Reality Check - PC GFX Explained! Antialiasing, Vsync, Tessellation and More!

There is always technical errors with computers but they are often minor.

Fantastic episode, I learned a ton. Thanks Cam!

I love that tessellation! My biggest hope for the next gen console is that we'll start seeing a lot more of it.

P.S. Another nice way to reduce anti-aliasing: use 3D. Your two eyes will see the jaggies in different locations and your brain will smooth them out for you. It's about time that brain thing started pulling its own weight!

Another nice article. I didn't realize my stutters were related to refresh rate/fps matching. I plan to look further into that.

Just a niggling aside. When listing the different resolution options in the graphics settings I wish these programmers would include the aspect ratio in parenthesis. My mental fraction simplifying isn't as fast as it used to be so I guess and half the time end up with a funhouse mirror, lol!

Hello Cam:
Can you explain what the deal is with Amazon listings and website/trademark registering?
I keep seeing headlines like "Amazon listing for Half Life 3!" and "Trademark registered for Assassin's Creed 17!"
And then people start speculating that these games are coming out.

Who is doing these listings and registerings? Do they have some kind of insider knowledge?

What Specs did the rig you ran most of those examples have? It looked gorgeous for the most part!

Lol. Minecraft and Terraria laugh in the face of Aliasing!

Another!!!

I wonder why they didnt put a Dead Island gameplay to explain image tearing.. haha. Jezz, that game has a f**** up engine.

I keep forgeting the difference between MSAA and FXAA... until I try them out on my pc.

excellent video! Which game is on 3:00?

I appreciate the recent focus on PC as of late. I would do a column on what settings should be on/off for particular games. Oh, and part 3 plz. Good job explaining.

Open Sync will kill Gsync. Any proprietary technology is really bad for consumers compared to open solutions.

part 3 plz!

What game is that graphics menu from? new game to play with friends, just flash the menu will quick see if they can guess it. FC3

This is a really cool idea! All these arguements about resolutions can now take a back seat as this is where its at when it comes to graphics! PART 3!!

Love tweaking my games the second I start them..give me that 60fps baby!

Great episode - I'm sure this will help out those new to PC gaming or those unsure of what these settings mean in newer games.

There was a time when I understood what to do: turn down (or off) shadows; turn down (or off) reflections, turn down (or off) anti-aliasing and you can play great, then suddenly everything got very complicated. Now, I just look for shadows and abbreviations with AA in them and turn them down and hope for the best.

Thanks a lot Cam. That was informative. Looking forward to the second part.

Amazingly cool episode! I actually picked up a few things here.

nice toosee PCs getting some exposure

This was a lot of help cool episode.

Excellent show :D

Yet another excellent show. I appreciate the focus GS is putting on the PC recently. So many folks are "in the weeds" trying to understand all of this and shows like this help immensely.

Cheers Cam.

@4kgamer_lmxxx @Gencic Generalising helps people with inferior cognitive abilities. Good on you.

I love how Gamespot has been focusing on the PC. Sadly, it gets left out... A lot.

awesome a much needed post

Well with vsync, you don't need it anymore if you use borderless window. The frames then can never go out of sync. You get the tears because the desktop refresh rate and fullscreen application refresh rate aren't in sync.

Well, i learned something new today :D

Educating the console kiddies. Love it! I hope their brain has enough processing power to process all this information.

This is an excellent video, it really does help to see examples of these different graphics options and the effect they have on a game explained so simply. I hope you get to cover everything because most in game tooltips are not very helpful...

V-Sync still isn't perfect, as Cam said, but not for the same reasons he's stating. G-Sync isn't the first thing to come along and solve the stuttering issue. Triple buffering has been here for some time and has mitigated the problems V-Sync has and prevents the annoying stuttering cam is talking about, wherein V-Sync would usually result in your fps dropping to the next multiple of your refresh rate. That problem being that normally if you were rendering at 60 fps, and all of sudden your graphics card could only output 58 fps for one point in time, your frame rate would instantly drop to 30 fps until your graphics card was able to output 60 fps once more. Triple buffering, or triple buffered V-Sync, fixed that problem and is available in most modern games... with exceptions being from developers who seem to not care at all about PC (a.k.a. Ubisoft). If you have triple buffering on and you drop to 58 fps, you stay at 58 fps. The only downside is that it causes slightly more input lag, and depending on who you are and how competitive and reaction-based your game is, might prove annoying... and THAT'S when we can all talk about how Nvidia's G-Sync really shines.

There are programs available with Graphics cards like Nvidia, that optimise all your games for you at reccomended settings.

Absolutely loving the PC love that Gamespot has been giving us lately.

<3 <3 <3 PC <3 <3 <3

Very good explaination! Loving these video's so far!

Graphics settings, screen tearing, and a myriad of settings is precisely why I'm not too keen on PC gaming. On a console you get good graphics and a steady framerate.

Yes PC can be better in graphics and framerate however it costs much more.

Nice subject