I think some people just dont trust ATI enough to switch *snap* like that. I go for performance, so brand name doesnt effect me at all.
My friends dad was saying he needed to get new video cards that support shader 3+. I automatically tell him about the 4850s. Good performance and price.
But he shoots it down cause "Ive had bad experience with ati in the past, and nvidia has always done better."
I go to tell him that ati is killing nvidia pretty much right now and the 4850 would be more than perfect for his needs. Still doesnt want to believe me.
when I benchmarked a borrowed EVGA superclocked 8800GT on some of the 3dmarks, the 8800GT seemed to do about the same or better than 4850's (even OCed ones) with otherwise similar setups.
According to this review, the 4850 only does 0.1 fps higher than the 8800GTS on my monitor's resolution. According to other reviews, my 8800GT beats all of the 8800GTS's in performance benchmarks. So by association of the two reviews, I chose the 8800GT because of it's high overclock. And I'm not a huge NVidia fanboy but I went with the 8800GT because this 8800GT was $120, the 4850 was $180, and I didn't want to pay $60 for possibly 3 more frames. It largely depends on the game you are playing for some reason. Also whatever your budget is. It just so happens that the highest clocked 8800GT's is one of the cheapest.
Yea atm I can get the 4850 for a lot cheaper than the 8800... so I will be going for that one... unless I can find the 4870 cheap as well... just gotta keep looking...