AMD Radeon 6000 Series Image Quality Analysis
Introduction
This article will conduct an image quality analysis on the Radeon 6850 along with comparing Fermi and 5000 architectures to it. The findings on the 6850 also apply to the 6900 series, though EQAA will not be covered as it’s unique to the latter. I plan to cover this feature in the future.
For background reading I highly recommend the past image quality articles I’ve written:
- nVidia 400 series image quality analysis.
- ATi 5000 series image quality analysis.
- nVidia GT200 series AA investigation.
- ATi 4000 series AA investigation.
- ATi vs nVidia image quality comparison.
For reference, here is the current anti-aliasing compatibility status for each vendor:
nVidia:
- MSAA/CSAA/SGSS: DX9/DX10/DX11/OpenGL.
- TrAA: DX9/DX10/DX11.
- OGSS: DX9/OpenGL (automatic LOD adjustment).
AMD:
- MSAA/CFAA/MLAA: DX9/DX10/DX11/OpenGL.
- AAA: DX9/OpenGL.
- SGSS: DX9 (automatic LOD adjustment).
Hardware
- Intel Core i7 870 (3.2 GHz, turbo on, HT off).
- 4 GB DDR3-1333 RAM (2×2 GB, dual-channel).
- Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3 (Intel P55 chipset, F6 BIOS).
- nVidia GeForce GTX470 (1.28 GB), reference clocks).
- AMD Radeon 5770 (1 GB), reference clocks.
- AMD Radeon 6850 (1 GB), reference clocks.
- Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic.
- 30” HP LP3065.
Software
- Windows 7 (64 bit).
- nVidia driver 260.99, settings as described.
- AMD Catalyst 10.12, settings as described.
- DirectX June 2010.
- All games patched to their latest versions.
Settings
- 16xAF forced in the driver, vsync forced off in the driver.
- AA forced either through the driver or enabled in-game, whichever works better.
- Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.
- All results show an average framerate.
After looking at those images for a long time my head hurts *dizzy*
Great article.
Although “Both vendors degrade image quality at default driver settings” may sound a bit missleading. Because AMD lowered default IQ historicaly speaking. I mean compared to previous drivers and previous cards.
ysondurr, the comment referred to the fact that both vendors’ image quality increases when running HQ compared to their default settings.
excellent review
i’m translating another article from Rage3D regarding the same subject – image quality comparision between AMD & NVIDIA’s latest graphics. i read both articles, they are both great but i still feel something lacks. besides the AA & AF and few zoomed game image comparision, i think it better to add more games to compare the overall image feeling. because there are a lot of arguments in my country stating that AMD provides much better image quality in both games and video-playback than nVidia. but for my personal experience i think nVidia graphics provide much more natural images. so i search the web and found Rage3D’s article last month and translating it. haven’t finished the translation due to recently increased payload in work. the AA & AF quality comparision would be a great proof to “who’s better”, but people will have another quesion. it seems that sometimes AMD offers a more colorful image while nVidia’s is a bit flat, is this a type of image quality issue? i read some reviews but they never regard this as an image quality issue. however people in my country think it as an image quality issue. what’s your opinion dear Mr. BFG10K?
and finally, can i put this article in my translation works?
thx
kiss4luna,
Though I’ve seen many such claims over the years, I’ve never seen any evidence of this so called “extra vibrance”, aside from nVidia’s old digital vibrance setting. In 3D gaming the colors have always looked identical to me with both vendors. I think it’s a placebo effect similar to how some individuals keep stating that each new driver is “smoother” and has “better IQ” than the old one when in reality nothing has changed.
Feel free to translate the article but give full linkage and credit to ABT. We want the traffic coming here.
Thank you, BFG10K. You have my words 😉
What I find surprising is that you haven’t noticed that the 470 can’t render a circle!
Real Life, the term for the circle is “angle invariance”, and I mention it several times in my article.
I don’t recall AMD ever claiming MLAA to be faster than MSAA. I do recall them saying it offers performance that of edge detect aka CFAA.
If you reviewed this with the thought that MLAA was intended to be an end all AA feature, then you have the wrong mind set and your conclusion is going to reflect that.
In my finding thus far, it works brilliantly in games with half AA or no AA(differed render’s) AND with a limited color spectrum. High contrast color edges will give a nasty result like many of the games you tested.
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