![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Sunday , July 20, 2008
- Author:
- Brent Justice
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
AMD's ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series Custom Filtering AA
AMD’s new ATI Radeon HD 4800 series provides shader powered antialiasing features! We examine in-game IQ and AA scaling. We’ve got all the information on using the Edge-detect Custom Filtering AA and what it will do for you in-game. If you are not sure how to best leverage your new 4870 or 4850 video cards, we show you how.
AA IQ Comparisons to NVIDIA
Here we are going to evaluate image quality in comparison to NVIDIA’s AA modes. We will compare the ATI Radeon HD 4870 to an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 at 2X AA, 4X AA, 8X CSAA, 8xQ MSAA, 16X CSAA and 16xQ CSAA, as well as Transparency Supersampling.
Take note that each screenshot is saved in PNG format and the largest on this page is 1.4 MB. Just like the previous page we are going to show you a normal sized view, and a zoomed in view at 200%.
The acronyms used on this page are broken down as such:
CF AA = Custom Filtering Edge-detect filter (ATI)
AD AA = Adaptive Antialiasing at the Supersampling Quality level (ATI)
CS AA = Coverage Sampled Antialiasing (NVIDIA)
TR SSAA = Transparency Supersampling AA (NVIDIA)
We have set each game at 1280x1024 with the highest settings; these are an “apples-to-apples” comparison. Of importance will be to look for image quality differences between NVIDIA’s 8X CSAA mode, 8xQ MSAA mode, 16X CSAA and 16xQ MSAA mode in comparison to ATI’s 8X MSAA, 12X CFAA and 24X CFAA modes.
2X and 4X MSAA Modes Compared
For this first round of image quality screenshots we are going to look at how the normal 2X and 4X MSAA modes compare between ATI and NVIDIA.
In the first screenshot of the power lines it seems that the Radeon HD 4870’s 4X AA looks better than the GeForce GTX 260’s 4X AA. Looking at the other two screenshots though we can’t see any difference between 2X and 4X AA in normal view.
In Crysis, we really can’t see any differences in AA image quality at 2X or 4X. However, in the first screenshot of the shack look to the right of the screen, to the roof of the shack in the background. The roof looks slightly more detailed on the ATI hardware, than the NVIDIA hardware. We don’t really know what this means or which image is supposed to be right, it’s just a difference we noticed.
8X AA Comparison
In this next comparison we are going to look at the Radeon HD 4870’s 8X MSAA mode compared to the GeForce GTX 260’s 8X CSAA and 8xQ MSAA mode.
For some reason, every time I tried to enlarge the second screenshot for a 200% view my photo editing program crashed, so no 200% zoom for that image unfortunately. Still, I think the other two screenshots prove the point, 8xQ MSAA is higher quality than 8X CSAA, which makes sense. Though, in the second and third screenshot, the difference is very minor, and arguably noticeable in normal view.
Here in Crysis the first screenshot shows hardly any difference notable between 8X CSAA and 8xQ MSAA in normal view. Looking at the second screenshot though we can see some clear differences, proving that 8xQ MSAA is higher quality than 8X CSAA. Looking at the cables that are right underneath the crane, we can see that with 8X CSAA they are more broken up and blocky than they are using 8xQ MSAA. In this image 8xQ MSAA matches up perfectly with ATI’s 8X MSAA.