Should I set Antialiasing in game or not with this system?

[octoberhungry]

OK so I understand Antialiasing is about smoothing edges but can impact performance...Now I've got a pretty high-end system (see specs below) but when I launch a game, e.g Half Life 2 Episode 1 in the Advanced graphics options within the game it defaults to have AntiAliasing turned off as denoted by an '*' which means 'recommended for your system'. All the other graphics settings are set to Max.

Now shouldn't my system be able to run it with MSAAx8 ? or at least x4? I know my AMD CCC software has AA controls too. Should I fiddle with those? Does the game decide I shouldn't run anti-aliasing because my system isn't powerful enough or because it's not needed since my graphics card handles is handling it?

OK I'm ranting now. I'm just trying to understand (and this goes for any game really) whether i should trust the in-game's default graphics settings that it's telling me or should i just whack up to full power and go for it? (I'm running at 1920x1080 res).

Thanks!

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

Just try.

I always put my settings ( in the game itself ) higher than recommended by the game without problems. AA can be demanding though.

 

[hunter315]

With a 3570k and a 7970 you will be able to max out any valve game easily, i don't know why it doesn't automatically set you to full AA and full AF but your system can handle it easily.


The CCC settings for AA and AF are for forcing them on a game which does not natively support it, have the game handle AA and AF when ever it has the option, it can choose to only perform AA and AF on the edges of the objects rather than across the entire image which allows it to reduce the performance penalty.

 

[octoberhungry]

With a 3570k and a 7970 you will be able to max out any valve game easily, i don't know why it doesn't automatically set you to full AA and full AF but your system can handle it easily.


The CCC settings for AA and AF are for forcing them on a game which does not natively support it, have the game handle AA and AF when ever it has the option, it can choose to only perform AA and AF on the edges of the objects rather than across the entire image which allows it to reduce the performance penalty.

Ah I see. OK I'll give it a shot tonight and report back. Nice one.

 

[killerhurtalot]

Ya. my GTX 670 FTW can already max every game with 16xAA/AF/Tesselation if possible.

I don't see why yours cannot.

 

[octoberhungry]

With a 3570k and a 7970 you will be able to max out any valve game easily, i don't know why it doesn't automatically set you to full AA and full AF but your system can handle it easily.


The CCC settings for AA and AF are for forcing them on a game which does not natively support it, have the game handle AA and AF when ever it has the option, it can choose to only perform AA and AF on the edges of the objects rather than across the entire image which allows it to reduce the performance penalty.

OK so I turned AA and AF up to the max and it runs superbly. Nice and smooth. A solid 60fps. Thanks!

 

[octoberhungry]

Best answer selected by octoberhungry.