Them Sneaky Advanced Video Settings

Ahh... you've seen them around: ole "Filtering Mode" or maybe even "Vertical Sync." They are in the "Advanced" section of your favorite PC games, which makes you think that you're not cool enough or baddass enough to change them...am I right? Well, I'm finally going to de-mystify all of the settings and show if they are really worth the FPS drop.

All of the FPS tests were done with Counter Strike: Source inside Windows XP Home Edition. My computer has 2 GB of RAM, a 6600 Core 2 Duo, and a 7900 GT all on a Intel D975XBX motherboard running. The resolution is 1280x1024 with 2x MSAA Anti-aliasing on.

Anti-aliasing
Well, this one isn't very complicated, but has a lot to do with how well your games will look.
The difference between having it off and on is jagged edges. If it is on, your games will have a much smoother look to them. In case you were wondering, this is done by blending the colors of the object and background, instead of an abrupt change in color. This must be done because it is impossible to recreate a diagonal line using square pixels.

With-out: 175 FPS










With(4x MSAA): 114 FPS


(make sure you click on the images to see them in their full screen goodness)

As you can see, although the FPS drop, Anti-aliasing makes your game look a hell-u-va lot better. Depending on whether you're an FPS whore or a graphics whore, you might want to change that setting. You can also go with the happy medium of 2x MSAA, which is what I have my game set to.

Vertical Sync
Vertical Sync has to do with your monitor not being able to display the frames that it gets from your videocard fast enough. Say the game is running at 100 FPS and your monitor has a refresh rate of 60 Hz. Even though your videocard is producing 100 frames, your monitor can only output 60 of them a second. The extra frames build up, and this causes screen tearing. Screen tearing looks like two frames that were mashed together. It causes the picture to not line up evenly; part of your screen will have one frame, while the other will have the other frame.
It will look something like this:

Whether you want to have this setting off or on depends on both your video card, monitor, and your personal preference. If vertical sync is off, your FPS will go as high as it feels, but screen tearing can happen. If it is on, your FPS will be limited to the exact refresh rate of your monitor, perhaps cutting your FPS in half. In my case, the FPS of my game would be limited to 70, because the refresh rate of my monitor is 70 Hz.

Filtering Mode
Filtering mode is how high the resolution of textures stay as you move farther away from them. If filtering mode is set to its highest, then a texture that is far away will continue to look crisp and detailed. On the off setting, the texture will look less detailed and possibly, as i like to say, "pixelicious". As you can gather, setting Filtering Mode to a higher setting will definitely take a chunk of your FPS away. The question is: just how much?

Bilinear: 140 FPS

Anisotropic 16x: 118 FPS


After looking at the two pictures side by side, you can see the huge difference. The screenshot with 16x is much clearer from everything to the pothole in the road (which nearly disappears in the other shot) to the graffiti on the door. I would, again, recommend setting this to somewhere in between (such as 4x) to achieve a high FPS and decent graphic quality.
More\Pictures to come...

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