I experimented with my anti-aliasing setting on my video card (Nvidia 7900 GS). It seemed that when I unchecked the AA option in FSX, and selected 2X, 4X etc. on my video card display settings, I could NOT see any AA effects in the sim. (I could see jagged edges on the A/C no matter which setting I used).Conversely, when I did check the AA box in FS and and told my video card to let the application determine AA, I could clearly see AA being utilized in the sim.I had read that letting the video card determine AA, rather than the sim, would improve the fps but it appears that, in my situation, I have to have the AA option checked in FSX or I won't get the benefits of AA at all.Anyone else observe this?Bob

That was true in FS9.With FSX it appears that letting the AA be controlled by the application is the way to go.The same thing happens to me by the way......Glenn

Thanks for the reply. It appears that FSX only "allows" AA to be utilized if you check the AA box in the sim's display settings. Does your card have an Nvidia GPU? I wonder if this happens with ATI cards.

Mines an ATi Radeon built by Sapphire.

7600gs here. negative. aa set on the card results in very visible smoothing in the game, with quality and performance changing as the multiplier and method get changed. in-game checkbox offtry a different driver. you may gain a few frames, too ;-)

>7600gs here. negative. aa set on the card results in very>visible smoothing in the game, with quality and performance>changing as the multiplier and method get changed. in-game>checkbox off>>try a different driver. you may gain a few frames, too ;-)I'm also running the GeForce7600GS (256MB), and I have AA set within FSX. It's been doing so well, that I'm not going to mess with it! :D L.Adamson

Bob.when you change you Video Driver setting. Did you have the FSX on? Everytime time you change the Video driver setting. You have to exit out of FSX/FS9 and then get back in.I was under the same impression as you. I go and change the driver AA setting...or anything else for that matter. But it makes no difference in FSX..... Until I exited and loaded the sim again.I have my Video Driver AA to 16XQ and Anisomorphic..or whatever...to 16X too. Manny

i know. it worked for me too. works either wayapparently, only one way for the original poster--hence my comments. the behaviour he describes may be indicative of a deeper problem

OK, thanks Manny you were correct. In my original test, I was changing the settings on the video card while FSX was up and running.This time, I turned off the AA in FSX, exited out of the program, then activated my video card AA setting to 4X. Then I loaded up FS and I now definitely see the AA being utilized, even though it is unchecked in the sim.The larger question is, will I really see any improvement in performance whether the sim or the video card controls the AA, and I'm guessing that the answer is "probably not".Although I'm not complaining now. I've set my max FPS to 22 and I'm maintaining that about 90 percent of the time, with most of the sliders set to half-way, or higher.BobCore-2 duo E6600@ 2.4Ghz (not overclocked)Nvidia 7900 GS1GB DDR2 667Mhz Ram

>>Anyone else observe this?>Yes, for about a month I had that problem...if I wanted AA, I had to select it in the sim. Driver AA had no effect in FSX.But that all changed when I installed new drivers and reinstalled FSX.Now I can set AA either in the sim or in the driver, and both work. I have actually found that close-up textures look best using FS's built-in AA, whereas the far-away textures look best using the card's AA.So I can't win.Performance-wise, I notice no difference.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2310 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-8 (1T), WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian case

So what is the general consensus?IN FSX what gives the best visuals? AA in sim, or driver?What gives best performance?Is it all hardware-specific? For example, I notice no performance difference either way...yet others do....??RhettAMD 3700+ (@2310 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-8 (1T), WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian case

According to NVidia and one of the Aces blogs(maybe it was FSInsider.com) - AA should be controlled by FSX for best performance and visuals.VicVisit the Virtual Pilot's Centerwww.flightadventures.comhttp://www.hifisim.com/Active Sky V6 Proud SupporterRadar Contact Supporter: http://www.jdtllc.com/

>According to NVidia and one of the Aces blogs(maybe it was>FSInsider.com) - AA should be controlled by FSX for best>performance and visuals.>>Vic>Well Vic I know that. I read that too. But what I was trying ask was that I'd like to know what fs users are experiencing.I notice no performance difference at all. But what about the rest of you?RhettAMD 3700+ (@2310 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-8 (1T), WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian case

Hi BobYour post made me think so I have just tested it for myself.The results were not as expected.With AA set to 18x the two aircraft with hangers and a few aircraft in the distance I had between 28 to 33 FPS with perfect strait edges on wings and tail on both near aircraft.I restarted FSX with the AA turned off and the box checked in FSX the result was very close slightly better in the first test the FPS no differance I then set the AA to application controlled no noticeable change in FPS but the Edges of the tail showed very fine sawblade finnish the wings not as good as the other two settings.So I will continue to use AA set in the Nvidia control pannel @18X and AF @16X the only reson for this it will save resetting when I run my other games.RegardsRex

Bob,Set the highest AA and what not in your Video Driver. leave the AA out of the FSX. But set it as Trilinear or something.Manny