If you want image quality, then ATi. If you want performance, then nVidia
I don't know where you get that image quality info from? I guess it depends on the games because in a doom3 review using both the 6800 and X800 more jaggies were noticed on rails and the lines in the floors etc..on the X800 than there was on the 6800 although I heard like in farcry theres better image quality...but come on...can you seriously tell me you'd notice a difference in imagequality with all settings in farcry on high? Probably not...but you'd sure as hell notice lag due to lack of performance...
Don't beat me agex! We'll never resolve our Nvidia VS ATI fight! lol....but yeah I've never had an ATI card and kangaroo posted the stats of the nvidia's FX vs the same class in ATI and yes ATI does outperform nvidia =/ oh man it pains me to say it, but yeah that 9800 pro you got there should be better than any of the equivelant series in nvidia.
For future reference if you decide to get a 6800 sometime down the road some good brands are:
eVGA.........thats about it =) haha I kid I kid, there are some other ones out there I hear MSI is pretty good, STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM XFX have heard nothing but crap from those (sry all you XFX users) I had a chaintech 5700 and it burnt out. BUT at the time I had a case with no fans or anything and an open side panel with a CPU sitting at 64C idel so hell I may have caused it to overheat.....but I was browsing the internet and then all of a sudden BOOM! nothing but lines across the screen even from dos prompt...same thing in friends comp.
BTW: Nvidia is gonna come out with the 6600GT which will be like $199 and it uses DDR3 memory! so thats a plus, got 8 pipelines and its 128mb DDR3 btw, and basically the ATI equivelant of the lower end SUCKS BALLS. I didn't know the 6600GT existed and someone linked me to a review and the ATI's equivelant wasn't worth the time of day...nvidia completely blew it out of the water...so you could always wait for that
Conclusion: Stick with your 9800 Pro ::chest pains:: damnit it hurts to say it!
EDIT: dern it u-toast stuck yours in there while I was typin!
but the images quality just isnt there,
..!?! the hell are you talking about? again I want to know what games you guys are playing where there is this INSANE NOTICEABLE image quality difference.