Originally Posted by
cptwhite_uk
Nividia range higher than 8800GT:
8800GTS 512Mb - by about 5-10%
8800GTX 768Mb - by about 10%
9800GTX - by about 20%
9800GX2 1gb - by about 50%
Two of those cards wouldn't give any noticeable improvement in real world tests:
OC'd 8800GT vs 8800Ultra (lets imagine it's an OC'd GTX)
8800GT gives 92% of the performance of the Ultra, on average according to averaged fps on tom's hardware. It's is commonly understood you about a 10% performance improvement before any real world improvement in performance is perceived.
I'd say that makes the 8800GT pretty close to Nvidia's high end stuff. Lets not be making the suggestion the 8800GT is 'only mid-range' and 'still whoops ATI'. Lets keep it to single GPU cards for a fair comparison. The 3870 was released 6 months ago and still holds a respectable score against Nvidias latest 9800GTX single core solution top end card. Not to mention it's half the price now.
It's also going to be ATI's turn to release the next set of cards I suspect. Nvidia have been lazy with the 9800 series and are resting on their laurels.
This is from someone running an 8800GT...I'm no fanboy.