The Best AA

[Reverend]

3dfx's VSA-100 had what was universally acclaimed as the best AA in terms of edge anti-aliasing quality (and edge AA quality alone... stuff such as aniso is discounted in this poll) back when it was introduced. Which of the following gaming card* has surpassed it in terms of edge AA IQ?

Feel free to not vote if your choice isn't a poll option but list your unavailable option.

*specifically mentioned due to the availability of the P10, which is still not a gaming card

 

[Kristof]

Technically it should be Matrox Parhelia but since they fail to AA every type of edge (Intersection Edges) I can't give them my vote.

K-

 

[alexsok]

Technically it should be Matrox Parhelia but since they fail to AA every type of edge (Intersection Edges) I can't give them my vote.

K-

I agree with you there (especially after these screenshots provided by Typedef Enum in another thread).

I'd say 6xAA of the R300 is the best on the market right now...

 

[martrox]

I have to agree..... since I got my Radeon 9700.... I've had to stop whining about how much I missed my V5.......

 

[Hyp-X]

The only two candidate for my vote is 6x R9700 and 16x Parhelia

Actually 4x RGMS approaches the quality of 16x OGMS (or FAA) in some respects.
So actually 6x can be better in some cases.

The R9700 can AA lines - Parhelia can't.
The R9700 can AA intersections - Parhelia can't.
The R9700 can AA with 24 bit Z buffer - Parhelia can't.
The R9700 can AA with stencil buffer - Parhelia can't.
The R9700 can AA in windowed as well as fullscreen...

My vote is for 6x R9700

 

[Bambers]

Even if 16xFAA did do all those then it would be close because the 9700 has gamma correction and a non ordered pattern so on near horizontal and vertical lines it has 5 intermediate gradients to parhelias 3.

 

[John Reynolds]

I haven't seen Parhelia's AA first-hand so I can't comment on it, but I will say this: I don't think the 9700's edge AA is as good as the V5's. For example, fire up UT2003's Anubis map and fly out into your team's courtyard, backing up toward your goal. Now fly towards the center of the map and look closely at the far sconce. There's some very apparent jag creep on it at 10x7 with 6x AA that simply wouldn't have been there at 10x7 and 4x AA on a V5.

Boy, am I going to get flamed for this. 8)

 

[jjayb]

I've got a 9700 and I'm completely impressed by its 6xaa. Didn't vote though because I've not used any of the above except the 9700, so I can't really compare.

 

[Tahir2]

I have to say the R300 and 6xFSAA

I have seen GF4 ti 4200 4xS and it is pretty nice too but the R300 with AF and 6XFSAA is unbeatable.

Cannot comment on the V5 modes only seen them once or twice briefly.

Smoothvision on the R200 was also very impressive (being SS) however it slowed down and was unusable in some games.

 

[maskrider]

The V5 excels in edge AA anyday over the current gaming cards in consistency (all stuffs will be AAed since it is SSAA ).

The 9700 is really good with its 6xAA but there are still some edges remain untouched (e.g. the flag over the human in WarCraft III human campaigns selection screen).

Ti4600 4xS is also very good, but can't touch 6xAA of 9700.

Haven't seen Matrox Parhelia yet but due to the limitations in the current 16xFAA it doesn't seem to be able to beat others.

 

[Ante P]

Let's just say I hope we can update the poll with a new alternative called:
"ATi R300 4xRGSS" within a couple of weeks... ATi has already spoken about the capability so all we need is drivers to support it.
I'd like FULL SCENE Anti Aliasing, not EDGE Anti Aliasing...

FSAA on the R200, NV20 and NV25 is horribly dissapointing.

If we're talking stricly IQ I'd say 8x RGSS on the Voodoo 5 6000 would be pretty nice.
Problem on the Voodoo is the texture filtering though... (But what about Aniso on the Voodoo there are some new drivers that claim to have a proper implementation of it.. doesn't sound likely to me but what do I know )

 

[Mephisto]

Technically it should be Matrox Parhelia [...].

I disagree. The R300 6X RGMSAA is equivalent to 36X OGMS for near horizontal and near vertical edges, so following your argumentation in the 3dfx white paper, 6x RGMSAA is better than 16X OGAA.

 

[Reverend]

Let's just say I hope we can update the poll with a new alternative called:
"ATi R300 4xRGSS" within a couple of weeks... ATi has already spoken about the capability so all we need is drivers to support it.
I'd like FULL SCENE Anti Aliasing, not EDGE Anti Aliasing...

I specifically mentioned only edge AA in this poll/thread... but I understand what you mean.

[edit]Again, you're talking about "vaporware" (see below) .

FSAA on the R200, NV20 and NV25 is horribly dissapointing.

There must be a point of reference for you to say that... vote or say why you think so here.

If we're talking stricly IQ I'd say 8x RGSS on the Voodoo 5 6000 would be pretty nice.

Vapourware don't count, mate!

Problem on the Voodoo is the texture filtering though... (But what about Aniso on the Voodoo there are some new drivers that claim to have a proper implementation of it.. doesn't sound likely to me but what do I know )

I made a point about aniso and of discounting it... it's all about edge AA.

 

[Ante P]

Yes well then I'd have to go with 6x MSAA on the R300 atm.

 

[Colourless]

But Reverend they are not vapourware... right now, if someone were to offer me enough money, I would sell them my V5 6000. You see, not vapourware, you can actually buy it, of course, I'd only sell it for a good enough price, and what that is I don't know.

Warcraft 3.... I think that all that could be said it there are lots of alpha tested textures. I personally wouldn't call the amount excessive, but there is still a lot. Even 2x RGSS helps out a lot there.

 

[Bambers]

Its not an officially realeased card however and theres only a few about generally selling for a few thousand on auction sites.

 

[Silent_One]

Personally I vote for the 9700 since i just got mine.

As I mentioned in the other thread I think Reverend should post an updated version of his thread w/photos on FSAA. I think it would be a LOT harder to pick a winner with the various methods used today, however it would be nice to compare

 

[gkar1]

I fell in love with the VSA-100 RGSS AA. i thought the quality could not be surpassed implementing a different method. I refused to upgrade to a card that didn't offer the same type of AA. ATI proved me wrong.
I specially find the gamma correction the best addition to antialiasing quality since the V5.

 

[antlers]

The edge AA quality of the 9700 is really good. But I play enough games with alpha textures that I miss super-sampling.

 

[Ante P]

The edge AA quality of the 9700 is really good. But I play enough games with alpha textures that I miss super-sampling.

The edge AA quality of the Ti4600 is good. But I play enough games with textures that I miss super-sampling.