Try these Catalyst Settings for superior IQ in games

PS3

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
May 31, 2009
Messages
1,386
Finally got a round to fooling with different IQ settings, specifically for COD WAW. I'm using the official 9.10 drivers at the moment. I've found these settings to greatly improve IQ in COD WAW:

In CCC I've been using these settings for Call of Duty 5:

Anti-Aliasing - 4xaa
Anti-Stropic filtering - 16xaa
Catalyst A.I. - Advanced
MipMap Detail - High Quality
Wait for Vertical Refresh - Always On
Anti-Aliasing Mode - Super-sample AA
Open GL settings - Check triple buffering

I'd be interested to see if others find IQ to improve with these settings. For me this greatly improved IQ in cod5. I'm thinking maybe the Advanced Catalyst A.I. and the super-sample AA really makes a huge difference. Granted I only game at 1360x768, but it will never dip below 60fps with these settings, and the game looks stunning. I think those using higher resolutions will probably get some fps drops with these settings though so I'm not sure if it will be worth it to you. Change your field of view as well in cod by using /cg_fov 80 as well in the console...as a random tip.
 
Can't you manually set AA, AF, and whathaveyou inside CoD? Seems silly to force all 3D apps to use those settings. Heck, the last one doesn't even apply to CoD.
 
Finally got a round to fooling with different IQ settings, specifically for COD WAW. I'm using the official 9.10 drivers at the moment. I've found these settings to greatly improve IQ in COD WAW:

In CCC I've been using these settings for Call of Duty 5:

Anti-Aliasing - 4xaa
Anti-Stropic filtering - 16xaa
Catalyst A.I. - Advanced
MipMap Detail - High Quality
Wait for Vertical Refresh - Always On
Anti-Aliasing Mode - Super-sample AA
Open GL settings - Check triple buffering

I'd be interested to see if others find IQ to improve with these settings. For me this greatly improved IQ in cod5. I'm thinking maybe the Advanced Catalyst A.I. and the super-sample AA really makes a huge difference. Granted I only game at 1360x768, but it will never dip below 60fps with these settings, and the game looks stunning. I think those using higher resolutions will probably get some fps drops with these settings though so I'm not sure if it will be worth it to you. Change your field of view as well in cod by using /cg_fov 80 as well in the console...as a random tip.


welcome to being a computer enthusiast turn off catalyst ai for max IQ
 
You can adjust AA/AF but you can't adjust other settings like Catalyst A.I. and anti-aliasing mode.I don't think it's silly, especially when there are some games that you have to force AA on, like batman Arkham. You don't have to force all 3d apps to use the same settings, just make up a profile for different 3d settings that work best for whatever 3d app you are running.
 
welcome to being a computer enthusiast turn off catalyst ai for max IQ

Care to give a technical explanation on why disabling Catalyst a.i. instead of using "advanced catalyst ai" will give better IQ?
 
You want catalyst AI on set to normal in almost all circumstances. It allows the driver to use optimizations that improve the performance or visual quality of a game that do not negatively alter it in any way. Advanced AI overdoes this, and may cause issues/graphical anomalies trying to over-optimize, turning it off entirely may break certain in game features or cause some games to just not run. My recommendation is to use cat ai off and advanced for troubleshooting purposes only.
 
Care to give a technical explanation on why disabling Catalyst a.i. instead of using "advanced catalyst ai" will give better IQ?

Advanced Catalyst AI forces certain optimization algorithms that can have a detrimental effect on IQ. There are two main ones that are used, Anisotropic Sample Optimization and Trilinear Optimization. I've tried it with AI off, basic, and advanced and didn't notice a performance or IQ difference, so now I just leave it at default.

This page goes into more detail. You have to scroll down to find the paragraph.
http://www.tweakguides.com/ATICAT_7.html
 
Advanced is also pretty aggressive in determining which objects are in line of sight; in TF2 stuff would just disappear if you were a certain distance from it.
 
So you're saying if I set everything to high quality, I'll have better IQ in my games? Damn, this is news! Can we get this on the front page?
 
Anti-Aliasing - 4xaa ......Let the Game set it.
Anti-Stropic filtering - 16xaa / .....Let the Game set it.
Catalyst A.I. - Advanced / ......Normal
MipMap Detail - High Quality
Wait for Vertical Refresh - Always On / .....Off
Anti-Aliasing Mode - Super-sample AA /....Multi
Open GL settings - Check triple buffering /.....Off


I'm using just about the opposite of what the OP is using....you (the OP) need to do some reading, especially about A.I. and Open GL relative to ATI, and WAW. Sorry, not such a good thread title....which games?...each game/engine needs to be treated different!
.
 
Last edited:
I'm using just about the opposite of what the OP is using....you (the OP) need to do some reading, especially about A.I. and Open GL relative to ATI, and WAW. Sorry, not such a good thread title....which games?...each game/engine needs to be treated different!
.

I've only experimented with cod5 thus far, and noticed a huge improvement when using my settings in the 1st post. All settings in game are set to the highest, and I put "yes" to the dual vid card option.

And catalyst a.i. is suppose to improve performance in some games without lowering IQ, and "intelligently optimize your system" according to ATI.
 
I've only experimented with cod5 thus far, and noticed a huge improvement when using my settings in the 1st post. All settings in game are set to the highest, and I put "yes" to the dual vid card option.

And catalyst a.i. is suppose to improve performance in some games without lowering IQ, and "intelligently optimize your system" according to ATI.

Then why did you change the opengl settigns if you were testing cod5... ?
 
What are you using in the AA????
Box,edge-detect???? Custom-filtered AA is most beneficial in Edge-detect, and will allow up to 24X AA......I generally run 8X-edge detect with no real performance hit.

Supersampling, while having an overall effect on the entire rendered image, is a big performance hit. I generally always use Multisampling.

I'm not picking on your post........I think that all this stuff is more individual than applicable to everyone...........it depends on how you play,how powerful your computer is, and other intangibles.:D
 
Edge detect 24xaa is definitely not playable for me any way :cool:. Why would box AA run faster than edge detect at the same level?
 
Edge detect 24xaa is definitely not playable for me any way :cool:. Why would box AA run faster than edge detect at the same level?

I'd suggest you go back and find the article Brent wrote when the 4870 was released.
In that review, he discusses the differences between the "normal" AA and the newer Custom-Filtered AA. Edge detect allows for a much higher level of AA to be applied, ranging from 8X to 24X AA.

Here:http://www.hardocp.com/article/2008/07/20/amds_ati_radeon_hd_4800_series_custom_filtering_aa/

and here:http://www.hardocp.com/article/2008/06/25/amd_radeon_hd_4800_series/
 
Last edited:
Every game is different, AA levels and methods depend upon resolution being played at and in-game settings enabled. ALWAYS use in-game AA and AF settings if present, only fallback to control panel if options are not present, performance will be better.
 
Back
Top