i'v seen a 9600 and 9800 in action... i'm saying my old 8500 has better stock IQ to emphasize how far ahead ATI is , but once you turn up Digital vibrance and filtering, the geforce takes the lead . and another amazing thing, despite the crappy coding in halo ( it still lags at ANY setting on this monster card ) it knows shader 3 when it seens it . Date / Time: 12/30/2004 10:15:35 AM (896593ms)2200MHz, 512MB, 128M nVidia (DeviceID=0x00f1) Driver=6.14.10.6693 Shader=3.0C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe -timedemo (Version=1.0.0.564)Frames=4700Total Time=110.38sAverage frame rate=42.58fpsBelow 5fps= 10% (time) 0% (frames) (11.281s spent in 12 frames)Below 10fps= 10% (time) 0% (frames)Below 15fps= 11% (time) 0% (frames)Below 20fps= 11% (time) 0% (frames)Below 25fps= 12% (time) 1% (frames)Below 30fps= 21% (time) 7% (frames)Below 40fps= 37% (time) 19% (frames)Below 50fps= 53% (time) 36% (frames)Below 60fps= 86% (time) 79% (frames)Memory used Max=162MB, Min=130MB, Ave=150MB this is halo version 1.0 !
Have you tried an x800 or even 9800 level ATI?Comparing IQ of a 6600gt with the fancy stuff enabled to an 8500 isn't exactly fair is it?
now why the hell would you use halo 1.0? when 1.5 out ?thats just plain stupid