u/Spinnek

As usual, whenever I buy a new, faster GPU, I play all my favorite games with the setting as maxed as possible. Among them is my beloved Halo Infinite on PC, but the Campaign only, as I don't play online games :)

So, having RTX 5090, I thought about going with the best image quality possible on the 4K monitor. The one and only factor affecting the image quality I have never touched was a resolution change, either via in-game increase, or via DLDSR. During my tests I found that in-game resolution set to 150% for indoor locations and to 120% for the outdoor locations is the sweet spot to maintain the high FPS (more than 100 outdoor, more than 130 indoor). Additionally, when going with DLDSR 1.75x, the HDR pop of bright spots on armors was severely lowered, so in my opinion the in-game resolution change is preferred.

I didn't think about increasing resolution earlier, being on RTX 5080 and RTX 4080, I wonder why.

And to my surprise, and it is the reason for writing this post, increasing resolution almost solves the issues with the blurry presentation caused by the TAA and makes the look and feel of Halo Infinite next-gen/remastered! :) Definitely, there were and there are several "wow" moments here, as I am still playing it :) I really like good image quality in games, I admire the textures, particles, effects and so on, so looking at the "plain old, been there, done that ;)" Halo Infinite having the crisp (!) new look is a welcome surprise :) Knowing that, if I would still have the RTX 5080, I think that it would be worth to at least try the 120% resolution and accept some FPS loss.

BTW: Why do we need to wait so many years for the next installment of the Halo IP? :(

Just to let you know that knowing from Digital Foundry TAA video (2024), that the TAA Native works the better the higher FPS is, I tested it against DLAA 4.5 M (which obviously is also native) in the Dead Space Remake game.

[Reminder: I am talking here about the new game example, that as usual doesn't allow us to turn off AA in the game. You can only switch to DLSS [incl. DLAA], FSR [incl. FSR Native], or XeSS. And I don't want to hack a game to turn off its anti aliasing against the developers' implementation]

By choosing one game supporting both the TAA and the DLAA, I wanted to verify if the TAA can be improved on the best possible GPU (RTX 5090) to the level of the DLAA through the available methods, that is, via increasing FPS or via increasing resolution.

The result still tells us the sad story: despite AVG 138 FPS in TAA Low Native 4K mode, the DLAA 4.5 M 4K mode with AVG 100 FPS still produces better clarity IN MOTION!

Specifically, very thin objects like distant red wires just "vanish" during movement when in the TAA Low mode, while they are present in the DLAA mode. When there is no motion, the resentations are almost identical - some bright objects are brighter in the DLAA 4.5 M mode due to the better light processing in the DLSS 4.5 vs plain old TAA light processing.

Addendum: I wondered if the increased resolution would solve this issue, as it was suggested in the video mentioned. So I tested DLDSR 1.75 [starting from 4K] TAA Low against DLAA 4.5 M 4K [Native] and it was a double defeat: TAA Low had still worse motion clarity and this time it had worse FPS as well (AVG 60 FPS for TAA Low against AVG 100 FPS for the DLAA).

There you have it ;)

This topic is related to older games, that allows you to turn off the TAA in game. Yep, I am FULLY aware that it is a dying breed, but we all have a lot of such games that we love and cherish. And I am NOT talking about forcing TAA OFF via various hacks (including HEX hacks), that can ruin rendering in various ways.

As a example, I tested it in the MASS EFFECT ANDROMEDA game and omg, I am blown away by the result. I encourage you to test it with your own eyes and for other games, guys, it is like looking at the remastered game :) I know, that the DLDSR is known and used for years. I encourage you for using it, starting from 4K resolution, which is rather uncommon.

Fair warning: it seems that to maintain acceptable FPS while having DLDSR 1,75 on 4K monitor, you need to have at least Nvidia 5070 Ti card. But I think it strongly depends on the game.

The short procedure is as follows:

+ set up Nvidia's DLDSR 1.75x

Remember, we are talking about 4K monitors, so even DLDSR 1.75 requires running the game in 5120x2880 virtual resolution; I tested DSR 4x and DLDSR 2.25x as well; DSR 4x was too muddy and an FPS killer at the same time, even for the RTX 5090; DLDSR 2,25 was still too slow from the FPS point of view and the difference between DLDSR 2,25x and 1,75x were minimal and not easily observed; I tested increasing the render resolution to 200% in-game, the result was underwhelming and and jaggies were very pronunced; so it seems that that DLDSR does a really good AA job here

+ start the old game, that allows you to toggle TAA, using 4K native resolution, all the setting graphics maxed, and with TAA set to on firstly

+ just play that game for some time, to acclimatize with the plain old TAA, before saying it goodbye for good

+ then pause the game, change the resolution to DLSDSR 1,75x (5120x2880) and turn off the TAA

+ prepare to be amazed :)

Now, for the FIRST time in your life, you will see the game in it intended glory :) Pay particular attention to texture details (on suits, armors, floors and walls), particles (including dust), the lighting :) The effecs is similar to running the DLAA 4.5 M instead of the TAA.

I know the technical reasons behind the TAA, but seeing now exactly HOW BUTCHERED ALL the TAA processed games were for so many years makes me sad. Fortunately, not anymore! :)