4K + AA in games

[SweetLead]

If I play games on 4k resolution and gonna turn on MSAA, would I have better graphics or not or 4k + MSAA is just waste of framerates? And why MSAA is not necessary when I play on 4k resolution. People says on youtube that when you play GTA V on 4k, MSAA is not necessary.

[alenjenny]

I hope I'm not too late to post this. I've been gaming on 4k resolution for more than half a year now. i'm using Nvidia Geforce GTX 1080 SLI. for every title that I played, new and old, I've maxed out all the settings, except for AA. I've tested all the titles with AA and without AA and here's my conclusion:

1. with AA on at 4k, it actually made the overall image quality WORSE than without AA. all the tiny fine details at the edges became blurry and defeats the purpose of playing at 4k resolution. with AA on, the image sort of downgraded to a 1440p quality. this is particularly obvious if you have smaller to medium size 4k monitor (40" and below. personally, i'm using 28" 4k monitor) and you are looking at a scene with many tiny small details (like a tree, bushes, grass, hair, etc). without AA, the 4k image will look extremely sharp, crisp and clear. with AA on, the whole image is blurred and no longer retain the microscopic details that you can only see in 4k.

2. with AA on, it has a huge performance impact as well, i estimate between 15 to 30% worse than without AA on.

so in conclusion, there is absolutely no reason to turn on AA if you are gaming at 4k, not to mention the limited GPU power resources that you have which should be directed at powering other graphical quality instead of AA. even the latest GTX 1080ti only manages to surpass 60fps in some of the current latest titles at 4k resolution without everything maxed out. if you are gaming at 4k, the edges of the 3D rendered model is so sharp that you wont see the jagged lines like you do on 1080p (which is why you need AA on 1080p), UNLESS you put your nose to your screen, perhaps you'll notice a little very microscopic jagged-ness along the lines.

so, set your graphical settings wisely and enjoy 4k gaming. it's really something and a whole new level of satisfaction and experience. hope this helps!

[Nerd]

Only about 7 months too late

[SweetLead]

it's ok. thanx for long response. I already play games on 4k without any type of AA. And it's beautiful. AA on 4k is non sense I find out till now. This year i will buy another gtx 1070.

[alenjenny]

coming from GTX 1080 SLI, I would advise you to hold that 1070 purchase and reconsider first. Not all major titles support SLI profiles, so most of the time, I had to game on a single GTX 1080. Fortunately, it's powerful enough to run all the games at max setting above 30fps. average frame rate is around 40 - 70fps. if you currently own a 1070 and you're planning to get another one so that you can do 1070 SLI and have enough power to game 4k at max settings, you'll have to be ready to accept that when you come across games that doesnt support SLI profiles, you'll have to compromise big on that. you will only be able to run the game on a single 1070, which isnt powerful enough for 4k.

my advice, if budget allows, is to get a single Nvidia GTX 1080ti (and perhaps sell off your current 1070). the benchmarks are out and this GPU alone is enough to kick all games up to 60fps at max settings. OR, if you're not in a hurry, you may want to wait for AMD's upcoming Vega. it's still mysterious how well this GPU will perform, but preliminary introductions show promising results for this GPU. if AMD plays it out right, it may be able to outperform 1080ti, although that can be a little far fetch. expect AMD to release more news on Vega soon, which is projected to be released before the end of June 2017.

Either way, all I'm saying is, single GPU is better than playing in SLI or CF, considering the stability issues, and not all games support multi-GPU. if you're lucky, multi-GPU support may be developed some time after the game was released. if not, it may never be developed at all (i.e. batman arkham knight, and many other titles out there). just a thought

[SweetLead]

Yeah. Maybe I will sell GTX 1070 and buy gtx 1080Ti