MSAA vs FXAA vs CSAA vs whatever else

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dioxholster

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Aug 11, 2010
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anyone else confused? i try them out but dont see the difference except maybe
FXAA adds blur.
 
What game(s)?

I don't like/can't run most MSAA so I prefer FXAA to remove static.
Some MSAA adds static which I hate. I'd rather blur than headaches.
That's at 2560x1440 so I don't have the worst jaggies to begin with.

Edit:
52a9f023d856c5d92d865c5f6e444358.jpg


See how MSAA can look like crap.
 
ive run Batman AC's benchmark to test performance, here are results:


batman:
FXAA high = max 125 avg 85

16CSAA = max 104 avg 76

msaa 4x = max 102 avg 77

MSAA8x= max 87 avg 64

32CSAA = max 83 avg 61

16qCSAA = max 78 avg 63


that one that looked best and more colorful to me were the MSAA ones, whilst the others seemed blurry a bit. I cant tell about the jagged edges i just dont notice them in the game, its hard to tell.
 
dioxholster, your numbers seem screwy. you only have 33% better performance running FXAA over 8x MSAA which seems way off. I ran it myself and got 65 fps with 8x MSAA and got 115 fps with FXAA. that is a 77% better which sounds more accurate because that level of MSAA should be way more demanding than FXAA.
 
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cannondale06 said:
dioxholster, your numbers seem screwy. you only have 33% better performance running FXAA over 8x MSAA which seems way off. I ran it myself and got 65 fps with 8x MSAA and got 115 fps with FXAA. that is a 77% better which sounds more accurate because that level of MSAA should be way more demanding than FXAA.
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thats what the benchmark gave me its not that strange since we probably using different gpus, i tested with 670. i dont know if cpu factors into this. and oh my god, SMAA? already another one, how many are there? there is also TXAA and MLAA this is too much...
 
dioxholster said:
thats what the benchmark gave me its not that strange since we probably using different gpus, i tested with 670. i dont know if cpu factors into this. and oh my god, SMAA? already another one, how many are there? there is also TXAA and MLAA this is too much...
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SMAA is my favorite from what little I have seen of it. little to no performance hit like FXAA but without the annoying blurring of FXAA. I use the injector for Borderlands 2 and its directly available in the game for Crysis 3.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/03/12/crysis_3_video_card_performance_iq_review/8#.Ub7ZcfmyDK5

SMAA is the new kid in town, and incorporates AMD's Morphological MLAA technology base, plus the traditional hardware technologies of MSAA and SSAA to improve image quality, with much less of a performance hit as traditional MSAA or SSAA. Since this is a shader + hardware technology, it means it does provide AA on alpha textures and specular aliasing, unlike traditional MSAA.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/03/12/crysis_3_video_card_performance_iq_review/11#.Ub7ZifmyDK5

SMAA works on the same principals of FXAA, but with added benefits. SMAA uses Morphological AA, a post-process technique from AMD called MLAA plus hardware MSAA/SSAA techniques. The major benefit is that it doesn't blur textures like FXAA. The second benefit is that it can behave performance wise just like FXAA at the lower levels. There are three SMAA modes in this game, SMAA Low 1X, SMAA Medium 2XT, and SMAA High 4X. The SMAA Low 1X option performs exactly like FXAA, that is to say it incurs no performance hit compared to No AA. It is as if you are running with No AA performance wise.

Overall, SMAA is the winner in this game, and should be given two thumbs up for implementing it in this game. We hope to see SMAA improved and implemented in other games. So far, these are PC'centric options added in this game, and we thank Crytek for doing it, these kinds of things should be standard on the PC platform.
 
dioxholster said:
anyone else confused? i try them out but dont see the difference except maybe
FXAA adds blur.
Click to expand...

MSAA (multisampling). Renders screen several times (the X-number refers to how many times) and based on those it averages the jaggies out. Before post processing antialiasing came this was the most common form of AA and what AA settings in games always referred to. Good quality, moderate performance hit but does not touch special effects and alpha textures without "transparency antialiasing" enabled (name differs with Nvidia and AMD), but that causes a major performance hit.

SSAA. (supersampling) Renders the screen several times in much higher resolution and averages the jaggies out from that. Best quality but insane performance hit. Before MSAA was invented this was the first form of AA. Antialiases everything but frankly its not worth the performance hit. Outside of old games it will kill your performance without super high-end hardware.

FXAA. Post processing antialiasing. Antialiases everything with decent quality but also adds blur to textures. Sometimes it actually looks nice and fits the game but usually its a bad thing. Still, I like it. Next to no performance hit.

SMAA. Another post processing antialiasing. Does not blur the textures but jaggies removal is not as effective (as far as injector using the old version is concerned. Dont know about games supporting it directly and propably using higher version). However combined with mild MSAA its really, really effective. My favourite. Bit higher performance hit than FXAA but still practically nothing.


I dont really remember what CSAA was. If your hardware allows it, usually try MSAA + transparency enabled in your GPU control panel. If it causes problems or just has too big performance hit then try the others.
 
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MSAA, SSAA, and SMAA are the best methods of AA. MSAA and SSAA being the most taxing. SMAA has the benefit of being not so taxing but doing a great job at removing jaggies and not adding blur like FXAA does.

FXAA removes jaggies adding blur to stuff it shouldn't and losing sharpness.
MLAA removes jaggies without adding blur, but isn't as good.
TXAA removes jaggies but can affect colors and add blur like FXAA.
 
CSAA is an optimization of MSAA with a lower memory cost. 8xCSAA is approximately equivalent to 4xMSAA in terms of performance, but delivers around 8xMSAA quality.
 
MaZa said:
FXAA. Post processing antialiasing. Antialiases everything with decent but also adds blur to textures. Sometimes it actually looks nice and fits the game but usually its a bad thing. Still, I like it. Next to no performance hit.

SMAA. Another post processing antialiasing. Does not blur the textures but jaggies removal is not as effective (as far as injector using the old version is concerned. Dont know about games supporting it directly and propably using higher version). However combined with mild MSAA its really, really effective. My favourite. Bit higher performance hit than FXAA but still practically nothing.
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Unfortunately, both look great in still images, but they fall apart with fast-ish motion.
 
JayJapanB said:
See how MSAA can look like crap.
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Well, transparency AA would have cleared that right up. With Nvidia cards it works with just about every game that MSAA works in.

Then there is my favorite, SGSSAA. I use that when every possible. I wish that I had the horsepower to use it in every game.
 
BatJoe said:
MSAA, SSAA, and SMAA are the best methods of AA. MSAA and SSAA being the most taxing. SMAA has the benefit of being not so taxing but doing a great job at removing jaggies and not adding blur like FXAA does.
Click to expand...

SMAA adds blur too, Its just not as noticeable as FXAA. I use it occasionally.
 
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