Explainer: How anti-aliasing methods trade image quality for performance in PC games

Anti-aliasing is the graphics setting that smooths jagged, stair-stepped edges created when curved or diagonal lines are drawn on square pixel grids. Modern games offer multiple approaches, including supersampling methods like MSAA, post-process filters like FXAA and SMAA, and temporal techniques like TAA and DLAA that reuse data from previous frames.