ATI X1000 Graphics Family

With this next set of screen shots, we followed a similar procedure outlined on the two previous pages to evaluate the effect of the ATI's new anisotropic filtering techniques on a given scene.  The screen shots below are from Half-Life 2's "background 4" map. We've again compared similar settings using the GeForce 7800 GTX, Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition, and a Radeon X1800 XT. For this set of screen shots, anti-aliasing was disabled to isolate the effect each card's respective anisotropic filtering algorithms altered the images.

Image Quality Analysis: Anisotropic Filtering NVIDIA vs. ATI - The Perpetual Battle Continues

GeForce 7800 GTX No Aniso	GeForce 7800 GTX 8X Aniso	GeForce 7800 GTX 16x Aniso
GeForce 7800 GTX No Aniso - Close Up	GeForce 7800 GTX 8x Aniso - Close Up	GeForce 7800 GTX 16x Aniso - Close Up

Radeon X850 XT PE No Aniso	Radeon X850 XT PE 8x Aniso	Radeon X850 XT PE 16x Aniso
Radeon X850 XT PE No Aniso - Close Up	Radeon X850 XT PE 8x Aniso - Close Up	Radeon X850 XT PE 16x Aniso - Close Up

Radeon X1800 XT No Aniso	Radeon X1800 XT 8x Aniso	Radeon X1800 XT 16x Aniso
Radeon X1800 XT No Aniso - Close Up	Radeon X1800 XT 8x Aniso - Close Up	Radeon X1800 XT 16x Aniso - Close Up
Radeon X1800 XT No Aniso	Radeon X1800 XT 8x High-Quality Aniso	Radeon X1800 XT 16x High-Quality Aniso
Radeon X1800 XT No Aniso - Close Up	Radeon X1800 XT 8x High-Quality Aniso - Close Up	Radeon X1800 XT 16x High-Quality Aniso - Close Up

As we mentioned a couple of pages ago, take note of the file names when browsing through the enlarged versions of these images. It'll help you keep track of which card was used to snap the screen shot. When perusing the images above, pay special attention to the lower left portion of the scene, as this is where anisotropic filtering has the most impact. In the "No Aniso" shots at the top, which have only trilinear filtering enabled, the blurring in the road is clearly evident.

However, with 8X anisotropic filtering enabled, the detail in the road is dramatically enhanced. If you open each of the standard shots individually and skip through them quickly, you're likely to notice a bit more detail in the shots taken with the GeForce 7800 GTX, disregarding artifacts produced by the JPG compression.

The same seemed to be true when inspecting the 16x aniso images. Of course, image quality analysis is objective by its nature, but based on these images, we think the GeForce 7800 GTX has the best image quality as it relates to anisotropic filtering when standard "optimized" aniso is used. The new Radeon X1000 family of graphics cards offer another "high quality" anisotropic mode, that doesn't have the same angular dependency as ATI's previous generation of cards.  The new high-quality aniso mode offered by the X1000, applies nearly the same level of filtered regardless of the angle.  Overall, the effect of enabling ATI's high-quality aniso mode is positive, as it does an even better job of sharpening texture and increasing the detail level.  The fully appreciate ATI's high-quality aniso mode though, you've got to see it in action. Still screen shots don't convey the full effect.