GeForce 6800 Ultra or Radeon 9800XT?

is the 6800 Ultra really THAT much better than the 9800XT?

 

Yes, it is, but the 6800 is nVidia's next generation video card, ATI's competitor to the 6800 will be the R420 chipset...so while the 6800 Ultra is a lot better than the 9800XT, it will not be nearly as much better than ATI's next card...it's like saying that the GeForce4 TI4600 is better than a Radeon 8500...it's obvious, because they're different generations of cards.

 

Any news on when ATI plans to release their next generation of cards?

 

Soon, I would think.

 

You're not compairing apples to apples. The new R420 and R423 has 16 pipelines and will blow the doors off of the nVidia

The new R420 will be out in a month or two, just as soon as they release the new BTX form factor. The new R420 (Viper) will be twice as fast as the 9800 Pro (and it won't even need a heat sink or fan)