What's really surprising though is the GeForce 6800 GT's showing in our performance testing today. At one point we actually loaded up Quake 4 and ran some benchmarks to make sure our card was running correctly. NVIDIA's GeForce 7600 GT runs circles around the GeForce 6800 GT, and in some cases the 7600 GS is able to give the 6800 GT a run for its money! We didn't expect the 7600 GT to come close to even matching the GeForce 6800 GT in performance, but in our tests today it not only equaled the 6800 GT in performance, it outperformed it by a double-digit margin. When the GeForce 7 first launched nearly a year ago, NVIDIA was quick to boast about GeForce 7800 GTX's enhanced pipeline efficiency, claiming that the 7800 GTX was 50% more efficient on a clock-for-clock basis than GeForce 6. Based on our results with Oblivion today, that figure certainly sounds believable.

With all that being said though, ATI's Radeon X1800 GTO usually came out ahead when it comes to Oblivion performance. If you've got $250 to spend on a graphics upgrade for the game, it would be our top choice. If your budget is in the $200 range, NVIDIA's GeForce 7600 GT is without a doubt, the unquestioned leader. The GeForce 7600 GS would be our pick if you're looking to spend less than $150. The 7600 GS shares all the same fundamental traits as the 7600 GT, only it ships at slower clock speeds and can often be found with passive cooling.