Clearly, ATI offers better video support in their latest graphics cards than Nvidia does. They dominate the HQV benchmark tests, offer much lower CPU utilization for DVD playback, and offer solutions for acceleration H.264 and DivX (though one requires a specific codec and the other a specific player). In really tough video scenarios, like those with odd cadence patterns or noisy DVDs, ATI delivers better quality. Their de-interlacing algorithms seem just a little bit better, too.

This is the rub: Most users will never run into those situations. The vast majority of users only ever encounter reasonably well-made DVDs that only require 3:2 pulldown or none at all, and have no interlaced images. Odds are, most computer users will only very rarely run into a situation where the visual quality between ATI and Nvidia's latest graphics cards is different enough to notice, and that's if you stick your nose up to the screen and start to scrutinize the video very closely. Users that have TV tuners in their PC will certainly appreciate the good de-interlacing and noise reduction in the Radeon X1000 series of cards.