so here's what seem to be the problem-when i'm playing games, let's say i want a little better picture quality, so i turn on AA, obviously. but the problems start there. when i turn AA on, nothing really happens. i can set the AA as high as I want, the quality doesn't improve and the fps stay's the same too. even on crysis, i can set the AA to 8x, but nothing happens. and in a few games i get really poor quality shadows, like for NFS for example. the edges of the shadows are basicly just lines, there is no shape to the shadow. so maybe there's someone who could help out with this? would really appreciate it
btw, the graphics card is an ATi HD 3850 512mb

I suspect there is a problem with the driver. What driver are you using? The driver is the only thing that can tell a card to turn on AA. If you don't have the right driver, turning on AA will not have any effect.

Try installing the right driver for your OS from this page and see if it makes a difference: http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx

updated the driver, but still, no change

i'm sure i read somewhere that ati drivers work no matter what. i'll have to look at some threads but i'm nearly sure it said something like "it's always just "use the latest driver", and it works for everyone". but i can't confirm it
only kidding SRC. let the good times roll.

Maybe you set AA forced to Off.
Set it to "Let the 3D application decide" or to 8x in driver (for a LFS.exe only).

You took that out of context dadge, let's not start it again.

i know bud, i was just yanking your chain.......continue.

ok, so I installed the latest drivers, messed around with the settings a bit and i seem to have resolved the problem, but now there's a new one in crysis, warhead, crysis wars - when i play it, theres a green line ( very noticeable ) around the bottom and the right side of the screen. green line is when i play night maps, and a black line when i play daylyght maps. and the line fills about 10% of the screen.

maybe a slight heat issue?

nop, the card doesn't go over 40 degrees C on idle and 60 degrees C on full load. it has an aftermarket cooler on it as well