Great Benchmark Article for AoC - Nvidia and ATI cards
Just like the title says link
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTUxNiwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==Last page of Article Conclusion:
Performance Summary
We experienced some interesting performance results in Age of Conan. We found the GeForce 8800 GT, the GeForce 9800 GTX and the GeForce 9800 GX2 all produced the exact same playable settings in Age of Conan, despite the price differences that exist between them. You could buy three GeForce 8800 GTs for the price of one GeForce 9800 GX2, yet in Age of Conan the GeForce 8800 GT produces the same level of gameplay experience as the GeForce 9800 GX2. In a way, the GeForce 8800 GT seems to be becoming the thorn in NVIDIA and its partners' collective sides. While we're sure they don't mind selling GeForce 8800 GTs, we are also sure they'd rather be selling lots of the more expensive products like the GeForce 9800 GTX and GX2.
We also saw AMD's ATI Radeon HD 3870 overtake the NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT, a product which it has had a seriously hard time competing against. Even the Radeon HD 3870 X2 performed well in AoC when compared to the GeForce 9800 GX2 and 9800 GTX. It wasn't better, but it was close for a change.
Of course, all of this could change when Funcom decides to roll out the DirectX 10 content for Age of Conan. Based on the DX9 performance data for AoC that we have, it's anybody guess as to how Conan's DX10 code will behave on these video cards. We've seen DX10 turn the tables on performance compared to DX9 in the past.
Image Quality Summary
From an image quality standpoint, none of these video cards will disappoint. They are all capable of playing Age of Conan with high in-game settings at very respectable resolutions. And the more expensive products, the GeForce 9800 GX2, and 9800 GTX, and the Radeon HD 3870 X2 are all perfectly capable of delivering a good gameplay experience while using settings greater than "High". But then, the GeForce 8800 GT will deliver the same great image quality and accompanying experience for rather a lot less money. And again, there's a DirectX 10 carrot dangling there. We can see the option. We know it will be there eventually. We just can't enable it yet.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line is this: Age of Conan is an evolutionary step on the way to a better MMO experience, not a revolution. Its visuals are top notch and it performs well on a variety of video cards, even while scaling to challenge today's high-end hardware. It's action-oriented real-time combat system will likely appeal to a new set of players, while its traditional core features will help hardcore MMO players feel right at home.
Performance-wise, the excellent NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT is definitely the best value in a video card for Age of Conan. You can get a 512MB EVGA GeForce 8800 GT from Newegg for $159.99 USD, or a 512MB BFGTech GeForce 8800 GT OC2 from TigerDirect for $149.99 USD after rebates, and it will give you just as good an experience as video cards costing well over $400. If you already have a GeForce 8 or 9 series, or a Radeon HD 3000 series, you are all set. But if you're looking to upgrade for Age of Conan, the GeForce 8800 GT is the video card to beat.
