Does the feature level affect multisampling?

Question

I'm using DirectX 11 with the feature level 9_3 even though my computer could run 11_0, but I want to support older hardware as well.

I'm using CheckMultisampleQualityLevels to check whether multi sampling with the given samplecount is supported or not. However it returns 1 for quality with 4samples. And with 8samples it returns 0 (so its not supported). With feature level 11_0 CheckMultisampleQualityLevels returns 1 for 8samples. I'm using a AMD/ATI Radeon HD5830. In the most DirectX9 games I can still use 8x antialiasing. So why is it not supported in DX11 with a lower feature level.

Another point is it seems like 4samples doesnt really affect the output:

With mutlisampling disabled the result is the same. I'm sure that I configurated ms correctly.. even in the Depthbuffer.

Whether I enable AntialiasedLineEnable in the RasterizerDesc or not the output is still the same.

I searched in MSDN but I couldn't find any more information about multisampling.

EDIT: The blacklines in the picture are outlines made in the pixelshader

Answer 1

A breakdown of capabilities by feature level is available here. You'll note there is no explicit mention of MSAA support. However, the documentation does point out that for the 9.3 feature level, no guarantee is made for MSAA support.