yeah, ATI always had better image quality ever since the beginning. I felt the same with HD3850 when compared to 9600GT. But of course, performance wise, 9600GT wins hands down. Dunno about HD3870 with 9600GT though, but I've heard that the performance of HD3870 loses to 9600GT but not by much. But still, I'm not a specific supporter of any of the two companies so if the next HD4XXX series comes out better price and performance wise, I might just grab one.