Anti-aliasing makes jagged game graphics look smoother, but some methods hit your GPU much harder than others. It used to be a flex to turn anti-aliasing to the max. If you could get 4x or 8x MSAA without making your game look like a slideshow, you were doing pretty well. These days, that basic graphics option has morphed into an alphabet soup of FXAA, SMAA, TAA, DLAA and other combinations that sound like someone dropped a bag of Scrabble tiles.

Fortunately, they all tackle a similar issue. Games have to represent curved and diagonal edges on a grid of square pixels, which can result in stair-step patterns called "jaggies." Anti-aliasing smooths those rough edges, but there are several ways to do it. Some ask your GPU to compute additional samples. Others filter the image after it's been rendered, while newer temporal techniques use information from previous frames. The idea is cleaner edges, but there is usually a compromise, such as lower frame rates, softer details or occasional ghosting.

SSAA takes the brute-force approach, rendering at a higher resolution before downsampling. It works well but is extremely taxing. MSAA focuses samples around geometry edges, but material and texture aliasing can remain. FXAA and SMAA work after rendering; FXAA is quick but softens detail, while SMAA retains sharpness. TAA uses previous frames to smooth edges and reduce shimmering on fences and foliage, but can cause softness or ghosting.

If your GPU is the limiting factor, reducing or disabling anti-aliasing can improve performance, which could be beneficial in a competitive shooter. But that doesn't necessarily mean turning it off is the best setting. It's not always a good deal to gain a few fps while distant fences are all sparkling like Christmas lights. NVIDIA's DLAA uses DLSS technology at native resolution, AMD has a similar Native AA mode with FSR, and Intel's Xe SS also has a Native Anti-Aliasing mode.