Benchmark Results: Highest Quality, FSAA
In the following benchmarks, we see the performance of various cards running under the highest-quality settings, and that includes motion blur and post-processing effects. It also includes anti-aliasing, and since there are two anti-aliasing options, we’ll start with FSAA.
The FSAA mode included in Duke Nukem Forever isn’t based on the typical two- or four-sample MSAA technique we’re used to seeing. It uses four samples from three different buffers: the deferred normal buffer, deferred depth buffer, and output color buffer, all the same size as the target resolution. The normal and depth buffer are used to create an edge detection algorithm, and the result is used as a multiplier to the four samples taken from the output color buffer for the result.
At first glance it sounds like twelve samples, but since eight of those are used for edge detection, the result is probably most comparable to standard 4x MSAA.
With FSAA enabled, the GeForce GT 430 is unplayable, while the Radeon HD 5570 and GeForce GT 240 are only able to deliver a minimum 30 FPS at 1280x1024.
There’s a lot of performance variance across the other cards and resolutions. But the important thing to note is that every option achieves at least 30 FPS minimum. That means that even during the difficult parts, things never get too choppy.
Aside from this, the performance advantage that the GeForce cards showed at medium details is no longer present. AMD's Radeon-based cards even seem to be slightly faster at comparable price points with maximum detail and FSAA enabled.
Now let’s try Nvidia’s new FXAA anti-aliasing method.