ATi 5000 Series Image Quality Analysis
by BFG10K on Nov.01, 2009, under Articles, Technology
Introduction
This article is part three of a trilogy of articles devoted to the Juniper/Cypress series. In part one I covered performance. Part two covered bottlenecking and determined the 5770’s primary limitation isn’t memory bandwidth as many believed.
This article will investigate the 5770’s image quality and focus on anisotropic filtering and super-sampling. The system setup and methodology is exactly the same as in part one.
While the primary purpose of this article is to investigate the 5770’s image quality, the inevitable comparison to nVidia (GTX285) will also be made as required. For a refresher concerning image quality, please see the following articles I’ve written on the subject in the past:
Everything in those articles about ATi’s 2xxx/3xxx/4xxx series applies to the 5770, minus any differences covered in this article.
November 27th, 2009 on 11:45 pm
Wow, this is a godly article that I have been looking for, for a long time. PCPer had one that showed the differences of adjusting LOD with SSAA in Crysis, with -2.0 LOD lessening the blurriness of 8x SSAA, but I’ve never seen such an in-depth analysis of the hidden flaws of ATI’s new perfectly circular AF method!!!
One other thing to note about Nvidia’s AF method is that in the Nvidia Control Panel, one could select “High Quality” and turn off AF and other optimizations. That way, we are almost guaranteed to see truly trilinear AF. There is no way in ATI’s CCC to disable those optimizations (unless one completely turns off Catalyst A.I., which could also remove some of the valuable optimizations for a certain game). Well, I guess the hidden transitions of varying filtering detail is still not fixed by disabling Catalyst A.I., but at least it should remove some of the “Brilinear” AF culprits.
Thanks a bunch, BFG10K, for bringing this to light. I hope ATI takes note of this and realizes that it needs to be fixed, especially after the public now knows about it! I remember you from the Nvidia forums. Keep it up, BFG10K.. great work!!
November 27th, 2009 on 11:54 pm
Oops.. I mean PCGamesHardware (not PCPer). Also, I mean AF optimizations (not turning off AF altogether). Perhaps editing it for me would be appreciated? Thanks in advance.
November 29th, 2009 on 12:11 pm
Bo_Fox, I always operate nVidia hardware with high quality filtering, all optimizations off, and LOD clamp enabled. Any results of mine always have the highest image quality possible on nVidia (and ATi) cards.
P.S. you should be able to edit your own posts. To the right of the date/time stamp of each post there’s a small “edit” button.
December 1st, 2009 on 7:58 am
No, no, I was not directing it at you, BFG10K!! It was only to complement your article with additional insight. Of course, you knew better.. I would’ve had to be dumb to think that you were dumb.
This is a great article, BFG10K! I do not know if it was you who originally discovered this “brilinear” AF (dare I say, cheat?) problem with ATI’s new circular AF method. I think that a lot of the 16x AF blurriness has to do with the fact that none of the texture patterns are visibly shown in the red area (the outer transparent areas of red). Does it make sense to you?
Once again, great article.
December 1st, 2009 on 8:46 am
I can’t find the edit button next to the date/timestamp. It’s nowhere to be found, even after highlighting everything on the page. Perhaps only the moderators have this ability?
I really hope ATI fixes this problem! Thanks once again for bringing it to attention.
December 17th, 2009 on 4:01 am
Hi BFG10K, I’m wondering about the AF image quality with newer Catalyst drivers.
I’m also wondering if this “Brilinear” IQ only applies to 57xx cards, not 58xx cards? When I first saw reviews of the 5870 GPU’s, it showed a nice, clear AF with smooth progressions (the texture checkerboard pattern showed behind the outer edges of the red transparent area). Here’s a link to the picture: http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2009/09/ati-radeon-hd-5870-architecture-analysis/aniso-filtering.jpg
Or it could be possible that ATI has dumbed down the IQ about one month later after the 5870 was released, after all the “big” reviews were done (for “so-called” driver speed enhancements)?
December 17th, 2009 on 4:03 am
Also, what program did you use for testing it with this fine moire checkerboard pattern? I have D3DAFTester, but have never seen such a detailed background.
December 19th, 2009 on 2:59 am
Bo_Fox, the screenshots you linked to were taken with the default texture pattern. This pattern is not tight enough to expose limitations with AF. I use AF tester too, but I tighten the pattern significantly.
I have no reason to believe the 5800 is any different to the 5700 in this matter. Also my tests were done with the CD drivers, which means the problem has been right there from the start, but other reviewers didn’t seem to notice it.
No, I haven’t retested 9.12, but in a few months I hope to retest many games’ performance, and also check on the AF issue.
January 4th, 2010 on 3:32 am
Thanks, BFG10K! So far, you’re still the only one to have ever tested for this particular AF problem with some screen-shot evidence. I’ve tried spreading word about it on the forums, and this is the reason why I have not yet bought HD5k series for myself. (I bought a 5750 for my younger brother, but it was not compatible with his Nforce4 chipset so I returned it for a 4890). On the forums, people with HD5k cards still do not want to bother testing their cards for this AF problem with the newer drivers to confirm with me on whether this issue still exists or not.
I hope you can check upon this issue once again real soon, especially if you have a 5870 card. If this brilinear problem is confirmed to exist with 5870 cards, it will stir up quite a commotion among the owners of 5870 cards who have paid dearly for such. The more pictures you can provide using as many games as possible, the better. Also make sure to provide a screenshot of the exact settings used in Catalyst. I’d love to see your reputation take off quite a bit, becoming known as the man to point out this problem, if it does exist (which is so contradictory with ATI’s marketing of a perfectly circular AF method).
January 24th, 2010 on 4:01 am
@Bo_Fox: That screenshot comparison doesn’t show the issue since the checkers are too big.
To get the same tiny checkboard, just move the slider under Textures. Using -2 seems to be just like on this article.
@BFG10K: Great article. With that AF comparison, you gave me the push I needed to actually at least post about it. (and use the feedback form to AMD)
January 24th, 2010 on 1:41 pm
Just tried this myself on a HD5870 with Catalyst 9.12 drivers and I too get the so called ‘deadzones’ just like it is in the article.
I’m a little suprised to say the least and although I appreciate that the effect is far less obvious in games, it’s still concerning, especially for a high end card.
I’m wondering if this is a fixed hardware issue or if it is possible to change it via the drivers. I very much it is the latter and that enough people raise this issue for it to be taken up by the Catalyst driver team.
January 25th, 2010 on 7:31 pm
@titaniumx3: If the game has the option to force trilinear filtering, that fixes it for the game. ATI Tray Tools also offer the option to Force Trilinear globally, so I don’t think it’s too much of a driver issue… rather than some setting.
Please do use the Catalyst Feedback form to report the issue. And if you have an account on the AMD forum, check the following thread:
http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=260&threadid=126249
January 27th, 2010 on 10:27 am
KrossX, nice to see you spreading the word.
After I wrote the article, I actually emailed Terry Makedon (Catalyst Maker) directly with my findings.
Also trilinear filtering doesn’t necessarily fix the problem; the Doom 3 screenshots were taken with the game running under trilinear, yet you can clearly see the transitions in the screenshots.
February 3rd, 2010 on 1:21 am
That’s not nice. So far, enabling trilinear has been working fine in the few games I’ve tried it.
At least they should know now. So that’s good. ^_^