I for one applaud both companies(ATI and Nvidia) for delivering state of the art hardware for the PC enthusist, but really as I get older I see no reason for the average consumer to invest in big $$$ graphic cards. The game developers have spoken, so has retail chains like EB, hell even Wallmart...there is not a PC game (s) in development that warrent the kind of money invested to play video games on a PC, what > 60 fps at HD resolution is not good enough ??
Most of the features included in modern video cards are not even looked until they are three years into maturity, tesselation was included in hardware on a Radeon 8500, now it is a game breaker four years later
![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
..really (technology demos need not apply, they don't sell well).
I have and always will be a PC Gamer, which is where I find us the dying breed....M$ trys to sell O/S by preaching improved graphics API, yet when you go to any video game store you have little to look at...maybe a 5x5 foot section of PC games vs. 1500 Sqare feet of consoles. A quick look at the top selling PC games tells all:
1 PC The Sims 3 Electronic Arts Jun-09
2 PC World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack Blizzard Entertainment
(Activision Blizzard) Nov-08
3 PC The Sims 2 Double Deluxe Electronic Arts Apr-08
4 PC World of Warcraft: Battle Chest Blizzard Entertainment
(Activision Blizzard) Sept-07
5 PC Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Activision
(Activision Blizzard) Nov-09
6 PC World of Warcraft Blizzard Entertainment
(Activision Blizzard) Nov-04
7 PC The Sims 3: World Adventures Expansion Pack Electronic Arts Nov-09
8 PC Spore Electronic Arts Sept-08
9 PC Dragon Age: Origins Electronic Arts Oct-09
10 PC Empire: Total War Sega of America Mar-09
I'm sure my HD 5970 or possibly a GTX 480 will play all these forward looking titles sweet.