AA and AT does not affect performance?

[LT Savage]

Okay, my specs are as followed

Celeron 2.6ghz processor
512mb RAM
GeForce FX 5200 PCI

I know the card isnt the greatest but I usually play HL2 on 1024 x 768, medium details, and trilinear. I usually get around 20-30 FPS in big places and the lowest is 10fps on big explosions. Now it doesnt lag unless there is a big explosion even though thats pretty low fps, but i dont care about the fps as long as it doesnt lag... which doesn't make much sense but whatever. Now today I decided to up the quality and i put on 6x AA and 16x AT. I reload the game and expect an intolerable preformance but surprisingly my fps were the same as they were before with virtually almost no change. So now I can play with a higher quality with the same performance. how is this possible?

And one more thing, i also tried downgrading to 800 x 600 and low details, yet my fps were still exactly the same. its like they are stuck on that no matter what.

 

[MindCrafter]

I dunno why but maybe because your RAM is your computer's bottleneck?

 

[Ownzed]

His RAM is fine. I bet it's video card. New video card=better. Get a free one in my sig.

 

[LT Savage]

No, no, no. I don't have a problem with my video card or anything (even though it sucks) It's just that I find it weird how it can have the same fps at different quality setups

 

[giant384]

i have the excact same video card except i lag with AA but im going to try it and c if it works

 

[Asus]

I bet they are not on at all.
Go into your control panel and see what levels of AA and AF your card supports. If they don't support 6xAA or 16AF then try 4xAA/8xAF in HL2 settings (not control panel). I bet you will have a pretty big hit then.

 

[fragShader]

hl2 is often cpu limited rather than vid card limited.
if AA and AF are not affecting framerate, u are most likely CPU limited.

 

[corkscru74]

Apart from slightly more stuttering after a Load having 6 times AA doesn't affect my framerate either - and it definitely makes a difference visually, everything's all smooth and luverly now!

<<Rig: 2.8Ghz w/400FSB, 1Gb matched Ram, 9600 Pro>>

 

[LT Savage]

Hmm... Okay I checked the settings in the control panel and it says that AA and AT are "application controlled" I can uncheck them though and AA can go up to 8xS and AT to 8x, which explains the 16x AT i set in the game but it still seems like unusually high settings for sucha crappy card

 

[CloSe2InSaNitY]

let me clear some things for you.

your card is out of date, and it doesnt support AA or AT thats why you don't see any frame rate drops.

secondly.
The better quality is just a mentaldisorder.

 

[Cole]

Probably the CPU.
ITS A CELERON PEOPLE. It's like what equal to a 1500 mhz? lol.

 

[Cons Himself]

let me clear some things for you.

your card is out of date, and it doesnt support AA or AT thats why you don't see any frame rate drops.

secondly.
The better quality is just a mentaldisorder.

first of all stop being a flaming prick

secondly, why are you making yourself look like a tool by claiming that a GeForce FX card doesnt support AA or AF?

 

[LT Savage]

If it didn't support it why would it have the options for them in the card performance and quality settings?

 

[Squeetard]

My 6800 GT does the same thing. The answer being, you can set those values, but it does not use them if you don't have enough memory on your vid card.

 

[LT Savage]

I see...

So basicly it's trying to trick me into thinking im doing better than I am supposed to be doing?

Graphics cards from Satan