That really depends on what games you play and what kind of system you have. Having a fx5900xt wouldn't mean much if you were runnin' it on a axp 1500+ or p4 1.6.
Vsync, when turned on, locks your FPS(frames per second) to what your monitor's refresh rate is set at. Basically this is good to have for most games since locking the fps really smooths the gameplay.
AA and AF(Anisotropic Filtering) which I assume you are talking about when you say the "8" thing are very taxing to your system/fps when turned on.
What I recommend doing is to download a program called <A HREF="http://www.fraps.com" target="_new">FRAPS</A>. This is a neat program which lets you take screenshots and record game movies. But one of the best features is the FPS counter.
When you have the program turned on, up in the top left corner(default) there will be a number displayed. This is your FPS. Optimal FPS is 60. Anything over this is pretty much just a bonus. Once it gets under 30, things start to chug pretty bad.
If you notice the FPS is stuck at say, 60, 75, or 85, this means that you have VSync turned on. And your FPS will not go higher than this even though they probably could.
So play the game you want, look at the FPS. If it's really high, turn on some AA and/or AF. Start low. 2x AA 2x AF and work your way up. Most likely you will find a medium somewhere around 4x in most games. FRAPS will help you to gauge what levels of IQ(AA/AF) you can play with while maintaining playable framerates.
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MSI K8N Neo Platinum
Athlon 64 3200+ Newcastle
512mb Apacer pc3200
ATI 9800np 256-bit 128mb
3dMark01: 20,371 3dMark03: 6334 Aquamark3: 46,310
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