G80 MSAA sample patterns

[Humus]

But if it's true that programmable patterns will be introduced in DX10.1, I assume there also have to be benefits in non-CrossFile/SLI modes? Any ideas what they may be?

Well, any custom AA resolve pattern would be easier to code. If you're going to do anything more advanced that just equally weighted samples in a pixel it would be nice to be able to place the samples whatever way you like. Or at the very least know where the samples are so you know what weight to put on each sample. Especially if you want to access samples from neighbor pixels and stuff like that you'd probably want to access the closest samples (if you're not grabbing all), so you'd want to know which sample that is.