AMD Radeon AA Settings

[Pudgie]

Hey Radeon users,

I have been doing a LOT of reading & testing my AMD R9 Fury X vid card to tune it for optimum graphics & performance & I have ran across some info that I thought y'all might find useful to use to help you know what the AA settings in your CCC really mean to help you w/ your Radeon card.

What I found out w/ my card was that I was trying to use settings that really didn't do much of anything but eat up GPU cycles & cause some conflicts w/ AHII.............

1st, here is a good article, though it is old, that gives a good breakdown of the AA settings in AMD Cat drivers (Nvidia as well) & what they are supposed to do, whether they work w/ each other or not & what is recommended as Tom's tested all this to see the results..................
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/anti-aliasing-nvidia-geforce-amd-radeon,2868.html

To give a summary of what I found out about the Cat drivers while tinkering w/ my card:

If you use the AA settings in AHII Video Settings:

1. Set the Cat driver AA Mode & AA Sampling to "Use Application Settings" (usually sets both at the same time) & leave the rest alone (Enhance Application Settings is AMD trying to apply EQAA to the game AA...you get no benefit at all except to eat up GPU cycles, Override Application Settings won't work as long as the in-game AA settings are active as the driver looks for this 1st). If you want to use the driver AA settings then set the AHII AA slider in Video Settings to None then in Cat CCC set the AA Mode to Override Application Setting then you can use the other AA settings & not cause code clash issues.
2. Leave the Filter setting set to Standard. This is standard MSAA filtering which AHII can work with. Edge-Detect is CFAA (custom filtering AA) which will also attempt to enable EQAA (in AA Sampling setting) filtering which gives little to no benefit but will eat up GPU cycles.
3. Leave AA Method setting at Multisampling (when the AA Mode is set to Use Application Setting this is disabled so driver will use the applications AA method). Setting this to Adaptive Multisampling or Supersampling will only eat up more GPU cycles for nothing. These will come into play when the AA Mode is set to Override Application Settings AND the AHII AA slider is set to None.
4. Leave Morphological Filtering at Off. Now this is AMD's post processing AA which will work along w/ the in-game AA as this is applied after the in-game AA is done but all you're really doing is eating up even more GPU cycles to apply more AA in addition to the game applied AA for little to no benefit. Only use this AA setting w/ the AA slider in Video Settings set to None. (Note: This AA setting is really best used w/ a game that doesn't have any in-game AA settings at all)

If you want to use the Cat driver AA settings thru CCC:

1. Set the AHII AA slider to None in Video Settings (turns off in-game AA so you're free & clear to use the driver AA settings...if this slider isn't set to None the Cat driver will default to the in-game AA settings regardless & can cause issues w\ the other Cat AA settings & unnecessarily eat up GPU cycles causing undesirable game effects & performance).
2. As you make other setting choices in the Cat driver CCC just know that each additional setting will be eating up additional GPU cycles to apply to the game graphics levels that are chosen from the in-game Graphics Detail section so you can load your card's GPU up to the hilt for very little to no visual improvement as most of these "enhancements" are for Dx10, Dx11 games.......AHII is a Dx9 game so most of this stuff may\may not work anyway but the driver will tell the GPU to apply them & will eat up GPU cycles for nothing.

This part was a BIG eye opener for me as I found this out NOW after all the testing that I had done earlier w/ my XFX BE Radeon R9 290X vid card......................... ... 

Wish I had found this Tom's article back then.........................

 

There is a list of games tested to see which AA settings worked\not worked in but AH ain't on any of them that I found so you will have to test each 1 to see if it works in the game at all & if you want it on if it does......................... .....

This is a copy of what I settled on after doing all this reading & testing & reading & testing.....................



So far my Fury X runs this setup in AHII w/o any issues at 59-60 FPS w/ AHII AA slider set at Most in Video Settings, all Graphics Detail sliders set full left, gamma set at 1.2 (can see the cockpit panel back plate now....1.0 gamma hides the cockpit panel back plate in the "shadows"), all checkboxes checked in left column, in Advanced settings all checkboxes checked & EM slider set at the 2nd setting from right (None). Note: I have used this set at 3\4 but the Fury X will stutter too bad for me when in a big furball over a large burning airfield so I use it at essentially 1/2, from here all is well.

I saw no benefit to use the Cat drivers AA settings in all my testing over the in-game AHII AA settings except to eat up far more GPU cycles & lose way too much GPU performance for little to no visual gain & am definitely seeing this concerning the new upcoming AH3 as Hitech & Co are coding in graphical enhancements--including AA-- using Dx9 API that will make using the Cat driver AA settings in AH3 pretty much useless IMHO...............& they ain't done w/ it yet..............

Hope this is of some use to some Radeon users in here............

 

[Bizman]

Pudgie, do you know what settings are being used if you don't install CCC at all? I've been in the belief that "application settings" is pre-selected where applicable, all others being at their defaults. Would I benefit by using CCC or is my current setup doing exactly what you suggested without the extra load of CCC?

[1Canukk]

   For the moment I have Powercolor 7950 3G boost edition , I've tried so many combinations using CCC and on the Game also with different results . But the best results I had is using  Sweet FX , ( there a link on the BB's about it ) and the difference is night and day , it also allows you to change your appearances (colors , and more ) with o or next to no load , I have on Sweet FX the AA setting to 3.. If you have any Questions PM me..It's worth looking into.

   In the near future looking at upgrading my card .. Looking at a 970's or the card you have 390 series  , just lots of reading to be had .

  Also looking at your Pic of the CCC if you put your Vertical Rate set to always on it helps a lot with the rubber bullet sindrome . No computer genius here , but these setting have made a great difference in the game play . Im using a Asus 27 inch mintor with 144hz , and pretty much all setting on except for 1/2 on the  updates , and can maintain a 100 plus frame rate 90% of the time . Another Factor with Sweet Fx it can be used with any other games , Son uses it on his BF4 and several other games with great results..hope this hepls

[FLS]

Pudgie, do you know what settings are being used if you don't install CCC at all? I've been in the belief that "application settings" is pre-selected where applicable, all others being at their defaults. Would I benefit by using CCC or is my current setup doing exactly what you suggested without the extra load of CCC?

I use Application Settings for AA and textures and I haven't noticed any difference with CCC installed vs just the driver.

[Pudgie]

Pudgie, do you know what settings are being used if you don't install CCC at all? I've been in the belief that "application settings" is pre-selected where applicable, all others being at their defaults. Would I benefit by using CCC or is my current setup doing exactly what you suggested without the extra load of CCC?

Here is a snippet of my Cat 15.7.1 driver's system settings (which are the default settings when driver is loaded as seen thru CCC)......from this I would say that you're good to go Bizman as in this configuration the Cat drivers are looking for application control of all settings. So as long as you're using the in-game settings in your game for AA, AF, V-synch the drivers should be applying them.



 

Also looking at your Pic of the CCC if you put your Vertical Rate set to always on it helps a lot with the rubber bullet sindrome

1Canukk, I wish that were so, but I have tested that setting on several Cat drivers (Cat 14.9 WHQL, Cat 14.12 Omegas, Cat 15.7 WHQL & Cat 15.7.1 WHQL) on my box w/ check in checkbox by "Disable Vsynch" (disables in-game v-synch in AH) in AH Video Settings & set the Cat drivers thru the CCC Vertical Refresh setting to "Always On" (which is supposed to apply v-synch from the Cat driver level) & have never witnessed the Cat drivers apply v-synch in AH. How I test this is going into the game & get on the runway & start up a plane & observe the prop spin up thru the gun sight reticle.....if v-synch is applied the prop graphics will stay smooth w/ no tearing....if not the prop graphics will tear as it spins up. I have tested this w/ Nvidia drivers & witnessed the drivers apply v-synch but none of the Cat drivers that I mentioned above do so I apply v-synch by using the AH in-game v-synch by not applying a check in the box in Video Settings by "Disable V-Synch (Use for Frame Rate Testing Only)" as AH applies v-synch thru the game unless this checkbox is checked then set the Cat driver Vertical Refresh setting to "Off, Unless Application Specifies" & have tested using the above method that v-synch is being applied so this is how I do it.

YMMV.........

 

[Bizman]

Thanks, Pudgie. Knowing that I continue having a couple of services less running in the background. In the past CCC used to be a resource hog, probably though they've improved some after that.

[Skuzzy]

By the way, you can kill the MOM.exe and CCC.exe processes, once you have configured the video card, and the settings will be retained and you will not lose any performance.

[Bizman]

What about atieclxx.exe and atiesrxx.exe processes, would killing them affect anything?

[Skuzzy]

What about atieclxx.exe and atiesrxx.exe processes, would killing them affect anything?

Those are not running on any of our ATI systems.  Are those the sound drivers, by any chance?

[Bizman]

Those are not running on any of our ATI systems.  Are those the sound drivers, by any chance?

They shouldn't be installed, and the HD Audio Device is disabled in the Device Manager, showing Microsoft as the manufacturer. I'll have to take a deeper look at them.

[edit] It looks like it's the Hotkey poller. Funny, I don't use hotkeys and most likely haven't left that feature ticked when installing the drivers. Now I've disabled the External Events Service, which took care of both.

[Pudgie]

What about atieclxx.exe and atiesrxx.exe processes, would killing them affect anything?

Yes, Bizman those files are the AMD External Events Service (the AMD rename of the ATI Hotkey Poller Service).

Since you don't use the CCC no issue w/ deleting\disabling them. No issue deleting them if you do use the CCC except if you use driver profiles (such as myself) or use the hot keys. These files are necessary to enable the CCC to retain saved driver profiles in the CCC (I found this out the hard way as I disabled these services & found my saved profiles were gone when I went in the CCC after disabling them. Had to re-enable the service then rebuild my profiles).

FYI.

 

By the way, you can kill the MOM.exe and CCC.exe processes, once you have configured the video card, and the settings will be retained and you will not lose any performance.

Thanks for that tip, Skuzzy..............just might partake of that 1............................

 

[Pudgie]

On the subject of Cat driver "Wait for Vertical Refresh" setting "Always On"............................. ....

After searching hi & low on this subject I ran across a BBS (can't remember which 1 it was) in which a poster had made a post in response to the OP of the thread explaining that this AMD\ATI setting was not coded to work w\ Direct 3D-API games (such as AH) but w/ OpenGL-API coded apps. Poster stated that it works by discarding the excess duplicate graphics frames in between the displayed graphics frame before & the next displayed graphics frame as OpenGL doesn't try to control the graphics card speed to "synch" w\ the monitor speed but gives the appearance of "synched" frames by not allowing the excess duplicate & unfinished frames to be displayed between the prior full frame & the next full frame in rendered sequence.

Now this statement makes sense to me but the issue that I have w/ this is that I can't find ANY official response concerning this from ATI\AMD anywhere to either confirm\deny either way. I guess the only way to find this out is to find & run a app\game coded using OpenGL on a Radeon graphics card & test the setting for authenticity................. .I got plenty of test data to show that it doesn't work on my box\configuration w/ AHII\Warbirds 2015 (2 D3D games)..................

Was stated that to get a Radeon vid card to apply driver-level vertical refresh or "v-synch" for D3D apps\games you need to use a 3rd party app (such as D3D Overrider, ATI Tray Tools or Radeon Pro) to force v-synch to be applied in D3D games.

So all this tells me that this issue is a driver issue, not a hardware issue for AMD.....................

FYI.......................... .

 

[Pudgie]

After much thought I finally went & tried this configuration w/ my Fury X...........

I deleted the AMD CCC & now using the Cat 15.7.1 WHQL drivers only.

Went into my archives & dusted off Radeon Pro utility & installed it on my box then opened it & set up the Global driver settings to mimic the default Cat driver settings as recorded from the CCC when I had it installed then set up the 3 profiles in Radeon Pro that I had in the CCC for AHII, Alpha & Warbirds 2015 then set all settings as I had them set up in CCC.......but NOW I can access the other Cat driver settings that can't be accessed thru the CCC as follows:

Wait for Vertical Refresh....I tried this set to "Always On" in Radeon Pro & tested in AH by checking the "disable vsynch" box in AH Video Settings then went in game, got on runway & spun up the prop.....& got tearing on the prop blades graphics (vsynch not being applied). After this round I'm pretty convinced that the Wait for Vertical Refresh settings are for OpenGL-API coded games. Shut AH down, opened Radeon Pro & disabled this setting completely (can't do that w/ CCC) & set up the Vsynch setting in the Tweaks tab of Radeon Pro (Direct 3D section) to "Always On" & checked the setting "Triple Buffering" (sets up a third graphics buffer....1 front & 2 back in vid card mem....can't do this w/ CCC either) then went back in game & ran test....prop graphics spun up smoothly w/ no breaks in prop blade graphics w/ AH still set up as mentioned above....conclusive proof that the AMD hardware is capable of a lot more & the AMD drivers are capable of giving you more control & flexibility....the issue is the AMD CCC software is intentionally written to restrict access to only the features that the controlling parties at AMD are allowing access to. This SUCKS big time, AMD!   

After proving all this I then set up all 3 game profiles in Radeon Pro to use the game's settings for AA & Vsynch then use the Cat 15.7.1 driver features for the rest thru Radeon Pro (AF set to 16x, TF set to High Quality, Mipmaps set to High Quality (can't set this thru CCC), Texture LOD set at 0 (can't set this thru CCC), Flip Queue Size set to 1 (can't set this thru CCC....same as Nvidia Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames setting in NVCP), D3D Vsynch Control in Tweaks tab set to Driver Default (can't set this thru CCC), enabled D3D Triple Buffering in Tweaks tab (can't set this thru CCC) except for Warbirds 2015 (applies triple buffering in game code), Set optimizations for AF, Trilinear Filtering (can't set these thru CCC), Surface Format Optimizations & AMD OverDrive settings. You can enable\disable FXAA, SMAA, MLAA, EQAA, Ambient Occlusion, AA Filter, AA Mode, Tesselation & the Wait for Vertical Refresh (OpenGL settings) settings in Radeon Pro (I have all this disabled....can't do all this thru CCC).

The only thing Radeon Pro can't set in the Cat driver stack that the CCC can is VSR.............. 

With all this set up as mentioned this Fury X card ran the game w/ all game graphics settings set to max settings except for EM...due to the improved performance I could move the EM updates slider up from 1/2 to 2/3 updates & maintain 59-60 FPS running smooth & stable so far........................

This 3rd party utility is everything the AMD CCC should have been.................   

 

[Drano]

Great info guys. I'd used tray tools for a while but recently ran into a problem setting the ammount of overscan to get my monitor to display properly and just went with CCC as I could change that setting there. It sounds like Radeon pro is a better option. Is overscan one of the settings with that?

Sent from my K00F using Tapatalk

[Pudgie]

Great info guys. I'd used tray tools for a while but recently ran into a problem setting the ammount of overscan to get my monitor to display properly and just went with CCC as I could change that setting there. It sounds like Radeon pro is a better option. Is overscan one of the settings with that?

Sent from my K00F using Tapatalk

Yes, Drano Radeon Pro does have overscan capabilities........& the option to enable\disable it as well.....either globally or by profile(s).

There is 1 item that needs to be said if users are considering to use Radeon Pro exclusively to tune your Radeon (deleting\not installing the AMD Catalyst Control Center software) & that is you will lose access to all the other goodies that have to be accessed thru the CCC as you will be using the Cat drivers only either in the default state as when 1st installed OR as Skuzzy mentioned they will be in the last configured state that you left them in upon deletion of the CCC (this will occur if you made these settings thru the system settings tab (global settings) of the CCC. If you used profiles to make specific game settings changes then the system settings are still in default).

This no big deal if ALL you do on your box is run games, surf the 'Net & use very low-level apps since the default driver settings can handle this very easily & Radeon Pro can then handle all game settings issues............... This fits my box to a T as the #1 sole purpose for my box build is to run Aces High & Warbirds to the best that they will run & everything else is secondary....that doesn't break rule #1!

Everything that breaks rule #1 goes on the wife's box................

 

But if you do the "other stuff" on your box then you might want to keep the CCC running on your box & use Radeon Pro to handle the game driver settings..........that is if you want to use this utility. They coexist just fine.......

Also Radeon Pro has to be running in the background to work, so you will need to A.) Set it up to start w/ Windows and\or start minimized (in Notifications tray) or B.) Start it up manually & minimize it before you start up your game or C.) Set it up to be used w/ your favorite resources utility that will start it up upon you starting up your game then shut it down after you exit your game.

Also I found out that the new AH Alpha doesn't like the Radeon Pro overlay scheme & will CTD upon opening certain arenas (I found this out as I had built a profile for the Alpha using the Cat default driver settings & tried to open the Alpha...all went well until trying to open certain arenas that had the new clouds coding active.....otherwise worked fine). This is easily avoidable by either setting the Alpha .exe in the Radeon Pro game compatibility box (when the .exe is put in this box the API monitoring part of Radeon Pro is disabled automatically upon game start up--which includes the overlay--but you will also lose the D3D Tweaks tab settings as well, which is no loss concerning the Alpha as ALL the graphics settings needed for it are included in-game), or just don't set anything up in Radeon Pro for the new Alpha (what I did) as Radeon Pro is not affecting anything unless it detects a game .exe that is programmed in it start up & don't have the CCC loaded either (lets the Alpha set itself up using the in-game settings to direct the Cat drivers directly to set all up) as the CCC software is designed to be an interface to the Cat drivers code & is apparently interfering w/ some of the Alpha's graphics calls\settings to the Cat drivers................... 

Hmmm, seems that the AH Captain & 1st Mate been running covert ops while us rowers been rowing the boat all this time.....................

I'm feeling you now, Skuzzy...............

Bizman, I have seen the light now & am converted!



To my delight I have found out that this configuration is THE best way to run the new AH Alpha code (or any game that has it's own graphics settings embedded within it's coding)..........it is a night & day difference performance-wise, trust me....................

Ok, enough for now.......

Gotta go tweak some more...............

 

Oh, the latest version of Radeon Pro is approx. 2 yrs old & can still be downloaded direct from the Radeon Pro web site or mirrors.........the author (John Mautari) went to work for AMD & is on the AMD Raptr development team & he has said that he hasn't had time to continue further development of this utility............or as I believe, had a NDA upon employment at AMD to cease from further development........

At least he said that AMD was in support of his utility development when he was working on it................