What do YOU think looks best and what one do YOU use as im having a hard time deciding.

You may get a better response in the PC forum. I would suggest asking a mod to move this for you.

we havent got a general pc forum as this isnt a issue just an enquiry and its not mod related so it can only go here.

How can someone, who can't even see your monitor that is run by your video card in your room with your lighting and monitor position, tell you what looks better to you?

Pick a setting, if you like it and the game performance is still acceptable to you, then use that.

Im not asking people to tell me what looks better to ME just what they think looks best which could help me in deciding.

Normal anti-aliasing gives better image quality as it doesn't blur things, but it requires more GPU power than FXAA and similar methods.

Personally I use 4x AA and an extra SMAA.dll (better than FXAA) for a good performance/graphics compromise.


Edit: 8x AA + SMAA is probably the best you can get. No jagged edges and not too much blur.

x4 Anti-Aliasing is what you should be using, unless you've got a very low resolution monitor, where x8 AA might be needed.

With that said, at 1920 x 1080, the difference between x4 AA & x8 AA is so incredibly minor that it's difficult to tell ANY difference when you compare identical screenshots, both close-up object and distant ones.

FXAA's only real use is either a poor-mans Anti-Aliasing (AA), or if you're trying to smooth out all the foliage/tree's around the worldspace... As skyrims vegetation uses transparent textures, which means that even x8aa won't smooth them out completely.

X8 AA + FXAA makes the game look VERY smooth, but also somewhat "hazy"... Not bad, but not quit as sharp as it should be.. Basically defeating some of the purpose of AA in the first place.

TL:DnR - Use x4 Anti-aliasing, x8 doesn't provide much benefit... FXAA only if you have a [censored] computer or want to smooth out the tree's at the expense of overall sharpness.

Right thanks, so if i switch to 4x will it give any frames back? is the performance difference big?

Well it's half the AA, so yes, your performance will be much better.

I find FXAA distractingly blurry, but standard MSAA isn't good enough at getting rid of jagged edges for transparent textures and sub-pixel aliasing.

FXAA is good though when combined with super-sampling. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/26144715/bs.png.

The performance hit of x8 AA a little more than double of what x4 AA will do. So yes, if you're already using x8 Anti-aliasing, it will give you a few FPS back.

I use both. No idea if it actually makes any difference. At 1920 x 1200, the whole game looks terrific anyways ...