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less image quality than radeon (in some areas)
people say radeon has better image quality, but don't know exactly what they mean. in terms of the basics, they are the same. in terms of anisotropic filtering, the same. in terms of antialaising, the radeon 9800 pro is smoother (this is what people are usually talking about). in terms of color depth, geforce fx supports up to 128-bit, while the radeon supports only up to 98-bit.

» Review

you can't compare price between the brands. yes, radeon has a 9800 for $400. it has 128 mb of memory. geforce is also coming out with a 128 mb fx version. the geforce fx 5900 ultra (256 mb) and radeon 9800 pro (256 mb) are both $500. (if you buy thru alienware, the fx is actually $492.. a savings of $8). but thats not the point. point is, price is the same.

and if you say 128 mb is all you need:
then a) geforce will have a 128 mb card as well
and b) one reason the geforce 5800 ultra was held back was due to a lack of texture memory. the 256 mb memory of the radeon was a major factor in it beating the 5800 ultra. so it seems 256 mb means something.

and if you want to talk about performance: the latest doom 3 benchmark testing showed the geforce fx 5900 ultra beating the radeon 9800 pro by 30% to 70% (the 70% coming at the highest settings). some say that the 5900 ultra is more geared toward playing doom. and yes, it is. the fx 5900 ultra places more emphasis on on-board effects. the graphics card handles more of the work, and therefore shines with advanced shaders and dynamic lighting. the technology doom 3 uses is the next generation of gaming. a video card geared toward doom 3 will be the best card for all new games. the radeon 9800 pro beat the fx 5900 ultra in splinter cell, a game where fill rate is a major factor in its performance. if you want the best card for splinter cell, however, you'll want to go with the geforce fx 5800 ultra. yes, i said the 5800. a game like splinter cell plays best with the 5800 (high clock and high fill rate), a card that was considered horrible for all other games (low memory and low bandwidth). splinter cell plays well on the radeon too (high clock and fill rate), and follows the same pattern for other games (lower bandwidth than the fx 5900 ultra). the geforce fx 5900 ultra is the card for the next generation of games like doom 3, deus ex 2, and half life 2.

lastly, the overclocking factor doesn't mean much. the nvidia drivers allow overclocking. the geforce fx 5900 ultra even keeps track of its temperature and will give you an estimate of how high it can safely be overclocked, taking the guess work out. extra money need not be spent on a higher clocked card. if you have better cooling, you'll be able to have a faster card.