First, we ran AA image quality tests with the RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition and GeForce 6800 Ultra. In our opinion, the RADEON X850 XT PE produced sharper visuals when both cards were running in their 4xAA modes. It’s not that the GeForce 6800 Ultra looks bad, rather the RADEON X850 XT looks ever so slightly crisper. You can also see this in the hillside on the left in our AF screenshots.

Performance results were also close, with the RADEON X850 XT PE outperforming the GeForce 6800 Ultra overall, but the 6800 Ultra did win a few benchmarks. The X850 XT PE clearly performed faster without AA/AF, and came out ahead in 4xAA testing, but the GeForce 6800 Ultra’s superior efficiency at handling 8xAF allowed it to narrow the gap separating it from the X850 XT PE once 4xAA/8xAF was turned on, ultimately coming out ahead at 2048x1536 with 4xAA/8xAF.

Based on our testing, it looks like the X850 XT PE is a little more efficient than the GeForce 6800 Ultra at handling AA, while the 6800 Ultra is more resourceful than the X850 XT when it comes to AF.

Since the GeForce 6800 GT only trails the 6800 Ultra by 50MHz in core and memory clock speeds, it was able to put up a strong fight against the X800 XL, taking the overall performance crown, but again, ATI’s AA efficiency did keep things close in 4xAA testing. The GeForce 6800 GT ultimately pulled away once 4xAA/8xAF was enabled though.