[Fireskull]

There are no GT300 cards. On the desktop, nVidia's next graphics cards will be the GTX480 and GTX470. The benchmarks so far have those pegged from 10-15% faster than the ATi offerings (HD5850 and HD5870), which has just been rendered even more marginal with the latest ATi driver release and will continue to be rendered ever less important with each driver release. For a $100 premium, the nVidia isn't worth it. Any GT300s you will see on both desktop and laptop platforms are rehashes of old GT200 parts (desktop) or old G92 parts (laptop) to try and dupe you into spending a premium on technology two and three generations removed.

If you want a high-end card right now, go ATi. Better yet, wait for the GTX480 to release and then the ATi prices will lower to further strangle nVidia, which again means buy ATi.

Axial, hi bro

Do me a favor, okay? Show me a website where nVidia retracts all their public statements.

NVIDIA published that their next series of graphics cards will be new hardware and have new software in them. Why would they lie to the public when they state that their next cards will be far better than anything on the market now? Why would they state that the GT - 300 will be released in limited quantities and then change their minds? Why would they claim that the next generation of PhysX technology will be incorporated in the very next series of graphics cards? Why would they promise that the image quality rendering of the cards will be even more impressive than the increase in speed? The very first cards will be available in probably a few weeks-a couple months at the most.

ATI for their part currently have the best high end cards in the world for PC gaming and simulations. However, their driver problems in rendering IL-2 without big anomalies is a hit -1 in favor of NVIDIA. Currently, NVIDIA is more user friendly for the average IL-2 enthusiast. For ATI users to overcome the driver gliches with IL-2 is a real hassle and beyond the ability of some ATI owners.

By the end of 2010, both ATI and NVIDIA will have released more graphics cards and the entire picture for IL-2 people will change. Added to that is the almost certainty that Storm of War will be released in the Autumn-roughly six months from now, give or take a month or two. This of course will bring a whole new set of issues with both ATI and NVIDIA by itself. Added to that is the cloud of debates over which graphics cards are the best.

Axial, I really and truely respect you and appreciate your contributions at AAA. However, the only thing that we seem to agree in the Great Card Debate is that a better strategy would be to wait a while and see what is available just around the bend in the road.



AKA_Mountain, Axial and I both agree that you should wait at least a few months on a purchase.

I will add that I personally recommend getting a machine with Windows 7. With IL-2, 32-bit or 64-bit makes no difference. Storm of War will surely support 64-bit and this is what I recommend.

Get a graphics card using DirectX 11. ATI has DirectX 11 on their new cards now and NVIDIA will be available with DirectX 11 this Spring. Storm of War will be rendered very well in DirectX 11 and rumors are that it will not be OpenGL supported.

Also, get at least 4 GB of system RAM and as much graphics dedicated memory at possible. If the newer cards have 3 or more GB of dedicated memory, then get them. You should definately try to get at least 3.0 Ghz of processing speed. The more the better.