How to get the up to 40% gain on ATI w/o shader replacement

That was supersample AA, which is not available on DX9 class ATI cards. A slight positive lod bias might reduce the moire, but also introduce some blur, of course.

 

ah.... right I knew it was something like that because I didn't recall MSAA fixing anything like that.

So basically, since we no longer have SSAA, we should just turn up the resolution to get rid of the pattern?

 

A significant performance improvement

I've done some testing on my computer:

Athlon 64 3200+ 1MB cache, rev.CG @215FSB
MSI K8T Neo-FIS2R, BIOS v.1.70
1GB Corsair TwinX3200LLPT @2-3-2-6
Visiontek Xstasy RADEON x800 Pro @stock speed, Spirit 1.4.1 (based on the Cat 4.9b)
Win XP pro sp2

No other tweaks than Humus' latest, which I believe is the following:

Tests run in High quality, 1280x1024, 8xAF, otherwise default

CPQ = Anisotroping filtering set in control panel, Quality
CPP = Anisotroping filtering set in control panel, Performance
APP = Anisotroping filtering set from application

w/o Humus - diff CP - diff APP
CPQ 41.0 - -
CPP 41.0 - -
APP 50.6 - 23.4% -

w Humus:
CPQ 54.4 - 32.7% - 7.5%
CPP 55.5 - 35.4% - 9.7%
APP 55.8 - 36.1% - 10.3%

As a side note I myself run with 4xAF CPP as I see very little difference from 8xAF, giving me 56.1 fps. I still hit lows of 28 in demo1, and being a long since hardcore online quaker I can't tolerate much less even in single-player.

Well, I guess in Doom 3 I'm not particularly CPU-bound even with an x800 Pro, seeing I get a significant 10% performance gain even compared to the lossy IQ of application controlled AF (without Humus' tweak). And the gain compared to Control panel AF is not that far from the infamous 40% claim... If there is a similar gain on the X800XT PE I'm guessing ATI is closing in on Nvidia, and I certainly think there is a real reason for comparing cards with this tweak in mind.

BTW, if I use the "timedemo demo1.demo usecache" I still get a few fps more if a do a second run :? ah, well...

 

Demirug

After non-stop tweaking and testing, I found that the best method for me was just using demirugs tweak because it produces no differences in image and allows me to use CP Anisotropic Filtering with no performance loss whatsover. Humus's tweak did give me slightly better performance by like 1 frame, but it wasen't worth the weird zigzag outlines of shades on my gun and on some walls (even with the very latest Humus tweak).
Also, demirugs tweak boosts performance regardless of wether you are using App AF or CP AF. I'm a tech n00b!!!

 

spell check

wasn't*.......Just so noone annihilates me over that.