Image Quality

Image Quality

First thing we need to do is verify that the image quality between ATI Radeon and NVIDIA GeForce cards are the same so we can objectively measure performance.

Above the reference image -- Look at the nicely anti-aliased power lines to the top left of the screenshot. Click to see a full screen reference screenshot (2560x1600)

Applied in-game is 4xAA for both chipset makers -- long story short, there's no visual difference in AA methods. This is the most common setting used by you guys. And people just do not seem to care about more then 4xAA -- which could be possible if we'd dive into the graphics card driver and enforce it.

We now turn off AA and look at object quality. E.g. are the vendors both enforcing the same texture quality, filters etc.

Now looking closely you'll notice a little color-tone difference. This scene has a lot of volumetric fog consistently moving from the right to left, which is the cause of that. Look at the rock to the left of the sniper compare NVIDIA's and ATI's screenshot. The reality is that there is very little difference to spot with the naked eye. Also observe the snipers gun and the sniper itself, there's virtually no difference, great stuff.