Rev an NVidia zealot? Clearly you weren't around in the V5 vs GF days on B3D. Rev was the leading proponent of benchmarking the GF @ 4X FSAA vs the V5 @ 2X FSAA (which makes GF performance look bad and V5 look good) because V5 2X ~= GF 4X IQ wise in his opinion.
Rev's opinion was to benchmark at settings where IQ is nearly equal. Adjusting LOD bias, AF, etc so that the cards are producing nearly the same image.
Of course, my opinion is, trying to market FSAA IQ to the general populace didn't work for 3dfx and it isn't likely to work for ATI either if that were their marketing thrust (fortunately it isn't. Currently, they tout performance and shaders). However, if ATI gets beat in performance and falls back to the ole "but our AA IQ is slightly better", they won't get any traction with most people.
Just try to imagine explaining gamma-corrected AA to the average-joe in an IHV ad for example.
To me this is like non-judged Olympic sports (track and field) vs judged (figure skating, etc) Non-judged sports are fairly objective. It takes 1 second to understand the scoreboard. Guy who crossed line first, wins. IQ is subjective. Takes more than the 5 seconds someone spends looking at an ad.
