Antialiasing makes jagged gaming graphics smoother, but some methods hit your GPU much harder than others.
It used to be a solution to get a gaming machine and use anti-aliasing to the fullest. If you could get 4x or 8x MSAA without your game looking like a slideshow, you’d be doing pretty well. These days, this basic charting option has morphed into an alphabet soup of FXAA, SMAA, TAA, DLAA, and other combinations that look like someone dropped a bag of Scrabble tiles.
Fortunately, they all tackle the same problem. Games must represent curved, diagonal edges on a grid of square pixels, which can result in stair-step patterns called “jaggies.” Antialiasing smooths out these rough edges, but there are several ways to do it.
Some ask your GPU to calculate additional samples. Others filter the image after it is rendered, while newer temporal techniques use information from previous frames. The idea is to get sharper edges, but there’s usually a tradeoff, like lower frame rates, softer detail, or occasional ghosting.
Why different antialiasing methods seem distinct
SSAA (supersampling anti-aliasing) takes the brute force approach, rendering the image at a higher resolution before downsampling it to the final resolution. This works pretty well, but is extremely demanding on your GPU, which can lead to lower frame rates and other performance issues.
MSAA (multi-sample anti-aliasing) is a bit more reasonable. It does not oversample the entire image, but focuses more samples on the edges of the geometry. The more samples you use, the smoother the edges can appear, but the greater the GPU load.
There is, however, a catch. MSAA primarily addresses geometric edges, while aliasing from materials, textures, and transparent surfaces can remain. Epic’s current Unreal Engine documentation supports MSAA only with the direct renderer, not its desktop deferred renderer. This is one of the reasons why the common MSAA modes 2x, 4x and 8x are not always available in newer titles.
FXAA (Fast Approximate Antialiasing) and SMAA (Subpixel Morphological Antialiasing) solve the problem after the image is rendered. FXAA detects high contrast edges and smoothes them. It’s quick and relatively inexpensive, but can soften image details. SMAA uses more advanced edge and pattern detection to retain sharpness while keeping performance cost relatively low.
Modern antialiasing changes the decision
TAA (temporal anti-aliasing) brings previous frames back into the frame. It can smooth out jagged edges and help minimize creeping and reflections sometimes seen on fences, foliage, power lines and distant objects as the camera pans.
This last part is important. Two antialiasing methods can appear almost identical in a paused screenshot, while panning the camera can reveal shimmering, blurry, or ghosting trails almost instantly. When comparing settings, move around. Staring at the same wall for 30 seconds isn’t a very good graphics test.
TAA can cause blurring or ghosting when information from previous images does not line up correctly. If your GPU is the limiting factor, reducing or disabling antialiasing can improve performance, which could be beneficial in a competitive shooter. But that doesn’t necessarily mean turning it off is the best setting. It’s not always a good deal to gain a few fps while the distant fences are all twinkling like Christmas lights.
NVIDIA does not position DLAA (deep learning anti-aliasing) as a performance gain: it uses the same Super Resolution technology developed for DLSS but works at native resolution, while AMD has a similar native AA mode with FSR. Intel’s XeSS also has a Native Anti-Aliasing mode that works at native resolution. Our GPU buying guide can help you if you’re looking for a better experience on a budget.
