Maximum settings on mid vs. high end card

[100Core]

If you can play a game at absolute max settings, with everything enabled blah blah blah, is that the best the game can look, period?

Or in other words......

would max settings look the same on two 5870's crossfired as it would on a 4870?

Obviously your fps would be higher.... but can you tell between 50fps and 150fps?

Like L4D for example... I play it on the highest possible settings at 1900x1200 on my 1gig 4870... at very sufficient fps... so would a higher end card give me anything at all?

Also, what games other than Crysis can utilize a top-end card at 1900x12000???


Thanks!!

 

[masteryoda34]

Probably will make no difference. However, if the newer card supports some new features that the game also uses, then it could make a difference. Also, the AF processing in the newer cards could be different.

In the end, I doubt anyone would notice anything.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

If the game doesn't support any new quality settings provided by the higher end card the game will not look better on card A vs card B.

 

[bryanW1995]

the new 58x0 cards have a much better AA mode that was not available on 4xxx or gt200 based cards. BFG10k has been benchmarking some old games with the newer AA running, he should be reporting his results soon. This can be confusing, however, because at, say, 8xAA on an nvidia or amd card with similar features (say both are from the same generation) then games will look the same. BTW, the new AA modes for 58x0 take up a LOT of resources and are generally only usable on older games, but they appear to make a significant IQ improvement in those games.