A method and apparatus for a modified linear filter using texture data as phase angle. In one embodiment, the present invention recites a method for filtering attribute data onto a display pixel using a minimum phase-angle average. First, a display pixel location is received. Then, a first and a second attribute data value, in the form of a texel, is received. A filtering calculation for the first attribute data values creates a filtered first texel attribute data value such that the difference between the filtered first attribute data value and the second attribute data value is not greater than approximately half the magnitude of the maximum attribute data value. Finally, an average is calculated using the filtered first attribute data value and the second attribute data value. The average will be the resultant attribute value assigned to the display pixel location. By using the steps in this method, the present invention provides more appropriate interpolation of attribute data values.