dayspringUK

Halo. Has sum nice (read amazing) graphics, as long as you have the hardware to run it PROPERLY (i'm not talking GeForce 4MX, i mean GeForce FX 5700 Ultra / Radeon 9600 Pro and above) so u get all the Per Pixel 2.0 effects in 1024x768 at a half decent frame rate. Has a good solid story line, some lovely level design (if a tad repetative in places), some nice physics (unrealistic in the truest sense, but somehow works perfectly for Halo) and some decent AI. Good fun in multiplayer. Also consider Call of Duty, a tad short, but still, worth playing again, and the multiplayer rocks. Nice graphics, although technically nuthin comes close to Halo until Doom 3 and Half Life 2. And dripping with atmosphere.

nVIDIA beats ATi in most Open GL tests from wot I have read. And of course I checked out out loadsa reviews, from wot I read, ATi has the image quality problems from "inconvenient" angles, to be honest, i noticed no discernable difference between 9700/9800 and 5900 during use. Driver optimisations, i dont care about, dont bother with 3d mark after this whole fiasco, if these optimisations make my games run better, thats a bonus. I dont use anything above 2x AF in Direct X 9 games generally (i only really play Halo at the mo), but 1280x1024 is acceptable to me, and i can play on-line like that and i only have a 17" monitor so dont need to worry about running in 1600x1200 8x AF and 8x FSAA (however nice that might look ;-)). Its not a crime to believe that both companies cards are top rate this time round is it? I seriously considered ATi, but after using the 9700 Pro, 9800 Pro and this FX 5900, the price swung it for me. And wen Doom 3 comes it, im pretty confident (and so is Carmack) that it will run better on nVIDIA architecture. Just a shame Half Life 2 is gonna run at about 10 fps ;-)

Check out this review, just an observation. http://www.hothardware.com/hh_files/S&V/r9800256mb_gffx5900upd.shtml My GeForce FX 5900 is certainly faster then the 9700 Pro. And wot a surprise, u have an ATi card...

Bought a GeForce FX5900 (128MB) just before Christmas, and was highly impressed. At the time, i looked at the Radeon 9700 Pro (about £200), the 9800 Pro (£250 ish) or the FX5900 (£180). From wot i could see, the 5900 offers most bang for buck, and gives better performance then the 9700 Pro. And after using both a 9700 Pro and 9800 Pro (128MB) in friends systems, i cant notice a massive difference in image quality, certainly not while ur playing. The ATi FSAA is better, but then the nVIDIA AF seems more complete (and certainly slower). All i care about is Halo running fine, it does, i'm happy and it didint cost a lot. And i did check a few benchies out, and there doesnt seem to be a masssive diff between the top cards anyway, seems that the GeForce is slightly faster with FSAA, and the Rads are much quicker at AF, but wen they're both enabled, its very similar scores i've seen. Go nVIDIA, and dammit, go ATi. They both have done well this time round. BTW, the 9700 Pro owns the 5800 Ultra in a fashion! That was a clear win for ATi. Cheers.