I'm sure there is alot more to it, but if you turn these features on in games, you'll notice the smoothness, as well as your fps drop. Some games handle better than others, ATI cards seem to handle these feature better as well. JMO

 

[BFG10K]

I was wondering just what sort of a performance hit one can expect from turning this on. Just got a Geforce ti 4200 128mb.

It might pay to check some of the numerous websites that have 3D benchmarks. The performance hit will vary between the games and the type of FSAA you use.

And, just what the heck is Anisotropic Filtering ?

Anisotropic filtering keeps high-angled angled polygons sharp by using texel sampling. The sharpness and distance is controlled by the tap rating (the number of samples you take).

I have mine turned off just because I'm not sure what to expect to see if I turn it on.

The easisest way to spot a difference is to look at a tiled floor. Run your eyes straight ahead on the floor, starting at your feet and going to as far as you can see on the screen. With anisotropic filtering the textures will stay sharp while bilinear/trilinear will very quickly turn blurry as the distance increases.

Since it's turned off by default I think it will also be a performance killer too.

Yes, GF4 cards are hit particularly badly when they utilise anisotropic filtering due to the second texture unit being idle when it's enabled. In most cases even 2x (16 tap) is unusable.