MSAA
Hardware-level edge anti-aliasing
Also known as: Multisample Anti-Aliasing
Definition
MSAA (Multisample Anti-Aliasing) is a hardware-accelerated technique that samples geometry edges multiple times per pixel without re-running the fragment shader. It produces clean, stable silhouettes and works well in forward renderers, but it does not anti-alias shader aliasing (specular highlights, alpha-tested foliage) and costs significant memory bandwidth. Modern AAA titles often skip MSAA in favor of TAA, which handles shader aliasing too.
In production
MSAA samples geometry edges multiple times per pixel — typically 2x, 4x, or 8x — without re-running the fragment shader for each sample, which keeps its cost far lower than full supersampling. It produces clean, stable silhouettes on polygon edges and works well in forward renderers like Unity's URP or Unreal's Forward Shading mode, but it does not anti-alias shader-based aliasing: specular highlight shimmer, alpha-tested foliage edges, and normal-map-driven micro-detail all pass straight through untouched. It also costs significant memory bandwidth at higher sample counts, since the GPU stores multiple depth/colour samples per pixel before resolving down to the final image. MSAA remains most common in VR (paired with Forward Shading for its clean stereo edges) and in mobile titles where TAA's temporal jitter and ghosting are harder to tolerate on lower frame rates.
