[Axial]

Ha ha, Fireskull, this wouldn't be because I keep pushing for ATi equality would it? :wink:

Right now I am facing a decision whether to purchase a 5850 or GTX470. Does anyone know if GTX470's Fermi Architecture works with this game?

GTX470 performs better on the whole compared to the HD5850, so if it's within your budget and there's nothing else you'd rather have that extra cash for, then go with the GTX470.

I have a GeForce 7800GT 256MB, using 91.28 drivers. Never had a problem except for the black circles on the water, but it comes and goes and is not at all that big of a deal.

Axial, YOU FUNNY! You are still predictable. Once again I knew that you would appear in this topic and generally what your response would be.

Actually, I have stated many times at AAA and other websites: ATI generally has the best graphics cards at this time but IL-2 users sometimes have issues with it. The NVIDIA cards have some driver issues with IL-2, too.

ATI and NVIDIA will never be equal because of the tremendous technical complexity of the graphics cards, the different types of the same brand, the unique graphics requirements of IL-2, the knowledge limitations of the users, the switch to DirectX 11 with Storm of War, and the ever changing pace of ATI and NVIDIA technical development. ATI and NVIDIA have exchanged leads on which is the best several times and will likely do so in the future.

EQUAL??? 8)

Duh. I only state facts though. According to benchmark and in-game results published across the web:
HD5970 > GTX480 > HD5870 > GTX470 > HD5850 (and after that it's pure ATi since nVidia has no more current generation cards after the two listed here).

Last generation, it was:
GTX295 > HD4870X2 > GTX285 > HD4850X2 > GTX260 Core 216 => HD4870 1GB > GTX260 Core 192 > HD4850.

I don't have a brand preference (all of my cards are nVidia by coincidence, save an old Rage Pro All-In-Wonder and a Radeon 7000 64MB), I just don't like seeing someone basing all opinions of current generation cards off of what has happened with previous generation cards when those previous generations have close to zero technical and software relation to the current cards. i.e. performance of a Radeon X1k series has just about no relation to how the HD4000 series will perform. Drivers have also changed radically (yay AMD acquisition), and so has the OpenGL spec since OpenGL 2.0.

I completely agree that the two companies will continue to exchange blows. Right now, performance is so close that it boils down to how much money can you spend and whose special features you are more interested in. Want Eyefinity and low power consumption, go with ATi. Want PhysX and 3D Vision, go with nVidia. Even in classically nVidia-centric games (there are no ATi-centric games that I know of other than Halo PC, but it's not a performance thing with that one), the performance margin is so small that it can be ignored, and considering the power provided by the cards it is often a moot point anyways.

As for Storm of War...well, we'll see. I suspect it will fall into the performance order I listed above almost to a fault.