Computer Question: HDR + AA & Nvidia

Factual Questions
1

Any hardware guruus that could help clear up some things for me?

I’ve heard that Nvidia cards currently cannot do HDR and AA at the same time. My questions are two-fold:

  1. Why is this so? How does the process of rendering HDR work, and why does it interfere with AA?

  2. I’ve heard that the problem is with FSAA (full-screen AA) only, is this true, and if so, would using Nvidia Quincux AA work along side HDR?

I’m getting all sorts of contradicting info on this, and Nvidia is less that helpful in answering any of these questions. Any help would be appreciated.

2

I’ve never heard of nor experience the inability to render HDR scenes while FSAA is enabled. I have played both F.E.A.R. and Half Life 2 with everything at maximum (maximum detail settings, maximum AA and AF) and the HDR scenes had no trouble rendering on my GeForce 7800GTX. This may have been an issue with the GeForce 6 series – I do know my 6800LE had some real problems with HDR rendering with or without AA, evidence of which is borne out in a 3dMark bench, which scored a mere 1800 on 3dMark 2006 compared to 5800 with my GF7 card. It had the most trouble with HDR-illuminated scenes.

3

I’m not imagining the problem. Try running 3dMark 2006 with AA on. You’ll see that the shader 3.0 benchmarks will not be selectable, and they will NOT run.

4

OK, I know that AA is a type of battery, but what is HDR?

:: Ducks for cover ::