what is better at..

[Beef Taco]

AA or AF? Because in UT2k4 the sides and stuff is all jagged. Would 2xAA or 2xAF be better for the visual aspect and still keep the performance up?

 

[igowerf]

AA clears up jaggies while AF makes textures look better at an angle.

 

[Fistandantilis]

AA is what you want, AF is for textures. but be carefull AA really taxes the GPU, what is does in simple terms is it softens the lines to givea strait effect, too much AA makes things a hair blurry and really taxes the GPU stay at 2-4 2 is better

 

[KoolDrew]

The Simple Antialiasing and Anisotropic Guide

 

[Xyclone]

AA>x2 is way too unreasonable for me. It kills the FPS for something i can't notice. Keep it at x2 if anything.

 

[mOeeOm]

During gameplay I cant notice the difference between AA/AF if its on or off...I have to look at still shots -_-, oh wells I still keep my AA/AF maxed out 6x/16x in HF2/CS: S/Far Cry...I don't see a difference but whatever, I should probably turn it off as it is costing me some fps .

 

[igowerf]

Originally posted by: mOeeOm
During gameplay I cant notice the difference between AA/AF if its on or off...I have to look at still shots -_-, oh wells I still keep my AA/AF maxed out 6x/16x in HF2/CS: S/Far Cry...I don't see a difference but whatever, I should probably turn it off as it is costing me some fps .

Yeah. I really only notice the jaggies when I stop moving. In games like CS:S, I don't bother with AA or AF.

 

[BFG10K]

Your first solution to cure jagged edges should be resolution and then AA when you've maxed that out.

AF should always be maxed out no matter what you do.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

I'm happy with 2xAA

Anything more is awaste in my oinion. I'drather have frames.

 

[Schadenfroh]

16X AF and no AA, i run at 1600x1200, dont need AA in most games.

 

[VIAN]

UT textures aren't really that sharp so AF won't have a big impact, you should get away with 4xaa.

 

[VIAN]

AA really taxes the GPU,

AA taxes bandwidth, AF taxes GPU

 

[VIAN]

AF should always be maxed out no matter what you do.

I don't agree with this, but it depends on the gamer. Some feel that AA should be max out no matter what and others feel that AF should be max out nomatter what. I think it's game dependent. And a balance is a great way to go about it sometimes.

I do agree with him though that first, up you resolution to the highest your monitor can take, but within an acceptable range. Make sure you monitor drivers are installed. For LCD, use native resolution/refresh rate. For CRT, again make sure you drivers are installed. Go to the highest resolution that your monitor will allow, and choose 85Hz where 85Hz is the second largest option. If it shows 2 other options higher than 85, then the resolution is too low, if 85 is the highest option, then the resolution is too high. If these are the only choices - too high or too low, choose the lower resolution. This gives you optimal quality.

 

[BFG10K]

UT textures aren't really that sharp so AF won't have a big impact, you should get away with 4xaa.

Nonsense; AF has a big impact on every game that uses texturing in first person mode, not to mention that UT2004 has very detailed textures in general.

AA taxes bandwidth, AF taxes GPU

Uh, actually they both tax the bandwidth and the core. It's actually quite silly to even try to argue against this because "GPU" ecompasses everything anyway.

I don't agree with this,

Why on earth not, given 16xAF is basically free in modern cards?

Some feel that AA should be max out no matter what and others feel that AF

That's great and all but maxed AA isn't free, unlike maxed AF. Also maxed AA doesn't have anywhere near the IQ impact that maxed AF does, especially at higher resolutions.

So again unless you're running pre-NV30 nVidia hardware and/or have some horrendous incompatibility with AF in a target game, AF should always be maxed out and left there.