I want to play batman arkham city, but for gaming in general what type of anti aliasing is the best. (I have a gtx650 ti boost)
MSAA is the standard, CSAA is just MSAA with added filter. FXAA is the new way and is generally faster and is what you should be using if you can.
SSAA if you can get away with it. It is the optimal quality, but by far the slowest. Only old games will be able to use this with acceptable performance, on any hardware.
If not, MSAA. If a game doesn't specify what kind of AA it has, generally it's MSAA.
If not that, CSAA, MLAA, or SMAA. These tend to look almost as good as MSAA without quite the performance hit.
If all else is too performance intensive, use FXAA. FXAA is, by a good margin, the lowest quality AA setting commonly available. It could arguably not even be called AA. However, it is also the fastest.
Some games let you mix and match different kinds. SMAA + FXAA is a common one. Play with settings and see what looks good enough for you with the performance you want.
for that card, just go with FXAA or no AA.
MSAA is my favorite since its the best you can get really without downscalling or destroying your FPS. x4 MSAA is pefrect, but you can do x2
FXAA reliably eliminates aliasing, while consuming no resources whatsoever. There's no reason not to use it.
MSAA sucks. Requires at least 4x to not leave a lot of aliasing, consumes a lot of resources.
CSAA consumes as much resources as MSAA, but eliminates aliasing much better.
FXAA is junk, every time I have used it it does nothing and adds massive load to the game causing dropped frames.
MSAA works good but is heavy to very heavy.
CSAA Never used it.
SMAA should be in everything as it is light and free software, you can even inject it into games that don't have it natively as it is a post process filter like FXAA but it actually works unlike FXAA. And it works quite well but not perfectly, if it means any thing it is made by Crytek and their stuff looks good.
EDIT: Spelling and link to SMAA injector http://mrhaandi.blogspot.ie/p/injectsmaa.html
Every time I have used it is was junk. I cannot change that because you post an image. It plain does not work any time I have used it.
Either you are doing something wrong or you have some hardware/software issues.
FXAA is a post-processing effect. It can't possibly consume enough resources to in any way affect framerate.
Talk to Ubisoft and Co. Not my issue. I use SMAA where I need AA that is not part of a game or where I am forced into FXAA, SMAA makes it look like the image you posted. It is also post process, not proprietary nvidia tech and genuinely light although I will not say 100% zero extra load as that is impossible.
FXAA is not proprietary nvidia tech, you can find it as an option in almost all games released in last 3 years. In BF4 the option is called "antialiasing post".
FXAA is not proprietary nvidia tech
So what about this?
Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing (FXAA) is an anti-aliasing algorithm created by Timothy Lottes under NVIDIA
Any way I am not here to start an argument, just stating the facts as I have had them presented to me. FOr further reading here is the PCGamingWiki page on AA.
The fact that it was first created by Nvidia doesn't mean that it nvidia-proprietary. Game developers don't pay nvidia to use it, nvidia doesn't pay anyone make nvidia-exclusive FXAA options in their games. Anyone is free to use FXAA in their games.
PhysX is proprietary. FXAA isn't.
The fact that it was first created by Nvidia doesn't mean that it nvidia-proprietary.
Actually that exactly what that means. Unless the source code if freely available, modifiable and re-distributable by everyone is is not free software. Wiki Article on proprietary software for you reading, knowledge is power: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprietary_software
EDIT: Further research has proved me wrong seem you can get the source code. I apologise for the clear wrong doing.
Game developers don't pay nvidia to use it
I don't know for sure if they do or not I never said anybody paid for anything. I think you have mistaken what I meant by free software. Not monetarily free but free in the sense that you can take it, modify it and redistribute it all things you cannot do with FXAA.
nvidia doesn't pay anyone make nvidia-exclusive FXAA options in their games.
Again never said they did, but they do put engineers into companies like Ubisoft to make sure proprietary nvidia tech functions and is advertised as running. Ever see "Nvidia, The Way It's Meant To Be Played" when every you load a game? Yes AMD do this too.
So games companies may or may not pay nvidia to help out, and nvidia may or may not pay developers to use their software but both get kick backs in the form of extra developers and free advertising for nvidia.
Anyone is free to use FXAA in their games.
This is true, but it does not make it free software, it only means you do not have to pay for it.
EDIT: See above for correction to this.
It's public domain, which makes it free software.
To further clarify, public domain means that its copyright (everything you write is by default copyrighted) was specifically disclaimed.
I have edited my post to reflect this.
I stand by my other points.
EDIT: I know what public domain is, I just did not know that FXAA was in the public domain.
CSAA had a good idea but it's no longer supported by nvidia so it's irrelevant today. Nvidia is standing behind MFAA as the go to AA.
FXAA is essentially just a blur filter. It's not in the same ballpark as msaa or csaa in how it functions.
MSAA is arguably superior to other forms of AA. The arguments do have merit. Thing is no king rules forever.
SMAA looks best to me