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There has been
quite a bit of discussion over the last few months regarding
the GeForce FX's image quality. Direct image quality
comparisons between Radeon 9700 / 9800 Pros and GeForce FX
5800's prove the Radeons have better overall image quality,
especially when Antialiasing and Anisotropic filtering are
used. We're not going to do another direct comparison
here, because NVIDIA has stated that a future driver update,
that should be available soon, will significantly change the
GeForce FX's image quality. We'll do another direct
comparison when those drivers are released. We did
take some screenshots to show what to expect from a GeForce
FX 5800 Ultra today though...
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Screenshots with Antialiasing Enabled |
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This
should give you some idea... |
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PIN-WHEEL: NO AA |
PIN-WHEEL: 2X AA |
PIN-WHEEL: 4X AA |
This first group
of screenshots were taken with the Pin-Wheel demo that
debuted in our
Radeon 9600 Pro review. The Pin-Wheel spins
slowly, so the jagged edges of each sector are never
stationary. It's a very simple tool, but it does a
great job of demonstrating the effect of Antialiasing.
As you can clearly see, the jaggies on each line are much
less apparent as the AA level is increased.
We also took
some screenshots with the A300 Ultra at every different AA
level available in NVIDIA's drivers using Unreal Tournament
2003. Luckily we used the Pin-Wheel demo as well,
because we weren't able to accurately represent 2X and
Quincunx AA with these screenshots. These AA levels
were functioning properly in-game, but when we took the
screenshots, they looked as if AA was not applied. We
took all of the screenshots above at 1024x768, with all of
UT2003's graphical options set at their maximum values.
We enlarged a small portion of the screen 400% to give you a
better idea of the affects of AA on the image. From 4X
- 6XS, it's clear the jagged edges are significantly
reduced. The 8X and 16X shots are also much less "jagged",
but differences between these two settings aren't very
apparent. After what we saw with the 2X and Quincunx
screenshots however, we can't be certain the 8X and 16X AA
methods are properly represented. Also, keep in mind
all of the screenshots on this page are compressed JPEGs.
Actual in-game image quality is much better than what you
see here...
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In
Game Screenshots with Anisotropic Filtering
using Quake 3 Arena |
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Quick and Dirty Screenies |
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We used Quake 3
Arena to demonstrate the affects of the GeForce FX 5800
Ultra's Anisotropic filtering method. Quake 3 has a
feature that basically color codes each mip-map level to
demonstrate the transition from one level to to the next.
To put things very simply, each band of color in the
screenshots above (also taken at 1024x768) represents a
different level of detail. The areas "closest" to the
viewer at the front of the image have the highest level of
detail, areas "furthest away" at the rear of the image have
the lowest level of detail. As each level of
Anisotropic filtering is enabled, textures are sharpened
more and more. The portion of the screen with the
highest level of detail extends further back into the
screen. We also included screenshots without the
colored banding so you can see exactly what the FX 5800
Ultra's Anisotropic filtering is doing to the image.
Let's Look at Some Numbers
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