NVIDIA Forceware v77.7x: New SLI AA Modes & Mainstream SLI

Name: NVIDIA Forceware v77.7x: New SLI AA Modes & Mainstream SLI - Page 4
Brand: NVIDIA

by Marco Chiappetta — Tuesday, July 19, 2005, 12:00 PM EDT

For this next batch of screenshots, we used the popular game Battlefield 2. To capture the images below, we set all of the game's graphical options to their highest settings and configured the resolution for 1280x960. And like the Half Life 2 screenshots on the previous page, the NVIDIA 7800 GTX "No AA" and "4X AA" shots, and both of the ATI X850 XT PE screenshots, were taken with the AA level set from within Battlefield 2. But for the SLI 8X and SLI 16X shots, AA was enabled through NVIDIA's drivers. Unfortunately, we were unable to capture 8xS screen shots in Battlefield 2 as well, and do not have them for comparison below...

Battlefield 2 Image Quality Analysis: SLI Anti-Aliasing

NVIDIA vs. ATI

GeForce 7800 GTX 1280x960- No AA	GeForce 7800 GTX 1280x960- 4x AA	GeForce 7800 GTX 1280x960- SLI 8X AA	GeForce 7800 GTX 1280x960- SLI 16x AA
GeForce 7800 GTX 1280x960- No AA 200% Zoom	GeForce 7800 GTX 1280x960- 4x AA 200% Zoom	GeForce 7800 GTX 1280x960- SLI 8x AA 200% Zoom	GeForce 7800 GTX 1280x960- SLI 16x AA 200% Zoom
	Radeon X850XT PE 1280x960- No AA	Radeon X850XT PE 1280x960- 6x AA
	Radeon X850XT PE 1280x960- No AA 200% Zoom	Radeon X850XT PE 1280x960 - 6x AA 200% Zoom

Capturing the exact same image with both cards, at every different setting, proved to be difficult with Battlefield 2, thanks to the numerous spawn points available within each map. The images above were taken in the "Shaqi Peninsula" map at approximately the same position, though. As you can see, enabling anti-aliasing has a dramatic affect on the scene. Once again, the "No AA" shots were comparable, and ATI's 6X AA falls somewhere in between NVIDIA's 4X and SLI 8X modes in terms of image quality. SLI 16X AA, however, did the best job, although we did have one issue with the scene that seems to be related to the angle at which we captured the screenshot.

If you take a look at the whole scene, and focus on the fence and barbed wire at the left, you can clearly see that SLI 16X AA produced the cleanest images. This is also evident in the trusses of the radio tower. But if you look at the zoomed portion of the scene, the fence at the right off in the distance seemed to be more dense in the SLI 16X AA shots. This anomaly is probably related to the slight differences in the angle at which the screenshots were taken, however.

Tags: Nvidia, sli, Stream, mod, mainstream, Forceware, AA, force, EA, AI, id, AR, AM

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com