nVidia FXAA vs in-game anti aliasing??

[hummatov]

nVidia FXAA vs in-game anti aliasing??

Specs:

Alienware 18
i-7 4910 MQ processor
GTX 880M SLI ( each gpu is supposed to have 8 gb memory so a total of 16gb)

16GB RAM memory.

I tried to switch off the in-game anti- aliasing and used the nVidia FXAA, but did not gain much fps increase.

With everything switched ON and maxxed out, I can only get 35 fps. Especially since patch 1.05. Latest nVidia driver, SLI enabled, Maximize 3d Performance option ticked in nVidia Control Panel. I heard that a guy was abe to max out the game at 50 fps with 780M sli. So with my setup of 880m sli, i should be able to at least match his performance, what am I missing? I feel the GPU-s are not working to their full potential. How can I get them to work harder? May be there is some factory limits built in to lim8t power usage or performance. Any more options i can unlock in nVidia panel?

I think nVidia does a very good job of keeping their drivers up to date. But they cannot keep up if CD Projekt Red releases a patch every other day and sh**s into everything.

 

[leinad312]

Try turning down water detail, for some reason that kills my FPS on SLI 770s. Have you tried other forms of AA besides FXAA? I get better fps using 2x MSAA and turning off the in-game AA. Also VRAM does not stack in SLI, at least not until DX12. Even so, I doubt the 8 GB of VRAM is the issue.

 

[papnaruto]

GTX 880M SLI ( each gpu is supposed to have 8 gb memory so a total of 16gb)

You think VRAM just stacks up like that ? I wasn't expecting much from an Alienware buyer, no offense, but come on dude ...

When working in SLI, both GPUs need to store the information, meaning that you only get 8 GB of vram available for use, everything being mirrored.
That being said, Vram is never a problem unless you got like 1 GB.

As for your "problem" : Given that one single GTX 880M gives 20-23 fps, I think you should be pretty happy to get 35 with two ...

SLI has never been the best idea. This function is very flawed, with drivers not being optimized and micro-stuttering happening constantly.

 

[tyrindor]

You think NVIDIA needs to re-release a new driver after every game patch? You think with SLI you just add up VRAM? Even at extremely high resolutions, the game doesn't need over 4GB. Even if it did, those cards are no where near fast enough to properly utilize 8GB of VRAM.

You could of built a desktop with 2x Titan X for the price you probably paid for that alienware laptop - and it would run circles around it. A proper i7 overclocked processor can do wonders in this game. Mobile processors generally have much lower stock clocks, and can't be overclocked.

This is not a game you should expect to max with decent FPS on a laptop.

 

[gryzemuis]

The best looking AA, which costs the least compute power, is imho SMAA.
Give it a try. Disable in-game AA, and use SMAA.

The easiest way to do SMAA is by installing SweetFX. I suggest you try ReShade+SweetFX.
Get it here: http://reshade.me/
If you just want to use SMAA, then make sure that the list of features at the start of the config file are all set to 0. Except SMAA.
Or else you can grab a config file someone else has made. (May I suggest KPutt's preset ? It's rather subtle, and very good).

PS. Here is post by me, on another forum, explaining in detail how to install SweetFX.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37418769&postcount=1567

 

[chrisco54]

Your better off shutting down Nvidia panel and use the in-game settings. Mobile cards just don't have the power to run a game like this at full throttle so use the engines settings. Your CPU is probably bottle-necking your performance anyways.
This game will give your system a workout so keep an eye on heat. Heat slows everything down.
Lastly the 880m has about the same performance as the 660ti. So with your system your barely at minimum requirements anyways.

Try turning down water detail, for some reason that kills my FPS

Nvidia has always had issues rendering water.

 

[White_Wolf77]

Is there a noticeable difference with AA off?

Yes, you will see distant object edges flicker when you move Geralt around.

 

[hummatov]

Your better off shutting down Nvidia panel and use the in-game settings. Mobile cards just don't have the power to run a game like this at full throttle so use the engines settings. Your CPU is probably bottle-necking your performance anyways.
This game will give your system a workout so keep an eye on heat. Heat slows everything down.
Lastly the 880m has about the same performance as the 660ti. So with your system your barely at minimum requirements anyways.


Nvidia has always had issues rendering water.

Thanks, everyone, for great feedback! Yes, i regret buying the alienware. I guess.

Got a question though. Having ULTRA for the Water, affects the fps even when you are not near the water or not? I guess, this might explain a lot of the issues i am having.

---------- Updated at 09:03 AM ----------

So, basically using nVidia's FXAA is useless? But generally, which one do you think normally takes more performance away? FXAA or built in anti-aliasing? Because i did not notice anything different? Even with fps counter.

---------- Updated at 09:04 AM ----------

The best looking AA, which costs the least compute power, is imho SMAA.
Give it a try. Disable in-game AA, and use SMAA.

The easiest way to do SMAA is by installing SweetFX. I suggest you try ReShade+SweetFX.
Get it here: http://reshade.me/
If you just want to use SMAA, then make sure that the list of features at the start of the config file are all set to 0. Except SMAA.
Or else you can grab a config file someone else has made. (May I suggest KPutt's preset ? It's rather subtle, and very good).

PS. Here is post by me, on another forum, explaining in detail how to install SweetFX.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37418769&postcount=1567

Does nVidia Control Panel not have the SMAA option to tick? Only FXAA?

 

[chrisco54]

Nvidia's control panel and SweetFX are for games that don't have AA options. This game has plenty of post-processing options so you don't need to rely on 3rd party software. SMAA is a third party algorithm not part of Nvidia.
Your problem is, you're trying to run this game on ultra with a (laptop) system that's barely at requirement level. Turn the settings to low and work up from there.

As I said before your gonna have heat issues with a SLI laptop so turn everything down. When systems over heat the graphics start to tear or act weird. You'll also notice a serious FPS drop. Once you push a laptop to that point you pretty much ruined it so be careful not to do that.

 

[gryzemuis]

Does nVidia Control Panel not have the SMAA option to tick? Only FXAA?

No. SMAA was developed by someone else. And it seems nVidia (and AMD) are not including it in their drivers. I've seen a few games that had SMAA in-game (Crysis 3, I believe). Generally you need to enable SMAA yourself. Either by using the SMAA-injector, or by using SweetFX/ReShade.

I recommend SweetFX/ReShade because that's actively been worked on. And you can get a few more effects with SweetFX if you want. Like sharpening (not necessary in TW3, I guess). Or messing with gamma and contrast. (I have my gamma bit darker. The in-game gamma isn't enough for me). The performance overhead of using SweetFX/ReShade is so low, that you won't notice it.

Nvidia's control panel and SweetFX are for games that don't have AA options.

I don't agree. I use SweetFX in almost all my games these days. Because you can always do better than the default.

There are even a number of games where I combine in-game AA with SMAA. E.g. in Skyrim, even when I enabled 4xMSAA, I would still see temporal aliasing (the slight white flickering when something moves in the distance. Very noticable on the loading screen). So in Skyrim I use 4xMSAA plus SMAA. That's the smoothest I can get it. In TW3 I use in-game AA plus SMAA.

Just give it a try. It might take only a few minutes to try. With the latest SMAA/ReShade the button works again, to enable/disable the effects in game (press ScrollLock to toggle).