GeForce 6800 series round-up: Five of the best compared

CHOOSING A NEXT-GEN graphics card is tough. First, one has to decide between ATI's Radeon X800 family and NVIDIA's GeForce 6800 series. That decision alone is a daunting one, requiring one to weigh DOOM 3 performance, potential Half-Life 2 performance, the merits of NVIDIA's Shader Model 3.0 implementation, and ATI's stellar performance in current DirectX 9 applications. There's also the religion factor. These days, choosing between ATI and NVIDIA is like declaring a religious affiliation, and there's plenty of rabid preaching on both sides of the fence.