Why do people keep Antialiasing off?

Quick question.
I understand that antialiasing can be the thing that make or break your gaming experience.
But why do heavy gamers turn all other settings up to the max and have AA off?

I mean, if you have a super rigged system, why turn off anti aliasing? Why not turn it up at least a little bit?

Do gamers really not care about jagged edges?

 

it doesnt make or break your experiance. what does is lag. thats where aa is bad. most hardcore gamers want to keep thier fps above 60, and with aa its hard to keep it at that. also at native res AA isnt all that useful.

 

personally, i really hate jagged edges. a lot. i play left 4 dead with AA set to the max while on native resolution. I still see jagged edges. why?

but what exactly did you mean at its native resolution, it isnt all that helpful>?

 

When the resolution is very high, the jagged edges or lines will become lessen.
When the resolution is very low, the jagged edges and lines is more.
AA is resources hog. Higher number = lagger
Personally, I would leave AA 2xMSAA and maximal resolution with max-out graphic/texture/shader setting if I am using a gaming desktop(you can put 16x AA without any lagness).
AA(more than 2x) is more important if you're on a smaller resolution to decrease the ugly jagged lines. For big resolution, you can either turn it off(to reduce resources usage) or set it to 2x.

I am jagged lines hater. But I am using AS 6920G only. So, got no choice. I need to adjust everything nicely. So, the images is nice to see and without lagness. Probably, will turn-off AA on HIGH-END games.

 

^This.

Jaggies doesn't bother me at all. Hell, I'm still playing games that are over 20 years old!

 

AA will eat your graphics card alive and throw heat as digestion!

 

Well, you see, the reason why I am asking is because i own an alienware M17x with dual GTX 280M in SLI. And my rig doesnt care about heat since the half of the entire bottom of the system is a venting system.

 

You have a Gaming Beast.
You can have AA turned on(I would say 2x is enough if you play in full resolution) with all settings max-out and full resolution.
AA will not increase the heat of the GPU. Unless the GPU you use haven't reach its maximal usage without AA. So, when AA turned on, it will use more GPU usage(maybe used all) and increase the heat to its maximum.

For a low end GPU, you can try 16x MSAA and None-AA.
The GPU temperature is the same.

 

I run AA on eve online as the jaggies are quite bad, i force 24x AA via the control pannel and all my issues go away haha.

 

I'm a stickler for vsync and tearing, since 90% of the time I game on an external 32" LCD. Native resolution has highest priority, followed by in game settings. AA is too much of a performance hit on a lone 280M at 1080p, so it's typically out of the question.

 

i have a tricked out gaming desktop and my AA and AF is always 8x up. yeah i feel your pain i hate jagged edges too. i esp hate screen tearing, Vsync always be on.

 

Did you know anything about PC gaming graphics, before you received your notebook? Serious question, don't take it the wrong way.

 

The Jaggies won't screw with your aiming.

Suck FPS will screw with you when you are just trying to put one foot in front of the other.

AA just provides no performance benefits. It's aesthetics.

edit:

AF does help though. Along with view distance, which is why other settings are jacked up but AA is usually off or 2x.

 

Actually, the higher resolution you play at, the less AA becomes noticeable(and therefore, the more useless it becomes) I've come to experience.

 

More like, the more pixels you cram into a given space, the less jaggies you have on screen.

 

The ONLY way i can play a game is:

Native res
Vsync
AA x 2 Minimum
60 fps

ANYTHING else is secondary. however if i cant get those settings, i cant play (i tryed but i just cant)

Those jaggies really make a diff in games like BF2 where they make spotting an ennemy fast much harder...all these shiny jaggies taking your attention, the thought makes me shudder!

 

I dunno. I either run at 1280x800 with 6xAA or native 1680x1050 (notebook) or 1920x1200 (desktop) with no AA. I really can't tell a whole lot of difference with the newer games these days.

 

yeah some games dont need AA like CoD4. without AA its not THAT jagged, but some games are so jagged it hurts, like GTAIV.

HAWX is awesome with AA max, guess it depends on the game,

TF2 i definitely AA and AF.

 

I agreed AA usage is based on GAMES too.
I think GRID and Sims 3 will be sucks without AA.
But I see Prototype and Devil May Cry 4 are OK without AA.

 

like many already said..its different from game to game.

i usualy play without AA but always with AF! vsync..only use it when i got tearing..which is annoying..

 

You means the GRASS and LEAVES? XD

 

I used to go "OOOO, Antialiasing!" back when it was a major thing that just got introduced (GeForce 2/Voodoo5 era) but jagged edges just never bothered me much. I find AA is more of a performance hit than I'm willing to accept, AND it makes the image blurrier than I'm willing to accept.

 

I prefer to run AA, however if my system cannot handle it then I will disable it prior to disabling or lowering any other settings. In some games disabling AA can make it harder to see the outline of a sniper on a rooftop or ledge because they blend in with the jaggies on other buildings.

 

I usually run AA at around 4x if the game requirement is quite high. But sometimes I try turning it to the MAX. AA makes the edges smoother especially at close-up.

It isn't that huge, if you're not into details, plus max AA is eating up resources of your system making it slow.

If you have a good system, try playing GTA 4 at 0 AA and max AA and see the difference. Just for experiment.

 

At native res or close, I find AA is mostly pointless.

 

Precisely. I'd much rather have higher res, better lighting effects, and more draw distance.

 

AA vs higher res is a huge performance benefit - MSAA avoids running the fragment shader too many times and saves you ALU ops and texture bandwidth. The problem is that on most LCD, scaling is UGLY. Most TVs (my Bravia, for ex) have a decent scaling engine, so lower res + AA might not look as bad there. I'm working on some code that tries to render to an off-screen buffer and do the scaling itself, and bicubic seems to be better. Lancsoz would be awesome, but afaik GPUs use simple bilinear for LCD scaling, a true shame.