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THe reason people are criticizing the IQ of Nvidia 6800/7800 cards is mainly because of the shimmering texture effect.
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when i built my current sys early this year i read PLENTY reviews/reports of users with the 6800 pci-e card....and the fact that MANY complained about the shimmering finally made me get a X850XT instead.
SM3.0 is/was no issue 8/9 months ago and STILL is not really today.
However, NV probably did a good job with the 7800 now...
My criterium is ALWAYS what performance/IQ a card has with ALL of the eyecandy on...eg AAx4 min (better AAx6) and AF to the max...and then what hit each card will see.
Who would want a $400/$500 card and then run with lamer settings, turning all AA/AF off because he would get more fps ?
Thats also one reason i really do NOT care about 3dmark scores at all anymore....because OVERALL all recent cards are fast enough and people use 3dmark at standard "lamer settings" with AA/AF off and 1024 reso......problem is just that noone with some sanity left would use these settings in a real life/game app.
Eg. i run HL2 w/ 6xAA in 1280 (could also go 1600x).....smooth and fast as silk etc. because THIS IS the main reason i buy expensive gfx cards

Looks great and plays great.