Comment ATI and poor OpenGL (Score 1) 199
Whats a pity is that ATI again lagging behind on the performance part in the OpenGL based games/applications. You would think they learned their lesson with the Radeon 9x00 series and the X[3/6/7/8]00 series. How poorly those products perform with 'the next-gen' OpenGL based games, ID's Doom3 engine, and current line of OpenGL games. You would think ATI's Next-gen product would be doing alot better than their previous product line or atleast to be competitive with NV's 'next-gen' harware (i start to hate the word "next-gen", it's marketing lube than actually something meaningfull).
That ATI hardware perform well on DX9 based games is really nice (one of the reason i got myself a Radeon card 2 years ago, when NV's FX serie was just horror on DX9). But fortunately the gaming market doesn't only consist out of DX-based games.
From what i gathered on various resources (http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/article/
The only thing that can save ATI now is offering very competitive pricing for their new product line at the expense of current product line, which is unlikely looking at their recommended pricing.
I'm a gamer myself. What most gamers wants is not the bleeding edge hardware (well they like to day dream having it, but thats something else than what their wallet allows them to have). But good performance with good image quality at a good price in any range; either entry level or midrange or high-end.
Talking about high-end. It's also a pity that the new X1000 serie seem to less efficient running at high level of FSAA and Anisotropic filters. Those techniques can makes a game, tho how bored the gameplay may be, even interresting (such as Doom3 and other arcade type run and shooter games).
For now, i'm happy to stick to my cheap-ass 120 euro 6800LE card for atleast 2 years to come. Which easily can beat ATI's new midrange product, the X1600XT, with ease and it cost me way less.
New isn't always better