Great, another Red vs. Green thread.
Anyway, I like to think of it this way. After I set the driver to HQ AND go to RivaTuner and turn off all the optimizations (which are still on even though driver says there off) THEN and only then is the difference between ATI's IQ and Nvidia's IQ practically the same. Once all the optimizations are off, I notice hardly any to no shimering. Take it for what it's worth though. You do loose a couple of fps when the optimizations are turned off (which is the way I've always done it) but even after that, the difference between ATI and Nvidia's performance is close to nill. So what if nvidia leads 3 fps in one benchmark and ATI leads by a few in another. You still won't notice the difference.
Anyway, I like to think of it this way. After I set the driver to HQ AND go to RivaTuner and turn off all the optimizations (which are still on even though driver says there off) THEN and only then is the difference between ATI's IQ and Nvidia's IQ practically the same. Once all the optimizations are off, I notice hardly any to no shimering. Take it for what it's worth though. You do loose a couple of fps when the optimizations are turned off (which is the way I've always done it) but even after that, the difference between ATI and Nvidia's performance is close to nill. So what if nvidia leads 3 fps in one benchmark and ATI leads by a few in another. You still won't notice the difference.