I've got a GF3 ti 500 at the mo, which to be honest is gorgeous at 1024x768 but not smooth enough at my desired resolution of 1280x1024, especially not with any AA or aniso !!!

Is the 9700 *really* smooth with all these features on at those high resolutions ? I run 3d benchmarks and look at the fps counters, but the counters don't seem to tie up to my perception of how smooth it should be. I mean, if something is running at 80fps, how come I can still perceive slight jerkiness (not chug, chug jerky obviously!!! ). This is why I tend to run at 1024x768 still (without AA or aniso), where it really is always silky smooth, but I'd like to run higher and with AA and aniso. Is the 9700 really up to this ? For info, I mainly play MOHAA.

Oh, one more question, was it the Saphire 9700 ? If it was (ok, this makes it two questions ) how noisy was the fan ? My PSU and case fans are all really quiet and I don't want to spoil it with a whiny noisy gfx card fan !!!

Pete.