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Conclusion
It is very obvious that texture filtering quality does affect performance even of the very advanced graphics cards. However, it is also clear that high-quality trilinear filtering, which does not produce “shimmering” effects, on Nvidia GeForce hardware is also very performance hungry. In fact, much more speed-demanding compared to ATI’s high-quality anisotropic filtering!
Using the new test methodologies we have determined that the gap between the GeForce 7950 GX2 and the Radeon X1950 XTX is not dramatic in the vast majority of cases provided that both use high-quality texture filtering. We were also very surprised with the fact that high-quality trilinear filtering radically lowered performance in such benchmarks as Serious Sam 2 , Tomb Raider: Legend , Titan Quest , 3DMark06 and some other.
To sum up, we have to conclude the following:
- Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2 is faster than the Radeon X1950 XTX in the majority of cases;
- ATI Radeon X1950 XTX costs $449, whereas the GeForce 7950 GX2 is priced at $599 - $649;
- ATI Radeon X1950 XTX produces higher image quality under our settings due to high-quality anisotropic filtering;
- Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2 could produce higher quality antialiasing modes than the Radeon X1950 XTX, but they are hardly useful for modern games;
- ATI Radeon X1950 XTX theoretically can enable FSAA with FP16 HDR, which is an advantage, however, it does not have the feature supported flawlessly at the moment and it may not provide sufficient performance;
- Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2 provides slightly higher quality antialiasing of transparent textures;
- ATI Radeon X1950 XTX, unlike the GeForce 7950 GX2, works with every mainboard provided that the power supply is capable of feeding the board with 120W of power.
When making a choice, everybody has his or her own priorities and qualities that he or she wants to obtain along with a new graphics card. You can share with us your preferences for graphics cards' features by taking part in our poll on the front-page or contacting us using our forums.
