ATI GPU Clarification

[DoYouEvenModBro]

Hi All,

 

Sorry if this was answered but I am still very confused regarding ATI cards and forcing AA and AF. For some reason I am seeing conflicting instructions.  Am I supposed to be mirroring AA/AF in CCC as well as Skyrim launcher or do I just want to set in Skyrim Launcher and leave CCC AA/AF as "let application decide"?

[DoYouEvenModBro]

 

Always use application AA and AF over the GPU control panel. The application will apply AA and AF only to things which need it leading to the best performance. The control panel will apply it to things which either shouldn't have it or don't need it and is really intended as a means just to force it for games which don't have in-game options for AA and AF.

I agree with that notion as it's the rule of thumb for most of the games. However, Skyrim is one example where the in-game AA and AF options aren't the best standards of quality. Whilst it's not so evident when it comes to Anisotropic Filtering, AntiAliasing is one area where Skyrim really lacks grunt, hence why most people resort to other means, such as post-processing AA or various forms of SuperSampling. Anisotropic Filtering, on the other hand, has little performance impact, so it's best to just compare it yourself and see if the performance hit is significant (it's not from my experience).

 

If I force it through CCC then I DO NOT need to also force it in the skyrim launcher, right?

[Besidilo]

That's correct. But make sure it works in the first place. Take some screenshots for comparison and post them here.

 

Also, you will need to use the override multisampling method, since enhancing only works on existing AA render.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

That's correct. But make sure it works in the first place. Take some screenshots for comparison and post them here.

 

Also, you will need to use the override multisampling method, since enhancing only works on existing AA render.

Well I use SMAA injector so I shouldn't have to test it with AA. 

[Besidilo]

I don't understand, I thought you were forcing it from the CCC.

[Aiyen]

If you are using SMAA or any other post process AA then you should not be using anything similar from either the game or the control panel!

 

In general you should only have any given effect activated in one place! Then depending on performance and quality you can decide yourself which feature to use.

Otherwise you are most likely going to suffer weird graphical artifacts, or just immense performance slowdowns since the GPU is forced to render the same scene multiple times for no effect.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

I don't understand I thought you were forcing it from the CCC.

I'm only forcing AF from CCC. For AA I use SMAA injector. Well sometimes I try to force 2x Adaptive from CCC but I can't tell if it does anything. 

 

If I'm using ENB, should I only use ENB AF or is ENB AF OKAY to use in addition to the other AF? Remember I was getting graphical artifacts before with my 7970? I wonder if the double AF had anything to do with it. Either way I RMAd my card so I'm waiting for it to return before I give STEP another go.

[Aiyen]

If you are using ENB then just use that one. The difference between the various AF´s is so small in both quality and performance that you have to be actively looking for the differences anyway. As I said earlier, it ultimately comes down to a matter of taste, since the performance hit is so small that it is not even worth mentioning on todays cards.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

If you are using ENB then just use that one. The difference between the various AF´s is so small in both quality and performance that you have to be actively looking for the differences anyway. As I said earlier it ultimately comes down to a matter of taste, since the performance hit is so small that it is not even worth mentioning on todays cards.

So you're saying I should have CCC AF set to "let application decide", launcher AF set to "none" and then just use the ENB? Do you think my graphical artifacts could have been caused by having AF forced three times? Or do you think it was due to bad VRAM memory. I think it was the VRAM.

[WilliamImm]

If you think you've got bad VRAM, try running the Video Memory Stress Test to make sure that it's the case.

[rootsrat]

If you think you've got bad VRAM, try running the Video Memory Stress Test to make sure that it's the case.

 

FurMark is another good gfx card stress testing tool.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

 

If you think you've got bad VRAM try running the Video Memory Stress Test to make sure that it's the case.

FurMark is another good gfx card stress testing tool.

 

Furmark doesn't really stress memory at all so I wouldn't consider that a good test for VRAM.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

If you think you've got bad VRAM try running the Video Memory Stress Test to make sure that it's the case.

I tried that but it wont let me use more than 1 gb of vram on the test so it's kinda useless.

[rootsrat]

 

 

If you think you've got bad VRAM try running the Video Memory Stress Test to make sure that it's the case.

FurMark is another good gfx card stress testing tool.

 

Furmark doesn't really stress memory at all so I wouldn't consider that a good test for VRAM.

 

Oh? I wasn't aware of that... Is it more for clocks testing then?

[DoYouEvenModBro]

 

 

 

If you think you've got bad VRAM try running the Video Memory Stress Test to make sure that it's the case.

FurMark is another good gfx card stress testing tool.

 

Furmark doesn't really stress memory at all so I wouldn't consider that a good test for VRAM.

 

Oh? I wasn't aware of that... Is it more for clocks testing then?

 

I believe it is more for testing for temperature related problems and core clock, yea. I tried the Video Memory Stress Test that William mentioned above but I can't get it to stress my full 3gb of vram.

[rootsrat]

 

 

 

 

If you think you've got bad VRAM try running the Video Memory Stress Test to make sure that it's the case.

FurMark is another good gfx card stress testing tool.

 

Furmark doesn't really stress memory at all so I wouldn't consider that a good test for VRAM.

 

Oh? I wasn't aware of that... Is it more for clocks testing then?

 

I believe it is more for testing for temperature related problems and core clock, yea. I tried the Video Memory Stress Test that William mentioned above but I can't get it to stress my full 3gb of vram.

 

Apologies for confusing the matter then! Should have really read up about the tool before recommending...