GTX280 AA modes

[OzoZoz]

Anyone has a clue as to what new AA modes the GTX280 will bring (if any)?
Should we expect a true 12x or 16x MSAA mode, or any other picture quality improvements?

Ozo.

[Ninja Prime]

I haven't heard anything new so I would imagine they are pretty much the same. Don't they have a 16x AA mode now?

[OzoZoz]

Don't they have a 16x AA mode now?

I was referring to native MSAA modes, i.e. without the use of SS (too expensive on fillrate) or CSAA (too little quality improvements). The current native MSAA modes are 2x, 4x and 8x. A new AA mode made of 12x or 16x MSAA plus 2 "rotated grid" texture samples (better than simple SS) would be a nice addition to their feature set too!

Ozo.

[Ninja Prime]

I was referring to native MSAA modes, i.e. without the use of SS (too expensive on fillrate) or CSAA (too little quality improvements). The current native MSAA modes are 2x, 4x and 8x. A new AA mode made of 12x or 16x MSAA plus 2 "rotated grid" texture samples (better than simple SS) would be a nice addition to their feature set to!

Ozo.

Ahh yeah, I just read up on them again. I would imagine they have the power with 32 rops to do a real 12x or 16x MSAA mode now. As I recall, ATI's 12x crossfire mode was real 12x but I think that was only on certain crossfire cards.

[K007]

The increased ROPS would defeantly help with AA. They may have improved on the AA...but not sure if we will see anything out of the ordinary...as in some kinda i dunno...42XAA @ the performance of 4xAA..due to uber new feature...if u get what i mean..

[Ninja Prime]

The increased ROPS would defeantly help with AA. They may have improved on the AA...but not sure if we will see anything out of the ordinary...as in some kinda i dunno...42XAA @ the performance of 4xAA..due to uber new feature...if u get what i mean..

Yeah, I personally never saw the point/difference of using over 6x AA on ATI cards and 8x AA on NV, the difference is really almost unnoticeable unless you're just looking at magnified screens.

[josiahsuarez]

isn't this just an issue with the drivers? I think the current gen hardware could support higher levels of AA if it was enabled in the nvidia control panel. maybe they just don't bother wasting development effort on what would be a tiny increase in IQ even with 32x MSAA.

[Dazz]

I find 8x AA with 1680x1050 to be perfect even 4x was good so not to bother about extra high settings unless i was limiited to say 1024x768

[Runningman]

Is there any real need for need AA modes? What could a new AA mode bring that we dont already have?

[walterman]

Is there any real need for need AA modes? What could a new AA mode bring that we dont already have?

They could bring us proper AA support for the DX10 titles (DX 10.1).

[OzoZoz]

Is there any real need for need AA modes? What could a new AA mode bring that we dont already have?

More AA becomes very interesting when using large screens (ex: home theatre projectors!). It helps on sharp edges, better renders very small objects and better solves Z-fighting on interpenetrated polygons; It also provides much better AA transparency. It is true that small screens don’t benefit as much, though.

With G80/G92, if you need more than 8xMSAA, you are limited to use either SS or CSAA, which both have limitations.

Ozo.

[SH64]

I guess pretty much the same.

[Dazz]

They could bring us proper AA support for the DX10 titles (DX 10.1).We know nVidias stance on that an no, there will be no DX10.1 in the GTX260/280 cards.

[Ninja Prime]

Appearantly the new ATI 4800 series cards will support 24x CFAA, so I would imagine NV would have something new in terms of AA as well, to compete with it.

[walterman]

I think that the nVidia cards have the best AA modes. Why ? Combined AA modes.

I do not need to refresh your memory, but with SSAA you also enhance the texture filtering, the specular aliasing issues, and other artifacts derived from the shader programs. But, they are terrible slow, cause you are rendering the scene at higher resolution (ROPs overloaded too, cause you must combine the fragments of ALL the pixels in your frame buffer).

The MSAA modes have better edge antialiasing, cause they use rotated grids for the fragments. Also, they are faster, cause you need to sample only the edges of the polys.

The combined AA modes offer the best of both worlds. You can do SSAA 2x + MSAA 4x = 16xS. These modes enhance the texture filtering, fix all the artifacts, and have better edge antialiasing.

I still dunno if the ATI cards can do SSAA, but when i had my 9800Pro, this wasn't possible (but my Ti4600 was able).

Also, remember that the texture filtering quality on the G80/G92 is almost perfect (http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gf8800_14.html).

[Ninja Prime]

I think that the nVidia cards have the best AA modes. Why ? Combined AA modes.

I do not need to refresh your memory, but with SSAA you also enhance the texture filtering, the specular aliasing issues, and other artifacts derived from the shader programs. But, they are terrible slow, cause you are rendering the scene at higher resolution (ROPs overloaded too, cause you must combine the fragments of ALL the pixels in your frame buffer).

The MSAA modes have better edge antialiasing, cause they use rotated grids for the fragments. Also, they are faster, cause you need to sample only the edges of the polys.

The combined AA modes offer the best of both worlds. You can do SSAA 2x + MSAA 4x = 16xS. These modes enhance the texture filtering, fix all the artifacts, and have better edge antialiasing.

I still dunno if the ATI cards can do SSAA, but when i had my 9800Pro, this wasn't possible (but my Ti4600 was able).

Also, remember that the texture filtering quality on the G80/G92 is almost perfect (http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gf8800_14.html).

ATI has had SSAA modes since the x800 as I recall.