The goal of this article is to specifically focus on AMD’s new Edge-detect Custom Filtering AntiAliasing (CFAA) image quality and the performance you can expect when using a new ATI Radeon HD 4870 video card. While this is not an AMD vs. NVIDIA article, we do use a GeForce GT 260 for IQ comparisons. For those that did not notice, we did feature AMD's new AA modes in both our Radeon HD 4800 series launch day evaluation as well as our HD 4870 X2 Preview, but we simply did not want to lose focus on overall performance and have chosen to showcase CFAA here, all on its own.

Prices for the 4870 span from $255 after MIR to $295. Prices on the GTX 260 span from $269 after MIR to $329 for 260 cards without custom coolers. As you can see, in the last couple of weeks, the 4870’s performance has forced the GTX 260 pricing into much more competitive territory. So when it comes to AA, IQ, and smooth gameplay, is Edge-detect Custom Filtering AA anything to get excited about and does it provide a better AA gaming experience than what NVIDIA has to offer?

The Radeon HD 4800 series (Radeon HD 4850 and 4870 video cards) launched with a new image quality feature to improve antialiasing using an Edge-detect filter that does not tax memory bandwidth. This new Edge-detect filter flies under the banner of the “Custom Filtering.”

If you recall, Custom Filtering was announced with the Radeon HD 2900 XT back in May of 2007. Up until now, there were two filters supported under Custom Filtering; “Narrow-Tent” and “Wide-Tent.” We looked at the image quality of those two filters here in the 2900 XT evaluation and actually found them to negatively impact overall image quality. We disliked the two methods so much we published a “Don’t Use Narrow Tent and Wide Tent AA” section. Narrow and Wide Tent modes not only smoothed edges, but “smoothed out” texture detail as well.

You can read the entire article at HardOCP.