As a PC gamer, you might feel annoyed when the image quality in your favorite game isn’t up to your expectations. You could try to boost your screen resolution for enhancing the picture quality of the game, but with an old GPU, it might slow down the speed and performance even further.
In computer graphics, pixels create an image that displays on your PC. When the screen resolution is low, you’ll discover distorted pixels called “Jaggies” or the “staircase effect.”
To eliminate jaggies, you could apply several anti-aliasing methods, improving the picture quality. Now, you must wonder which is the best anti-aliasing technique you could use to get acceptable image quality without hindering the execution of the game. In this article, we’ll discuss different types of anti-aliasing modes to help you out.
There are two main categories of anti-aliasing modes:
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Spatial anti-aliasing
In spatial anti-aliasing, the image of low resolution is rendered to a higher resolution and then sampled down to the original screen resolution that helps the jaggies to reduce, making the image appear clear and visible.
This method might give the best picture quality but could slightly slow down the performance of the game. It might be the best anti-aliasing method for you if you prefer image quality over performance.
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Post-process anti-aliasing
In post-processing anti-aliasing, the pixels become a bit blurred after the process of rendering. The blurring of jaggies improves the picture quality but, this method’s downside could be the effect of too much blurriness that becomes noticeable to the player. Nevertheless, it is a fast-processing technique that consumes less time than the spatial method and doesn’t tamper with the game performance.
Many games provide the option to select one of these methods, allowing you to switch between different modes. You should always try out different anti-aliasing techniques and find out which one works best for you.
Types of Spatial Anti-aliasing
Super-Sampling Anti-aliasing
Super-sampling anti-aliasing (SSAA) is also called Full-scene anti-aliasing (FSAA). This method is one of the first AA techniques to develop for enhancing image quality.
Although SSAA is the best for the job, it requires a lot of time to process, needing high-grade hardware; hence, the performance becomes an issue.
SSAA Features:
- Represents each scene at a higher resolution
- Produces the best image quality by removing jaggies
- Reduces the performance speed of the game
SSAA Pros:
- Offers the best quality
SSAA Cons:
- High-end hardware is required for SSAA process
- Reduces game speed even with high-end machines
Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing
In multi-sample anti-aliasing (MSAA), sampling is only applied to the edges without smoothing out the textures to cut down the time for enhancing performance.
While the image quality becomes better, you will also get a better gaming performance speed and time. That’s why MSAA is a popular and effective AA solution for PC gamers.
MSAA Features:
- In MSAA, the original color of a pixel is saved though applying shading/lighting effects to it
- Reduces aliasing and other visual defects
- Increases the performance speed of a game
MSAA Pros:
- Offers an improved image quality at faster speeds while playing games with less time processing.
- Decreases jaggies but doesn't affect textures while enhancing the picture quality.
MSAA Cons:
- Triggers a slight performance loss if offered at high levels.
- Doesn't work on translucent textures, and cutscenes cannot run at higher resolutions (a pixel shader is required to perform MSAA)
- It is important to use anti-aliasing but keep in mind that it could reduce your
CSAA and EQAA:
CSAA (coverage sampling anti-aliasing) manufactured by NVIDIA and EQAA (enhanced quality anti-aliasing) built by AMD work more or less the same way. They are the derivatives of MSAA and provide excellent image quality plus high performance. CSAA tends to be better at edge detection than EQAA. The visual quality of CSAA is higher because it provides coverage information collected from the frame buffer, which helps in color comparisons for each subpixel covered by a triangle to determine which one needs shading and how much.
CSAA Features:
- Offers a higher quality image than MSAA
- Maintains high-performance speed of games
- Comes in three levels: 2x, 4x and 8x
CSAA Pros:
- Provides high-quality images at high speeds
- The lower level (2X) is almost as good as MSAA but four times faster.
CSAA Cons:
Reduces the image quality at low settings (1X and 0X) when not needed for enhancing the performance of a game.
EQAA Features:
- Works like MSAA but with AMD graphics hardware instead of NVIDIA GPUs
- Works with most recent games
- Provides edge detection and offers an excellent anti-aliasing result with transparency
EQAA Pros:
- Offers enhanced image quality Maintains high-performance speed of games
EQAA Cons:
- Provides less edge detection than CSAA
- Reduces the image quality at low settings (1X and 0X) when not needed for enhancing the performance of a game.
Types of Post-processing Anti-aliasing
Fast-approximate Anti-aliasing (FXAA)
NVIDIA’s FXAA method uses the same blurring technique we discussed before. It will smooth out the jaggies without hampering the performance. However, FXAA is different from MSAA because it can be applied to all objects instead of just the edges.
FXAA Features:
- Runs at a very high speed compared to other anti-aliasing techniques
- Offers improved image quality without reducing game performance
- Works with any graphics card
FXAA Pros:
- Maintains high-performance speed of games
- Provides higher quality images than SSAA or MSAA
- Performs well in terms of both quality and time processing
- Since this technique does not require special abilities, anyone can use it
- Effects are visible on transparent textures as well as alpha channel
FXAA Cons:
- Effects may be blurred depending on the texture type
- Not compatible with SLI or CrossFire modes which means multiple GPUs won't work together
Morphological Anti-aliasing (MLAA)
MLAA, created by AMD, works like FXAA, improving the image quality while maintaining the game performance.
MLAA Features:
- Uses a technique similar to FXAA to smooth out the jaggies without hampering the performance
- Compatible with all modern GPUs (DX9 and above)
- Does not require special abilities when it comes to handling the tool; anyone can use it; however, since it is not compatible with multi-GPU configurations, you cannot combine multiple graphics cards for better results.
- Offers an image quality close to MSAA-4X and CSAA-8X combined but at high speeds
- Blurs textures including alpha channel contents that may or may not be desired in certain games. So sometimes it helps games look better while other times it ruins them entirely.
MLAA Pros:
- Offers improved image quality without reducing game performance
- Extremely fast when compared to other anti-aliasing techniques
- Uses simple algorithms which do not need special graphic cards. Anyone can use this technique since it does not require special abilities or specific hardware.
MLAA Cons:
- Blurs textures including alpha channel contents that may or may not be desired in certain games so sometimes it helps games look better while other times it ruins them entirely.
- Does not work with multi-core CPUs which means you cannot combine your graphics card with your CPU for better results.
- Effects are visible on transparent textures as well as alpha channel contents, but the blurring is less obvious than FXAA.
Types of Combined Anti-aliasing
Some methods that combine super-sampling and blurring are discussed below.
Temporal Anti-aliasing (TXAA)
TXAA combines spatial and post-processing anti-aliasing methods to soften the image in less time, providing excellent results, but TXAA requires massive computing power.
TXAA Features:
- Offers enhanced image quality
- Do not blur textures and alpha channel contents that may or may not be desired in certain games.
- Reduces motion blurring greatly compared to MSAA, but the motion blurring is still noticeable because TXAA does not have enough strength to remove it entirely from a fast-moving scene.
- Combines two anti-aliasing techniques: spatial and post-processing
- Blurs textures including alpha channel contents which sometimes improve the image quality of a game or ruin it entirely depending on your preferences or requirements. So use this technique only if you know how to balance between good and bad effects of blurring.
TXAA Pros:
- Provides improved image quality
- Does not blur alpha channel contents
- Reduces motion blurring greatly compared to MSAA
- Offers better image quality than both FXAA and MLAA combined
- Combines two anti-aliasing techniques: spatial and post-processing. Thus, it offers excellent results with less blur compared to FXAA and MLAA which only use one technique.
TXAA Cons:
- Blurs textures including alpha channel contents which sometimes improve the image quality of a game or ruin it entirely depending on your preferences or requirements. So use this technique carefully and balance between good and bad effects of blurring.
- Requires massive computing power; thus the downside is that TXAA has a negative impact on games' performance even if you play at low settings.
Enhanced Sub-pixel Morphological Anti-aliasing (SMAA)
This method utilizes the same blurring technique as FXAA/MLAA combining super-sampling. It’ll deliver great image and performance results, using less computing power.
SMAA Features:
- Offers an image quality close to MSAA-4X and CSAA-8X combined but at high speeds
- Blurs textures including alpha channel contents that may or may not be desired in certain games. So sometimes it helps games look better while other times it ruins them entirely.
- Combines two anti-aliasing techniques: spatial and post-processing
- Does not require special abilities when it comes to handling the tool; anyone can use it; however, since it is not compatible with multi-GPU configurations, you cannot combine multiple graphics cards for better results.
SMAA Pros:
- Offers improved image quality without reducing game performance
- Extremely fast which means it offers the best performance compared to other combined anti-aliasing techniques especially too fast for the human eye to notice any blur.
- Offers an image quality close to MSAA-4X and CSAA-8X combined but at high speeds. Thus it provides excellent results but at extremely high speeds which is not possible with traditional super-sampling.
- Combines two anti-aliasing techniques: spatial and post-processing thus, it offers better results than FXAA/MLAA which only uses one technique.
SMAA Cons:
- Blurs textures including alpha channel contents that may or may not be desired in certain games so sometimes it helps games look better while other times it ruins them entirely.
- Does not work with multi-core CPUs; although, it is not a drawback if you have a decent quad-core CPU since any modern quad cores can handle the load with ease.
- Does not work with multi GPU configurations which means if you want to combine multiple GPUs for better results, this method is not compatible with your plans.
Conservative Morphological Anti-aliasing (CMAA)
CMAA provides less blurring than FXAA but smoothes out the image more than SMAA. You’ll get a decent picture quality with good performance. Thus, this method is a good choice for mid-end PCs.
CMAA Features:
- Offers an image quality similar to MSAA but at the expense of lower performance compared to FXAA/MLAA and SMAA
- Avoids blurring textures including alpha channel contents which sometimes improve the image quality of a game or ruin it entirely depending on your preferences or requirements. So use this technique only if you know how to balance between the good and bad effects of blurring.
- Combines two anti-aliasing techniques: spatial and post-processing thus, it offers better results than FXAA/MLAA which only uses one technique.
CMAA Pros:
- Does not blur alpha channel contents [thus avoiding possible problems that occur when you enable other anti-aliasing techniques which blur alpha channel contents like low contrast textures and missing HUD elements if the anti-aliasing technique blurs alpha channel.
- Do not blur textures including alpha channel contents which may improve or ruin image quality in games. So if you want to use this tool, it is necessary that you know how to balance between the good and bad effects of blurring.
- Offers an image quality similar to MSAA but at the expense of lower performance compared to FXAA/MLAA and SMAA. Thus it offers better results than FXAA/MLAA if your PC cannot handle their high requirements but at a slower speed compared to SMAA which is faster than CMAA also.
- Combines two anti-aliasing techniques: spatial and post-processing thus, it offers better results than FXAA/MLAA which only uses one technique.
CMAA Cons:
- You cannot combine multiple GPUs for better results since the tool is not compatible with multi GPU configurations. Thus if you are using a high-end graphics card to provide the best performance possible, this method will disappoint you.
Final Thoughts: Which is the best anti-aliasing method for you?
You could use the AA methods depending on your hardware. With a moderately-powered GPU that tends to overheat, you might use SMAA or CSAA. If you have a slightly better functioning GPU than a moderate one with standard ventilation parts, try using SMAA, FXAA/MLAA, and MSAA. If you use a gaming-optimized GPU with liquid cooling, then use SSAA, TXAA, or MSAA. With graphics cards manufactured by NVIDIA and AMD, you should be able to get an anti-aliasing setting without any issues.