lord . . . let's not start up the ATI/nVidia Crysis debate again - I'm a little sick of hearing it over the last few weeks.
Summary:
`If you want to play Crysis with extremelly high frame rates - nVidia 8800GTX
`If you want to play Crysis with extremelly high image quality - ATi 2900XTX
I'm not starting a debate. He just posted a statement with nothing to back it up. Saying it "it runs just as well if not better" is just plain wrong.
Also, I would disagree with your summary. For crysis, most peoples issue is frame rate. The game look good anyway, so a small difference in image quality from the graphics card isn't making a cruicial difference. However the difference between 20 and 30 fps IS making a big difference.
In this industry, I think both are equally important. Tech advancement is going to happen regardless. The GPU manufacturers will continue to develop to outdo their competitor. But, it's the game developers that tend to cater to the lower end equipment. By doing so, the consumer will only buy the lowest equipment they can to run the game optimally. I mean, if Crysis didn't have DX10 support and it ran flawlessly on the 1950 and 7900 cards, who'd spend the money on the DX10 hardware?
But, thankfully, the game developers have had better access to newer video hardware over the last few years, and we're seeing games that are at the front of technology - especially compared to gaming say . . . 10 years ago, when the devs weren't recieving freebies from the GPU industry, you didn't need a bad-ass rig to run a game with every option enabled.
But like I said earlier, this is the price you knowingly pay for wanting to play the latest PC games at the best settings. This isn't meant as a personal attack, but people who don't want to have to upgrade or change would probably be better off gaming on consoles. Besides, no-one FORCES you to upgrade. It's a free market, and if someone disagrees with crysis not running on their PC, simply don't buy it. If enough people feel the same, the game will fail and the developers will get the message.
However, as our reward we get (IMO) better games, which are better looking. At the end of the day, this is a market driven by consumers. Yes, the graphics card companies give money to developers, but it makes no difference if consumers aren't buying the end product!
Clearly there IS enough demand, or they wouldn't keep pushing boundaries to make new games and hardware.
Competition is great, and the more there is, the better for you or me. However, the possible negative side is that the industry moves very quickly, forcing you to upgrade etc to keep up.. however, like I said, that's the price you willingly, knowingly pay.