Ok Before i ask ... please please note that i would like people with knowledge on the subject matter to respond.. Ive owned all sorts of graphic cards from Nvidia and ATI for the last 3 years and im pretty much informed on the "speed" issue.Now to the Essential Question..With settings being 4x AA and 8X AF enabled at 1280 x 1024 resolution sliders all maxed Which card between the X800Pro and the 6800GT has the better image quality. I previously had been using a 9800 pro with no problems until i started to get artifacts 2 weeks ago... So i sent it back to ATI for an RMA and in the mean time purchased the x800pro since my local store did not have a 6800GT availiable. Ive been happy with the card since but i have a slight nagging apprehension about the purchase since a couple of influential people have decided to get the GT insead of the x800pro proclaiming both higher frames and higher pic quality.. The only exception to this being John Tavendale who has swiched from a 6800GT to an x800pro .... Now i was led to believe that ATI's product is superior in terms of Bump mapping (Water effects)AA/AF processingThis was clearly the case with the previous cycle of cards but with the present cycle of cards im not that versed on the matter.. (I do know whowever that the GT performs slightly faster than the X800Pro which doesnt help ATI's case either but if the image quality is superior then ill keep it) So essentialy i need a confirmation as to weather i should return the x800pro and get a 6800GT or keep it. Links to sreenshots regarding the matter would be greatly appreciated.My system specs arePentium IV 3.0 revision C "Northwood"ATI Radeon X800ProAsus P4P8001 Gig Pc3200 Corsair Value Select @ 2.5-3-3-6 TimingsSB Audigy MP3WD 120GB HDFujitsu 40GB HDThanks

Hi.If you have a choice, stay away from ATI and XP combo. Never ending problems and what seems to be very poor design. I can elaborate, if needed, I used to design Video boards, but take my word for it, if you want a peace of mind stay awy from ATI. TV

Hmm I think you should elaborate... Never had any probs with ATI and win xp (Until 2 weeks ago and that was hardware).. As a matter of fact ive found ATI's drivers to be less of a headeache. Im talking the Regular control panel drivers .. you would never find me installing the CCC which requires .NET..

Hi.I am glad you are satisfied wit it, if that is the case I will not try to talk you out of it.Here are a couple of things:1-After a while most will fail 3D mode, due to overheating / heath sink looses thermal conductivity to the I.C.2- Look up "microsoft.com" and do a search for:"_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL", this is a very common problem, driver related.3-Search the Net for ATI boot up problems etc.I had a 9500 Pro flashed to 9700 Pro, and a 9800 Pro and they both failed. I have some boards, including an old ATI, that are ove 10 years old, and they still work. The failure rate on the new boards is much greater than I would consider acceptable. TV

"1-After a while most will fail 3D mode, due to overheating / heath sink looses thermal conductivity to the I.C."The stock cooling on any card, be it ATI or nVidia, is minimal at best. Wisest thing to do is add an aftermarket cooler, preferably one that expels the hot air from the VC out the back of the case."2- Look up "microsoft.com" and do a search for:"_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL", this is a very common problem, driver related."I believe you mean "IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL". Did a search at MS and came up with this: http://search.microsoft.com/search/results...T_LESS_OR_EQUAL Nothing in there about ATI cards/drivers. More often than not this error and accompanying BSOD in XP/NT OS's is related to bad chipset drivers and/or bad memory. Couldn't find anything about it being video related... ATI or nVidia."3-Search the Net for ATI boot up problems etc."Kind of vague, that one. Did do a search for ATI and nVidia boot up problems... came up with many more nVidia than ATI. Only means that folks can experience the problem with any brand card.To the original poster... there's nothing wrong with either choice. Both nVidia and ATI offer top products that are generally well supported. The market competition that has existed tha past couple of years makes the consumer the winner. If you're happy with the ATI then congrats.Greg

Hi.Things can be hard to find on MS site. Here is just one example of the XP / ATI combo. Many more exist. TVMicrosoft has this to say regarding the infinite loop lockup:>This issue can occur when the display driver is caught in an infinite loop, typically waiting for the video hardware to become idle. This usually indicates a problem with the video hardware or with the display driver not being able to program the hardware correctly.

Specific links would be helpful.I did find reference at MS to your post above, but the article did not mention any brand of video card. Curious, I did a Google on this subject and found a number of forum links to the infinite loop issue. Most (that mentioned video card brand) related to systems using nVidia cards, and some of the discussions dated back more than 2 years (XP specific). Still no solid evidence that the issue is directly related to any brand of video card.Last month I attended a LAN meet and sat next to a simmer using an Intel based system with a 6800GT. He was using a CRT, and after seeing the IQ on my set-up (see sig) he was befuddled by the lack of vibrancy he was seeing on his. A few minutes tweaking his Gamma settings made everything well, and he was more than satisfied with his 6980GT. We traded seats later that weekend and his rig performed quite well... I was more than impressed with his 6800GT.Bottom line is that the latest gen ATI cards seem to favor games utilizing the DirectX 9 API (like HL2), while the latest gen nVidia cards excell in games based on the OpenGL API (Doom3). FS9 uses neither for it's video (DirectX 9 is needed only for Multiplayer), so either choice will work just fine in this app. Each user should look at what games they prefer to play, find a card they are comfortable spending their money on, and then have fun.Reagrds,Greg

It would be ATi all the way for me, plus the card doesn't take up two slots!Glenn