Hmmm, I've given your test app a quick spin on my 7970 and I noticed the MSAA times where a little inconsistant which is a tad strange.

Anyway, I ran the code 'out of the box' so I don't know what light settings you had setup but the results were:

Forward Render Time:
No MSAA : 0.8ms
2x MSAA : 0.9ms to 1.6ms (?)
4x MSAA:  1.0ms to 1.8ms (?) - seems to spend more time at 1.0ms however.

Even Light Time Computation seems to bounce around a bit, varying between 0.2 and 0.4ms on all AA modes - sometimes NoAA and 2xAA sit around 0.36ms while 4xAA comes in at 0.26ms.

If I unlock v-sync then the total render times come in at;
NoAA : 1.8ms
2xAA: 2.0ms
4xAA: 2.3ms

In comparison the tiled deferred stacks in at;
(G-buffer pass, light pass compuation, total render time)
(With z-pass)
NoAA: 0.41, 0.53, 1.9ms
2xAA: 0.49, 1.3, 2.82ms
4xAA: 0.55, 1.9, 3.5ms

(Without z-pass)
NoAA: 0.6, 0.53, 1.9ms
2xAA: 0.7, 1.3, 2.82ms
4xAA: 0.8, 1.9, 3.6ms

(720p rendering, in a window, stock clocked i7 920, but judging by the CPU graph from the task manager it wasn't CPU limited so that should change things.)

Hmmm, I've given your test app a quick spin on my 7970 and I noticed the MSAA times where a little inconsistant which is a tad strange.

Anyway, I ran the code 'out of the box' so I don't know what light settings you had setup but the results were:

Forward Render Time:
No MSAA : 0.8ms
2x MSAA : 0.9ms to 1.6ms (?)
4x MSAA:  1.0ms to 1.8ms (?) - seems to spend more time at 1.0ms however.

Even Light Time Computation seems to bounce around a bit, varying between 0.2 and 0.4ms on all AA modes - sometimes NoAA and 2xAA sit around 0.36ms while 4xAA comes in at 0.26ms.

If I unlock v-sync then the total render times come in at;
NoAA : 1.8ms
2xAA: 2.0ms
4xAA: 2.3ms

In comparison the tiled deferred stacks in at;
(With z-pass)
NoAA: 0.41, 0.53, 1.9ms
2xAA: 0.49, 1.3, 2.82ms
4xAA: 0.55, 1.9, 3.5ms

(Without z-pass)
NoAA: 0.6, 0.53, 1.9ms
2xAA: 0.7, 1.3, 2.82ms
4xAA: 0.8, 1.9, 3.6ms

(720p rendering, in a window, stock clocked i7 920, but judging by the CPU graph from the task manager it wasn't CPU limited so that should change things.)

Hmmm, I've given your test app a quick spin on my 7970 and I noticed the MSAA times where a little inconsistant which is a tad strange.

Anyway, I ran the code 'out of the box' so I don't know what light settings you had setup but the results were:

Forward Render Time:
No MSAA : 0.8ms
2x MSAA : 0.9ms to 1.6ms (?)
4x MSAA:  1.0ms to 1.8ms (?) - seems to spend more time at 1.0ms however.

Even Light Time Computation seems to bounce around a bit, varying between 0.2 and 0.4ms on all AA modes - sometimes NoAA and 2xAA sit around 3.6ms while 4xAA comes in at 2.6ms.

If I unlock v-sync then the total render times come in at;
NoAA : 1.8ms
2xAA: 2.0ms
4xAA: 2.3ms

In comparison the tiled deferred stacks in at;
(With z-pass)
NoAA: 0.41, 0.53, 1.9ms
2xAA: 0.49, 1.3, 2.82ms
4xAA: 0.55, 1.9, 3.5ms

(Without z-pass)
NoAA: 0.6, 0.53, 1.9ms
2xAA: 0.7, 1.3, 2.82ms
4xAA: 0.8, 1.9, 3.6ms

(720p rendering, in a window, stock clocked i7 920, but judging by the CPU graph from the task manager it wasn't CPU limited so that should change things.)