What's More Demanding 1440p + AA or 2160p?

[Erous]

Here's a question for the community that I'm hoping someone can provide insight to. I could test it out, but was hoping someone might've already done so. I'm curious what's more taxing on the GPU: a 2160p resolution with no AA, or a 1440p resolution with say 8x multisample.

I'm sure the difference in performance could also depend on the type of AA used, so curious on anyone's thoughts or research on the matter.

[Sinyc]

Here's a question for the community that I'm hoping someone can provide insight to. I could test it out, but was hoping someone might've already done so. I'm curious what's more taxing on the GPU: a 2160p resolution with no AA, or a 1440p resolution with say 8x multisample.

I'm sure the difference in performance could also depend on the type of AA used, so curious on anyone's thoughts or research on the matter.

Depends on the GPU, the AA applied, the game, etc.

Example:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews...on,5805-4.html

In ashes, 1440p w/4xMSAA was more demanding than 4K w/2xMSAA.

[Temp name]

Depends on the GPU, the AA applied, the game, etc.

Example:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews...on,5805-4.html

In ashes, 1440p w/4xMSAA was more demanding than 4K w/2xMSAA.

Looks like they also changed the preset? 1440p they went with Crazy, 4k they went with Extreme. Don't play the game, not sure what that affects.

That said, AA is "fake" resolution, the more hardcore AA's like SSAA are literally just super sampling, running at higher resolution then scaling down (which is where SSAA gets its name). Generally 1440p with AA will be easier than 4k, but it depends on how well the AA is programmed in, and the specific AA you use

[Shakadam]

2160P aka 4K is more demanding in almost every case, but as above posters have said it depends on what kind of AA you're using.

Super-sampling anti-aliasing (SSAA) and multi-sampling anti-aliasing (MSAA) both give good results but drastically reduce performance.

FXAA on the other hand has a very small performance hit but makes the image a lot more blurred and "soft", same thing with TXAA

SMAA and TAA are the, sort of, in-between modes. They both work quite similarly afaik. They can in some cases produce a bit of a soft image like FXAA but nowhere near as bad, and they don't reduce performance as much as the super/multi-sampling techniques.

There are some additional forms of AA but I'd say these are the most commonly used. Sometimes they can also be combined in different ways.

Personally I prefer SMAA in any game where it's available.