The averages, and even the framerate-over-time charts, show somewhat different performance characteristics between Nvidia and ATI cards. In general, ATI's fastest card outpaces Nvidia's fastest card, but at lower price points, Nvidia's new GeForce 7 cards are a slightly better deal. We should mention that, while actually playing the game to record this data, we found that the ATI-based cards had more consistent performance, with fewer sharp increases and decreases in framerate. Nvidia-based cards, by contrast, seemed to run up to higher highs and lower lows. This gameplay perception is borne out by the framerate data. Again, we should remind you that we're using name-brand cards here, and in the case of our Nvidia-based hardware that means XFX's overclocked models. Similar cards that run at slower reference clock speeds wouldn't perform quite as well, but then again, they would cost less.

Despite the cards showing different statistics, the end effect to the user is similar. To play Oblivion with all the details cranked up to the max, either of the big $600 cards will work great. Either of the roughly $300 run the game very well at 1280x1024 and quite well indoors at 1600x1200, but might need to have a couple of the view distance sliders adjusted to improve outdoor performance. Finally, the cards costing in the low $200 price range don't have a hope of running the game well at 1600x1200, and even at 1280x1024 might need the game details turned down to boost performance for both indoor and, especially, outdoor scenes.