Skyrim AA and AF - Best way to go?

[Rhezuss]

Some of you already know that using in-game AA is a performance killer. On my end, I can't use AA at 4x because Skyrim is the lag fest.

I tried to force them in CCC but looks like AA doesn't even work. I get jaggy edges anyways even at 8xEQ on Edge-detect and SSAA mode.

Thing is, in-game AA at 4x look really good but renders the game unplayable for me.
Don't want the blurriness of FXAA or MLAA...

So, did some of you found a way to get AA working without hurting your framerate?

 

[Barfo]

So, did some of you found a way to get AA working without hurting your framerate?

Buy a powerfuller card?

 

[Rhezuss]

Buy a powerfuller card?

Not fur if feriouf

 

[Dankk]

Not sure why in-game AA would be killing performance on your end, OP. I'm pretty sure I have it enabled in-game, and it runs fine for me. My setup is less powerful than yours.

 

[Martimus]

I have only a slightly more powerful card than you, but I have never noticed any slow downs with 4x AA and 16x AF. Do you have a bunch of mods running that are pulling down the frame rates?

 

[Rhezuss]

I have only a slightly more powerful card than you, but I have never noticed any slow downs with 4x AA and 16x AF. Do you have a bunch of mods running that are pulling down the frame rates?

No mods at all.

The only way I can play the game smoothly is with 2xAA/16xAF. More than that for AA and it's killing performances to 20-25 FPS...really annoying.

I read when the game released that there was problems with in-game AA but damn...what's going on!

I'm running the game on Ultra at 1080p resolution with some minor tweaks in the Skyrimprefs.ini. Should I lower some settings like shadows?

 

[Martimus]

I don't know. I run it at 1920x1200, so even my resolution is higher than yours (albeit slightly). I have every setting at max, and have not once noticed a slowdown. It might have something to do with the CPU, but you say that it is only bad with higher AA, so it wouldn't make that much difference. I would try reducing shadows though, since I think that can be a big performance driver IIRC.

 

[Markbnj]

I have a 560ti, 1GB, and am running at 1920 x 1200 with 8xAA and 16xAF (Ultra settings) and I don't see any lag due to AA. Like you, I tried disabling in game and enabling in the video driver profile for TESV.exe, just to see if it worked and would perform better or worse, but it had no effect.

 

[Rhezuss]

If I put Shadow Quality to High instead of Ultra I get excellent FPS with 4x/16x but shadows look ugly.

I guess i'll keep the shadows on Ultra but set AA to 2x and keep AF to 16x. It's good looking anyways.