In Android mobiles under developer options you may have seen an option to enable and disable 4x MSAA, what is that? Will it improve anything? Is it safe to enable it, or should I keep it disabled? Let’s know everything here in a short note.
What Is MSAA?
Multi Sample Anti-Aliasing (MSAA) is a type of spatial anti-aliasing, a technique used in computer graphics to remove jaggies. It helps to smooth out frames, so we do not see a very pixelated screen. But this feature comes with a cost of heavy GPU usage and can drain a battery powered device quickly.
See the below image to know the difference.
Unless your device is high-end and have big battery or not connected to charging source, I recommend turning it off.
Should I Enable 4x MSAA?
No, unless you are outputting your mobile to some big display. Most modern-day device don’t need these settings to be turned on, as the display is already so high in DPI that you never see any aliasing with the naked eye. On top of that our external monitor and television also matches to the mobile’s resolution when connected.
Is It Safe To Enable 4x MSAA?
Enabling 4x MSAA feature may not be safe if your device is heating up quickly; while devices that doesn’t heat easily can enable it for specific use.
Because of excess heat out, it can over burden the GPU and ultimately degrades the device’s overall performance. Even if you have a high-end device, I’ll recommend turning this feature in an air-conditioned room, otherwise the device will begin to throttle down and offers degraded performance.
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