Gaming Downsampling w/o AA vs. 1080p Anti Aliasing

[chyyran]

I'm looking into setting up downsampling on my HD 7770.

Is downsampling at 1440p without AA, generally more of a performance hit than standard Antialiasing or does it perform better? Does it look better as well?

 

[Rydian]

Older forms of AA (SSAA and MSAA) involved rendering at a higher resolution and downsampling, but modern AA forms (notably FxAA) don't need to do that... so it sorta' depends, since the downsampling and rendering was done in multiples of the display size, not just slightly larger, but it should be better than traditional AA (though you're sort of replicating it depending on how it's done).

Are you just trying to get fast/cheap AA on an old game?

 

[Kirito-kun]

Older forms of AA (SSAA and MSAA) involved rendering at a higher resolution and downsampling, but modern AA forms (notably FxAA) don't need to do that... so it sorta' depends, since the downsampling and rendering was done in multiples of the display size, not just slightly larger, but it should be better than traditional AA (though you're sort of replicating it depending on how it's done).

I don't recommend FXAA unless MSAA causes the game to lag. FXAA is not a true anti-aliasing algorithm and instead filters each frame as a 2D image. This causes FXAA to make all the game's textures look blurry and reduce the general fidelity of the visuals. I personally prefer no AA to FXAA. You get a few more frames per second and the textures continue to look sharp.

 

[Celice]

I don't recommend FXAA unless MSAA causes the game to lag. FXAA is not a true anti-aliasing algorithm and instead filters each frame as a 2D image. This causes FXAA to make all the game's textures look blurry and reduce the general fidelity of the visuals. I personally prefer no AA to FXAA. You get a few more frames per second and the textures continue to look sharp.

What exactly is the hit with FXAA? In Borderlands 2, I can't really tell a difference myself, granted it may not be the best game to look for sharpness with. But I've also forced FXAA on Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl and didn't notice a quality loss, either.

Although, I was always under the impression that SMAA was a better choice, when available?