With tips of different hardness, we analyzed the effect of the hardness and shape of the actual AFM tip on the measurement of the best GaSb quantum dot (QD) structures induced by low energy Ar + sputtering. The comparison indicated that the complete information on the detailed dot shape and order structure can be determined with the hard and good tip, while with the soft or worn tip some information on the dot height and shape cannot be obtained. Our results suggest that, in order to obtain the complete surface information, the high hardness and good AFM tip should be used for semiconductor QD structures.