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Image Quality
NVIDIA have put lots of effort in to the 8800 to try and ensure that ATI has no arguments going for it anymore. Specifically, this boils down to the ability to render full HDR as well Anti Aliasing at the same time. This only applies to two games currently (Oblivion and Far Cry) however it was still something NVIDIA needed to address. With the 8800 series, NVIDIA have added full 128 bit precision which allows for proper HDR to be rendered along with AA filtering.
Along with support for AA and HDR, the 8800 series also comes packing new AA filter tech. It's called Coverage Sampling AntiAliasing and is designed to provide high levels of AA at a minimal performance loss. This is cut from NVIDIA's press package: New CSAA modes include 8x, 16x, and 16xQ. Each of these CSAA modes enhances built-in application antialiasing modes with much higher quality antialiasing. The fourth new mode, 8xQ, is standard 8x multisampling.
Here's the standard image they package with the card to show the difference:

NVIDIA have put lots of effort in to the 8800 to try and ensure that ATI has no arguments going for it anymore. Specifically, this boils down to the ability to render full HDR as well Anti Aliasing at the same time. This only applies to two games currently (Oblivion and Far Cry) however it was still something NVIDIA needed to address. With the 8800 series, NVIDIA have added full 128 bit precision which allows for proper HDR to be rendered along with AA filtering.
Along with support for AA and HDR, the 8800 series also comes packing new AA filter tech. It's called Coverage Sampling AntiAliasing and is designed to provide high levels of AA at a minimal performance loss. This is cut from NVIDIA's press package: New CSAA modes include 8x, 16x, and 16xQ. Each of these CSAA modes enhances built-in application antialiasing modes with much higher quality antialiasing. The fourth new mode, 8xQ, is standard 8x multisampling.
Here's the standard image they package with the card to show the difference:
Also new in the image quality category is NVIDIA's promise that their AF algorithm in the G80 does not take shortcuts. They are claiming that there are no optimizations being made and we're hoping that this turns out to be true in the course of things.
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The 8800GTS is beating the single XTX card in FEAR, Prey, Q4, and Far Cry and both are priced EXACTLY the same right now.
Add to that the fact that the card now supports HDR + AA and I think its hard to argue too much in favour of buying an older X1950 XTX card versus a DX10 capable GTS. (newegg shows the XTX card ranging from $409 to $449).
My advice is that if you are unwilling to pay for the GTS because of concerns about when its power will become useful, then don't buy any video card right now above $250US. Stick with the older X1800 and X1900GT/GTO class cards, or the 7800GT class and wait until the titles come out, then buy a price reduced GTS or whatever equivalet G80/R600 card is available at the time that fits your budget. For goodness' sake don't plunk down $450 on last year's DX9 flagship.
I still find it ironic when ATI comes out with new technology that nobody can use they are praised for their forward looking planning. When NVIDIA does it the ATI fans complain about how overpriced the unused features are and how it will be months before it is worth buying
This message was edited by Redemption on Nov 08 2006.
These things will be down to the $250 price range in no time. Hell, the first BluRay drive has dropped $200 already.
Wait a few more weeks for the 8800's to show in volume for the holiday and the 78's should probably come down in price.
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