Does FXAA Really Impact Your Frames Per Second?

If you‘ve tinkered around in your game‘s graphics settings, you‘ve likely come across the anti-aliasing option called "FXAA" and wondered – will turning this on tank my FPS (frames per second)?

Well, the good news is, FXAA (Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing) has an almost negligible impact on FPS across most games. As a post-process filtering technique applied after rendering, it smooths jagged edges without interfering much with GPU performance.

But how exactly does it pull off this magic? And if FXAA is so lightweight, why do many gamers still avoid it and use more advanced AA options? Let‘s dive deeper…

FXAA‘s Performance-Friendly Approach

Unlike traditional anti-aliasing done during rendering, FXAA is a post-process filter that rapidly scans pixels and uses an algorithm to determine areas needing edge smoothing. Think of it like applying a basic Instagram filter!

This means rather than interfering with demanding rendering tasks, FXAA quickly passes a simple blur over key areas after the fact.

“A similar post-processing approach has been applied successfully in console games based on subHD rendering”
– Tom‘s Hardware

As Tom‘s Hardware highlights above, performing anti-aliasing as a post-process step circumvents heavy performance penalties. This makes FXAA ideal for lower-powered hardware needing a basic AA implementation.

FXAA Has Marginal Impact on FPS

But how little impact are we actually talking? Multiple benchmarks confirm that enabling FXAA leads to negligible FPS dips across popular games, even minor system setups. See the data below:

With most setups seeing 1% or less FPS dips, it becomes clear that FXAA lives up to its "Fast Approximate" name. For virtually no performance loss, it provides a basic level of jaggy smoothing!

The Image Quality Catch

By now FXAA likely seems like a miracle solution – enabling anti-aliasing without dragging down your frames!

However, while FPS remains largely unaffected, gamers have some common complaints around FXAA‘s visual artifacts and image quality.

It Can Introduce Shimmering and Blurring

Remember, FXAA works by hastily applying a blur filter to smooth edges. This can result in fine details becoming muddy, depth-of-field issues, and excessive pixel shimmering during motion:

These types of visual artifacts are especially noticeable in competitive first-person shooters relying on spotting enemies at long distances. The depth hazing from over-blurring makes targets harder to distinguish.

Misses Many Types of Aliasing

Being a basic post-process, FXAA also fails to resolve several complex aliasing problems like texture and surface aliasing:

Advanced solutions like MSAA and SSAA handle these issues better by smoothing a wider spectrum of artifacts during rendering.

Should You Use FXAA or Advanced AA?

So with its quicker-and-dirtier approach, is FXAA still worth using? Or should you opt for more advanced anti-aliasing?

Well, it depends entirely on your graphics card strength and personal preference. If you‘re on lower-end hardware and need to squeeze out every last frame for playability, FXAA is great for a "free" basic implementation of AA.

However, for high refresh rate monitors where you want minimal artifacts, advanced AA like MSAA/SSAA is better for preserving image integrity. Modern solutions like DLSS even boost graphics substantially without an FPS hit!

My recommendation? Start with FXAA to smooth basic edges and maximize speed. Then try incrementally stepping up AA techniques if jaggies or shimmering become bothersome and you have headroom for better visuals.

Stay tuned as I cover more tips soon for balancing eye-candy and high FPS across various game genres and hardware!

– Rushil, Passionate Gamer & Tech Enthusiast