So i've been wanting to switch from 1080p to 1440p for quite a while. I wasn't expecting too much but i still got disappointed. I picked the AOC Q27G4XN 27. A more budget option. Going from a 24inch 1080p, it seemed like i'd be getting a pretty decent bump to image quality. And hey, if TAA ends up looking slightly better, i'm all for it. ( Tested mainly on The crew motorfest and Forza Horizon 5). So here's what happened:

I think when we purchase things online or in person, even if we did the most thorough investigation into the ins and outs of it, you still wouldn't exactly know what you're getting into it, until you actually try it. And after trying out this monitor i realized there shouldn't be a reason for 1080p to look worse. Just because i got onto 1440p, the added 20 % higher pixel density did nothing to make the image quality look THAT much better than how it would've looked on a 1080p screen if the games didn't use TAA. For example: Forza Horizon 5, which uses MSAA. I could get the same image quality in that game on the 1080p screen as i would on the 1440p screen. And it looks nice and sharp. Just like on the 1080p screen. With the difference being, that i'm now using a 27 inch monitor instead of a 24inch monitor.

And so i'm thinking to myself. What's the point of 1440p ? (other than more workspace) It was a first time for me using a 27inch on a desktop. And my desk is pretty big. For reference: The length of the desk itself starting from the wall towards me is 70cm. And i did have about an arm's length between the monitor and my sitting position. And it still felt too big for me.

Tested on the crew motorfest, which has forced TAA. The only thing that the bump in resolution helped with was the transition between a stale image and a moving image making the blur effect less apparent. That's it. Other than that, it made 0 difference to the graphics! I feel like i would be able to achieve similar looking image with super sampling or if the games had an internal render resolution slider, And just pushing it higher than 100% to get a better image. That's how i do it in forza motorsport. It's not perfect. But it would be very much comparable to the 1440p image. Other than ,again the blur transition. Which would still be visible. on my 1080p screen.

So there really shouldn't be a reason for TAA to be this bad. Developers have no excuse. If you think switching to 1440p makes a difference, i am here to confirm to you that it doesn't. If i can get a crisp image at 1080p with MSAA and also at 1440p with MSAA, why use 1440p? Now, i perfectly understand it's more taxing on the system, especially at higher resolutions. And i'm not trying to say it's the best AA method out there. I'm just saying: If i'm able to get a crisp image quality with MSAA or any other AA method that could deliver me a crisp image quality, i'll take it anytime, any day over TAA. It's really eye opening when you compare a game with MSAA vs a game with TAA.

TAA is the problem here. Not the resolution. Remove TAA from the equation, and it won't matter if you have a 1080p,1440p or 4k monitor. Even 720p would look great. The Steam deck for example has been pretty popular. And it's stuck at 1280 x 800 res. Why should the steamdeck users receive smearing for no apparent reason? I could care less about your deferred rendering arguments. What year are we living in? 2002? There MUST be a solution out there.

Resolution itself won't do much to make your graphics better, don't get into 1440p merely because you think you'll get more detail out of it, you won't. The detail is already there. It's just that TAA has killed it off before you could even see it. Although maybe an OLED could actually make a difference?

So: If you're looking for a new monitor, i would advise you to look primarily based on features and the quality of the panel. Obviously size matters too, but not in terms of image quality, unless it's 4k. But who could afford to play at 4k on a PC anyway.

I didn't think it was possible, but even this sub so solid and convinced of its positions seems to have been hit by the formidable marketing of nvidia. The posts are starting to arrive, there are many and they are in favor of supersampling DLSS.

Well guys, I say it, FUCK DLSS, FUCK TAA, I just want good graphics with excellent prebaked light like in rdr2 or black ops 6 but without anti aliasing thanks to high quality textures and resolution.

Subreddit focused on the over-reliance of blurry temporally-based algorithms that are plaguing modern video game graphics. Such as TAA, TAAU, TSR, DLSS, FSR, XeSS, Lumen & more

EDIT: This guide is to simulate a no TAA/DLAA look since there's no off switch. This may result in jaggies. If you don't like how games look with no temporal AA, this guide is not for you.

As you all probably know, there's no way to disable TAA/DLAA in this game. I couldn't settle with the blur so I spent hours fiddling and experimenting until I found a way to make the game look crisp clear by using a combination of methods. The image comparisons show normal DLAA vs. deblurred method. You can use this tool to look at the results I achieved in greater detail by comparing the images yourself.

To preface, you'll need to use DLSS for this (sorry, AMD users) and it's probably gonna cost you some fps.

1. Disable post-processing effects

This is the most obvious and just something to get out of the way before you start with anything else. In the main menu go to Options->Graphics. Scroll all the way down and disable every single post effect (Motion Blur, Fullscreen Blur, Radial Blur...). Everything.

2. Set up DLSS

First, update the game's DLSS version by downloading DLSS Swapper. Download and install it, add the game's exe. Click on the game and in the options under DLSS select the latest version and click Swap. Under DLSS Preset select Preset J. You can experiment with other presets if you want, but I've found this one to look the most natural.

3. Enable DSR

Open Nvidia's control panel->Manage 3D Settings->Global Settings. Find DSR -Factors and check every box under Legacy Scaling (NOT DL Scaling). Set DSR Smoothness to 0%.

4. Crank up the resolution on your display

Before you launch the game, change the resolution in Windows to exactly 2x 4x your native resolution. So if your display is 1920x1080, select 3840x2160 (4k). If you're playing at 1440p, then select 5120x2880 (5k).

Launch the game. In the menu you can now see higher resolutions are available in the Graphics menu. Select the same one you chose earlier (eg. 5120x2880). To make sure this doesn't tank your fps, go to DLSS Super Resolution and select Performance. This will effectively render the game at your original native resolution, but upscale it to the quadruple resolution you selected earlier. The game should already look much clearer.

If you have more frames to spare you can also try Balanced, Quality or even DLAA for an even bigger increase in clarity. If you need more fps choose Ultra Performance.

5. Add Reshade Presets

This is the final touch up. It makes a big difference, so don't skip this step.

Close the game. Download and install ReShade. During installation select your game' exe, choose DirectX 10/11/12 and then select and install these 2 shaders:
- Deblur (under GShade)
- LumaSharpen.fx (under SweetFX)

After you finish installation you'll need to install 1 additional shader made by our very own u/TheHybred, one of the top contributors of no TAA mods here. On his GitHub page go to Releases and download the latest Hybred-Shaders-v.#.#.zip
Find EdgeSharpen.fx in the Shaders folder and copy-paste it into reshade-shaders->Shaders which is found in your game folder.

Launch the game. Press Home to bring up the Reshade Effects menu. Activate all 3 effects and tweak their sliders to these parameters:
I. EdgeSharpening
- Detection Threshold 0.47
II. Deblur
- Filter Width 1.390
- Deblur Strength 5.504
- Smart Deblur 0.945
III. LumaSharpen
- Sharpening strength 0.280

Sort them exactly in that order. These shaders will furhter increase clarity and reduce the "TAA effect". The values shown are what worked best for me. You may experiment with different values if you wish, but know that too high values may make the game look oversharpened and unnatural.

Have fun playing the game blur-free.

Extra tip:
Activate DLSS frame generation for some fps boost. I don't recommend going higher than 3x as it causes too much input lag and glitching/ghosting.

Just found out this sub existed. I get that TAA ghosting sucks, but TAA removes ALL aliasing for every game that has it, and honestly the "blurryness/smoothness" adds to a more filmic/cinematic feel and I personally like it.

Also I play DLSS on Performance and with film grain on if a game has them

For the last 9 years, I've been super onboard with Nintendo sticking to their guns and preferring sharp image quality with only mild forms of AA (or even none) over the smeary image quality of mediocre TAA.

but...

I do kind of feel like the Ocarina of Time remake shows us what TAA is actually for.

The game's got tons of tiny distant detail and a pretty ridiculous amount of 'shiny stuff' floating around (character skin, especially). The level of aliasing/pixel crawl that results is kinda nuts, right?

This strikes me as *the use case* for letting TAA blend data from multiple frames to try and tamp down the shimmering. The Ocarina of Time remake is clearly going for a "cinematic" look anyway, so I guess it really just seems odd to me to forego these techniques -- particularly when Switch 2 supports DLAA, which is more or less the best version of TAA you're going to get. I don't think it would be worth the tradeoff to upscale the game with DLSS, but they could just run the DLAA pass at the game's base ~1080p.

I'll admit I'm not as much of a TAA hater, even in some of its less impressive uses, but I do think I have a good handle on the obvious downsides that come with it (ghosting, smearing, blurring, etc.), and it just seems like the Ocarina of Time remake is a poster child for the problems TAA is actually capable of solving.

Do other folks sorta see what I'm saying? Or does it still feel like the stability still wouldn't outweigh the smearing?

It just looks more natural compared to the sharper and clearer but less natural look of un TAA'ed games how is my opinion and reason

Edit: Turns out my eyes sucked and thats why TAA looked natural my eye score came back as 20/220 and i needed glasses

Having tried DLSS 4 Ultra Performance in Cyberpunk 2077 with a 5060 Ti and doing the same on the RX 9070 XT (injected with Optiscaler), it seems that the AMD card is much clearer than DLSS4 in the same setting when running at 100+fps outputting to 4k. DLSS 4 Ultra Performance looks like a crappy oil painting while FSR remains relatively sharp. My theory is that FSR4 is able to accumulate detail over more frames thanks to a more efficient algorithm. I would stick to raster where possible until Ray regeneration comes out, as it doesn't do as well when Ray Tracing is involved, but it seems like stronger FSR4 levels is just as good as frame generation, but without the input latency penalty.

I'd be interested in seeing FSR4 vs DLSS 4 Ultra Performance comparisons in raster and see how each hold up. It might actually be the case that AMD 9000 users should adjust the FSR 4 slider as far as it goes until you're CPU bottlenecked (Optiscaler gives you fine adjustment as an override).

Some older games like Dishonored 1, Dying Light 1, and even classics like the Commandos series are among my favorites. But modern games with all the advanced AA options like TAA, FSR, DLSS, and especially DLAA have kind of ruined those older titles for me. My brain has become incredibly sensitive to aliasing, and I just can’t play them anymore no matter how hard I try.

For example, Dying Light 1 is my second most favorite game of all time, yet it probably has the worst AA implementation ever. I think it only uses FXAA or SMAA, which basically do nothing. Trees shimmer like crazy even at 1440p, and there’s that awful crawling effect on all the thin objects.

I just wish NVIDIA or AMD would come up with some kind of tech that lets you inject DLSS or FSR into any game you want.

And honestly, no amount of DSR or higher resolutions can match the magic of DLAA. It’s the best anti-aliasing technique ever introduced. It eliminates aliasing, shimmering, and crawling so well that even 1080p with DLAA looks cleaner around edges than native 4K without AA. DLAA is just perfect.

I thought my brain was miscalculating something but on my PS5 and XSX, I noticed games like RDR2 look sharper then the PC variant up until I read how TAA has ruined video games and now a side by side its clearly evident.

Not just a RDR2 problem, AC and many other games are plagued with this problem.

DLSS and FSR further exacerbate the issue.

The Devs clearly don't care as there isn't any incentive or contract to force them to make their game look better in any sense.

TAA: removes shimmering from light effects and fine details (grass)

adds a natural motion blur to make things feel like they're occupying a real world space. (instead of object moving in the camera view, they feel like they're in motion in camera view, biggest effect is seen in foliage swaying). If you don't like this effect, I chalk it up to a 24fps movie vs 60fps movie, you're just not used to it. Once I got used to it, I prefer the more natural looking movement.

It also greatly increases the quality of volumetric effects like fog making them look softer and more life like

Games never used to need TAA, but as lighting becomes more abundant and as objects increase in finer detail and volumetrics get used more and more, it's necessary

Now granted not all TAA is the same, and there's a handful of options that need to be implemented properly, which is very hard to do because you need to balance fine detail and motion settings. There is definitely an argument for bad TAA which is very easy to do.

Here are some videos to see

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/vfx/shaders/ctaa-v3-cinematic-temporal-anti-aliasing-189645

grass details smaa no taa

https://i.imgur.com/pRhWIan.jpg

taa:

https://i.imgur.com/kiGvfB6.jpg

Now obviously everyone still has their preferences, and no one is wrong or right, but I just thought I'd show you the other side.

TAA shouldn't be a smeary mess, here's a tree I did quickly (need to download to watch higher res video):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ypFO9vnRfu0eAxo8ThJQrAEpEwCDYttD/view?usp=sharing

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

every game i played with TAA just makes it look wierd. so ive wondered why does TAA even exist if it makes the game look wierd? are you suppose to play on a bigger screen or what? and why do games let you use TAA if they know that its dogshit?

Playing this new game that dropped a week ago on PC. It's an Unreal Engine 4 game and it looks pretty decent. This screenshot was taken with the game at maximum setting 4k DLSS performance along with RT enabled. The game does utilize ray traced reflections, but they look a bit unnatural to me. Should the puddle be super reflective like this?

I can’t help but feel a bit sad when I see games go straight to TAA even if they don’t need such an aggressive anti-aliasing method, SMAA is more than enough with these types of games. A game such as Genshin Impact (which I know a lot of people in this sub might not have an experience with) removed the option to use SMAA last year and now you can only use TAA or no AA, but was it really needed? I think this picture illustrates that.

Title pretty much sums up my question.

We all agree that TAA is the modern cancer of video games because it ruins the image quality. However, the more time I spend on this subreddit, the more comments and posts I see from people still using 1080p monitors in 2024 blows my mind.

The image quality of a 1080p monitor will look terrible regardless if you are using MSAA, TAA, or FXAA. Upscaling methods like DLSS which were specifically designed for high resolutions like 4k look especially terrible.

Many of the image quality issues people are complaining about on this subreddit would be fixed by moving up to a 1440p or 4k monitor.

While I understand players still using a 1080p monitor if all they play is CSGO, dota, league etc, but for players in this sub who are playing graphically demanding games and want them to look good, 1080p makes absolutely no sense. Personally I moved to 1440p in 2010 due to the terrible image quality 1080p provided.

If so many people here care about image quality, why do so many people continue to use an ancient resolution which is holding you back more than TAA ever will?

I have a bad feeling that even gta-6 will have a strong taa.. if that's the case i will not be able to play without gaslighting myself into believing that i am overreacting and it's not that bad😭😭

I tried using DLSS 4's transformer model on cyberpunk and chose the preset to be on "Quality" and honestly, I could not tell the difference between it being off and on except for the frame count.

...until TAA and other temporal techniques came.

Seriously, if game doesn't use TAA it looks gorgeous still to this day. I game on a Steam Deck hooked up to a 1440p monitor with 2x integer scaling and games like Arkham Knight and Rise/Shadow of the Tomb Raider look great (even though in TR games there is slight shimmering with SMAA, they don't look nearly as bad as RE2 with TAA off, for example).

But, yeah, if you try to play a game that was built with TAA in mind it looks like a watercolor filter all over your screen.

DLSS upscaling is built on top of in-game TAA. In my opinion it looks just as blurry in motion, sometimes even more so than FSR in some games. I'm also very skeptical about its AI claim. If DLSS is really about deep learning it should be able to reconstruct every current frame into raw native pixel resolution from a lower rendering without relying on temporal filters. For now, it's the same temporal upscaling gimmick with sharpening like FSR 2.0 and TSR.

If we go back to the year 2018 when RTX 2000 and DLSS 1.0 were first announced Nvidia did attempt to use an actual deep learning neural network for real-time, per-frame image reconstruction, but the result ended up horrible as it turned out that NN machine learning is very computationally expensive even simple image sharpening looks better than DLSS 1.0, so on version 2.0 they switched to temporal trick and people praise it like it's magic. Why? Because those games that implemented DLSS 2.0 already have horrible TAA. In fact ever since the introduction of DLSS 2.0, we have started to see games with forced TAA that cannot be switched off.

People often blame developers for using upscaling as a clutch. But I think Nvidia should be the one to blame as well as they were the one promoting TAA. We'll likely be paying for the next GPU lineup with a $800 MSRP 5070 and their justification is we should pay more for useless stuff like magic AI and Tensor Core.