This article was released on gamespot a few days ago comparing the two best "single GPU" cards on the market.
For the complete article: Link

Hope you enjoy it.

ATI and Nvidia forever remain locked in a world of one-upmanship. If one company releases a 600MHz card, inevitably, a month down the road, the other will release a 650MHz card or start bundling 400MHz cards with a free game, more memory, or a tasty chicken dinner. ATI's new flagship part, the Radeon X1950 XTX is the latest salvo in the ongoing battle. The Radeon X1950 XTX is an improved version of the Radeon X1900--the new part has the same core speed as its predecessor, but now comes with 512MB of ridiculously fast 2000MHz GDDR4 memory. The new memory boosts overall memory bandwidth, which the speedy Radeon X1950 XTX GPU can put to good use.




The $449 Radeon X1950 XTX doesn't exactly qualify for budget status. Nvidia's nearest offering in terms of price turns out to be the GeForce 7900 GTX. Like the X1950, the GeForce 7900 GTX also sports large amounts of quick memory and an equally speedy core. You can purchase a Radeon X1950 XTX card and a matching CrossFire Edition card for a dual-card setup and you can also get two GeForce 7900 GTX cards for a dual-card SLI setup. However, we're focusing on single GPU performance in this story, but we plan on exploring dual-GPU performance in an upcoming video card round-up.
   
 The Winner: ATI Radeon X1950 XTX

The Radeon X1950 XTX and GeForce 7900 GTX cards are both juggernauts that can easily outperform any other cards on the market with the obvious exception of Nvidia's dual-GPU GeForce 7950 GX2. In terms of raw performance without antialiasing or anisotropic filtering, the cards actually perform quite similarly. Both cards will produce roughly the same frame rates in most games. Only in Quake 4 do we see the Radeon pull away by a significant amount.

The Radeon also scored two victories in Oblivion and 3DMark06, primarily because of the card's ability to render Shader Model 3.0 HDR and antialiasing at the same time (both of these victories would have been ties otherwise). It feels a little cheap to penalize the GeForce for technical failures, but we can't deny the fact that HDR is becoming an important graphical feature and anyone willing to spend $500 on a video card will likely want to play games with antialiasing and HDR enabled.

The Radeon X1950 XTX has an MSRP of $449, and you can easily find the GeForce 7900 GTX anywhere between $430 and $500, depending on the model. With the prices so close together, we'd easily opt for the Radeon X1950 XTX to get HDR and antialiasing at the same time. However, with DirectX10 and Windows Vista just around the corner, a cash outlay this large might be too much, too late for either card.

they all drop in price the moment a better graphics card comes out, thus proving my theory that if you game in the past, you can live like a king!

i.e. if you play last year's games (oh come on there are hundreds of releases last year that are out on budget release) and last year's spec machines you will game cheaply and abundantly too.

Quote from: Lawbagthey all drop in price the moment a better graphics card comes out, thus proving my theory that if you game in the past, you can live like a king!

i.e. if you play last year's games (oh come on there are hundreds of releases last year that are out on budget release) and last year's spec machines you will game cheaply and abundantly too.

That's the reason why my collection has over 170 titles.

I have a GeForce 5200. I'd love to get a 7800 GS, but the price is ridiculous.

Cool, I'am a complete fan of ATI... eventhought i'am currently using a NVIDIA 5200 128mb card...

I'll change it to an Nvidia 6800GT 256mb by next week... hopefully...

Quote from: AlukrdCool, I'am a complete fan of ATI... eventhought i'am currently using a NVIDIA 5200 128mb card...

I'll change it to an Nvidia 6800GT 256mb by next week... hopefully...

6800GT that's pretty expensive, around U$S 250, an outstanding video card, I'll make sure to step by your place to see it running.

And now the new champ. Nvidias 8800 GTX. Massively long to the point where it won't fit in some cases, plus it needs 2 power connectors.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2053780,00.asp

Quote from: UmaSama6800GT that's pretty expensive, around U$S 250, an outstanding video card, I'll make sure to step by your place to see it running.

PCI Express or AGP? If the latter, you might want to check this. It's an absolute bargain, according to a hardcore-gaming friend of mine.

Quote from: JongWKPCI Express or AGP? If the latter, you might want to check this. It's an absolute bargain, according to a hardcore-gaming friend of mine.

Indeed it is a bargain, the closest I found was a 6600 at the same price.

Quote from: QuasarAnd now the new champ. Nvidias 8800 GTX.

Yeap, Nvidia couldn't stand ATI's X1950XTX beating the ass out of the GeForce7900, so they build the first DirectX10 monster of the market.