That's the point I'm making, my screen is capable of 1680x1080 max and I'm not an AA whore, so given the choice I'd rather have a 9800GTX due to the better performance at midrange settings and reduced power footprint etc.
Yes, for you it's the better option but you said "
The thing is, I'm not convinced the 8800GTX is really that much better than the 9800GTX.".
All I did was point out that it's resolution and AA dependant on what you said. You don't want someone with a 1920x1200 capable screen coming in and reading that as then he/she could go out and get the wrong card for high resolution gaming with AA/AF/HDR.
Sure, if I were to upgrade to a CRT or go with a bigger TFT then the 8800GTX would come in to it's own, but by the time I get round to doing that, much faster cards will probably be around (gf10/11+) and modern games of that era would be too slow on a 8800gtx in those settings anyway.
Your reasoning is sound. The 9800GTX would be fine and when you do upgrade your screen then the newer cards will handle this better than today. I do have to question why the 9800GTX when a much cheaper 8800GTS 512mb does pretty much the same thing?. Yes, some 9800GTX's overclock better than the average GTS but I've seen a few 9800GTX users who have reverted back to the GTS due to minimal differences between the two as well as not clocking as great as others have been.
It's a bit like the days of the gf4 ti4200 - you could get a 64 or 128meg model, but the 64meg version had a higher memory speed. Ultimately the 128meg version would be faster at very high res+AA, but games would be unplayable on both cards in those situations anyway.
Yes, well kind of but the gap has closed and only 1 game is really rendered unplayable at high resolution and that's Crysis. I don't base current tech with one game.
There's not many games rendered unplayable at high resolution with AA today?. It's only in some titles also that the 8800GTS/9800GTX/9800GX2 get affected by the limited interface. Not in all titles.
I can understand why people with highend monitors go with the 8800GTX, but for me the 9800GTX would be a great option were it priced more aggressively. Heck, even if I had a better monitor, there's no way I'd be wanting to run games like Crysis in those kind of resolutions regardless of which card I had.
Yes for me it has to be the G80GTX, for you the GTS 512mb IMO.
I'm sorry but I have to say that you would want to run at these resolutions if your card could do it. The reason being is that high resolution gaming looks better without contest and you always start at the highest resolution and work your way back until it's playable. Crysis at high resolution obviously is an issue with the best settings as it'll take some card to achieve this. If you had a bigger resolution screen and most games would run fast enough then you'd be playing at those resolutions. I've ran at 1280x1024 with my X1900XT for half the time I had that card and when I got a 22" LCD screen with 1680x1050 I've never looked back as games look so much better this way. I then got rid of my LCD and got a bigger resolution ViewSonic CRT screen as I enjoy high res gaming and didn't like the refresh rate of 6ms on the LCD screen.
All I'm trying to say is don't knock high resolution gaming until you try it. Saying that you wouldn't use it when it makes things look sharper is the reason why I'm questioning you here.
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