Conclusion

The image quality comparison is almost certainly a draw on all but one account. NVIDIA’s AA routine, especially with Transparency AA activated, is better at drawing very fine lines, like those in the Half-Life 2 fence screenshot. Whether it’s the thin left side of the fence or the small branches on the trees, NVIDIA shows you more, and even more importantly, what they show is in sharper contrast than what ATI’s routines deliver. However, ATI generally has better AA smoothing once you bump things up to 6xAA. I’m going to call it a wash here.

NVIDIA’s anisotropic filtering looks better in screenshots. You’ll remember that you can see the cobblestone pattern in the Call of Duty 2 screens far beyond where the ATI image blurs them into flat ground, but this comes at a steep price. NVIDIA’s optimizations create the shimmering effect we saw in the Battlefield 2 video, which can range from unnoticeable to distracting, depending on the game, the scene, and how sensitive you are to it. Also, the optimizations produce a sharper point of delineation where the card switches from low detail to high detail textures, creating clear steps of detail change relative to the smooth transition of ATI’s upcoming hardware. ATI’s own optimizations aren’t without fault either, as some users have reported shimmering with ATI’s latest cards as well, but as you can see in the videos, it isn’t nearly as pronounced, even in our scenario outlined with Battlefield 2.

Of course, when you’re playing a game, whether it’s something slow-paced like World of WarCraft, or a fast-paced shooter like Half-Life 2, it’s up to you to decide what matters most. Are you going to notice the NVIDIA optimizations? Is turning them off going to make it better for you? Are you going to prefer ATI’s generally smoother 6xAA or the better boldness and contrast of NVIDIA’s 4x technique? Or, let’s be honest, with differences so small, are you going to go for the card that gives you the best value? Only you can answer the questions for yourself, we just give you the results of our tests to help in your choice.

Finally, a warning and a caveat: many of the images we have shown, and the ones most readers focus on are the cropped versions with commentary. It’s easy to focus in those on that tiny little portion of the screen, especially when we increase the magnfication to help explain what we see. Remember, this is not what you see on the screen. You see the whole screen, you see it in motion, you don’t see it magnified. Look at the cropped cutouts, enjoy the detail, and then go back to take a look at the full version image so you don’t miss the forest for the trees. The little details only add up to create the final picture, they don’t define it. We should also add that judging image quality is a much more subjective field than judging performance. Again, look at the screenshots, watch the videos, and then decide for yourself which card delivers the best combination for your eyes.

We’re considering adding a second part to this article. If you have any feedback/suggestions or things you’d like to see, let us know in the news comments!

UPDATE 8/23/06: Now that the NDA for the X1950 XTX has expired, you can see the benchmarks delivered by these IQ setups in our Radeon X1950 XTX Performance Preview article. In Part 2 we'd like to explore the control panel options offered by ATI and NVIDIA in more depth, rather than sticking to the basic settings. Be on the lookout for that article in the weeks ahead.