questions about Catalyst AA and AI

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ven77

Weaksauce
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If I select "edge detect" it is like enabling CF AA, which is sort of a multiplier of normal AA, correct?
What is the difference between adaptive AA and supersample? Adaptive is for transparent textures, right?
Is FSAA full screen or full scene AA? Is there an option for this in CCC, I don't see it in the 3D section?

As I understand it, A.I. is basically crossfire enabled/disabled. However, what do the different AI settings actually do? I googled but saw many different answers, and nothing definite.
 
ven77 said:
If I select "edge detect" it is like enabling CF AA, which is sort of a multiplier of normal AA, correct?
What is the difference between adaptive AA and supersample? Adaptive is for transparent textures, right?
Is FSAA full screen or full scene AA? Is there an option for this in CCC, I don't see it in the 3D section?

As I understand it, A.I. is basically crossfire enabled/disabled. However, what do the different AI settings actually do? I googled but saw many different answers, and nothing definite.
Click to expand...

[H] had an article about this:
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/artic...i_radeon_hd_4800_series_custom_filtering_aa/1

The only thing that I found missing, was the use of MIPMAP settings in combination of AA. In some cases, where AA tends to alias upon movement, decreasing mipmap might help making things seem more fluid (like a blur effect).
 
actually catalyst ai is the switch for afr or sfr crossfire rendering modes. the crossfire pane is the only crossfire on/off switch.
 
rennyf77 said:
actually catalyst ai is the switch for afr or sfr crossfire rendering modes. the crossfire pane is the only crossfire on/off switch.
Click to expand...

Yes and no. Catalyst AI standard is gaming with optimisation (without loosing PQ), Catalyst AI advanced is using more agressive profiles, while trying to maintain PQ.

On dual processor cards, there is no crossfire panel, so the only option to turn off crossfire is to disable Catalyst AI. In "normal crossfire", you have the crossfire panel for such.
 
the only dual gpu card that needed manipulation of the crossfire pane was the 4850x2, but otherwise i agree with you.
 
Tamlin_WSGF said:
[H] had an article about this:
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/artic...i_radeon_hd_4800_series_custom_filtering_aa/1

The only thing that I found missing, was the use of MIPMAP settings in combination of AA. In some cases, where AA tends to alias upon movement, decreasing mipmap might help making things seem more fluid (like a blur effect).
Click to expand...

Supersampling AA, only available on the 5xxx series, virtually eliminates aliasing of objects during movement. But it makes textures a bit more blurry due to the nature of supersampling AA.

In some games aliasing-during-movement is really annoying, so it is nice to have an option.
 
Balthazor said:
Supersampling AA, only available on the 5xxx series, virtually eliminates aliasing of objects during movement. But it makes textures a bit more blurry due to the nature of supersampling AA.

In some games aliasing-during-movement is really annoying, so it is nice to have an option.
Click to expand...

Always nice with that. :)

I feel that people are using Mipmap too little. That can solve some issues with aliasing-during-movement. Here's the changes from one performance to quality settings (didn't test with inbetween options here in Deus EX):

Performance:


Quality:
 
Thanks for the link to the article. I actually looked for it before posting, but thought it was part of some card preview. Obviously, I was wrong.

So Cat AI standard = best PQ, while Cat AI = better performance, maybe best PQ (not guaranteed like standard)?

Kinda off topic, but what are ati app profiles? Are they just like driver updates you can install between driver releases? Not something to interact with, load/unload, edit, etc, like normal CCC profiles?
 
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Someone posted some screenshots comparing Cat AI Standard with Advanced on Anandtech forums and it was impossible to notice an IQ difference between them. Closely studying the pictures, in one game the grass with AI Advanced actually looked slightly better than Standard, and in another game the only difference I could spot under studying was a slight shade of shadow change on a rock out in the distance.. the rest of the games looked identical.

Definitely seems worth it to run in Advanced over Standard.
 
ven77 said:
So Cat AI standard = best PQ, while Cat AI = better performance, maybe best PQ (not guaranteed like standard)?

Kinda off topic, but what are ati app profiles? Are they just like driver updates you can install between driver releases? Not something to interact with, load/unload, edit, etc, like normal CCC profiles?
Click to expand...

Correct. The AMD forum moderator recommended uninstalling the old ATI application profile update, and then installing only the latest. Earlier this year they started releasing these application profile updates separate from driver releases; the profiles work 'under the hood' to improve game performance. I had thought it was mostly for multi-GPU setups, but the latest update has notes about some single-GPU improvements as well.

Regarding Catalyst AI: I use Advanced as default, but there are occasions when an application exhibits strange artifacts that go away when using Standard. I think you just have to play with it.
 
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