i know aa. dont knw af. I am crazy for games, except for rts.. Can play for hours.. have stayd up all night to complete NFS MOST WANTED, CARBON, CALL OF DUTY-4 etc.etc.etc. (at diff nights offcose) but nw ma pc suck, for all those awesome games out there... cudnt play CRYSIS even at mid settings also..
Well, let me tell u,
Anti Aliasing (AA) which improve sharpens lines like wires or edges of things,wall, smoothens or no jagging etc
Anisotropic Filtering (AF) makes things little shiny..like sharping textures... So objects looks colorful and shiny in high resolutions.
Games run mostly without AA and AF by majority and if you didn't used them before you won't be much bothered about them....
Why i am telling you about these, because they are very important and overall effects your performance and quality very largely...
Since you are about to use HD TV... It's better you use them or else you will see too much jagged images...
I can say for now,, go for single card at present ,if money is not matter ,go with GTX 570. you won't regret... It's the Best Vid card on market and nothing touchs in its range... you can consider 6970 or 6950 too. They are very good. For AA and AF ,570 or other mentioned ATI's handles very good..
One more thing Using AA and AF will generate more heat than normal and card stress really very hard..
Like said by Singh... It's too much to spend for Vid card such as GTX 580 , 5970(stay away from it) becoz now-a-days Games are making high end into mid end card just in months... so use reasonable budget now and get another same card for SLI or CF... When i tried to get 470 or 480 in India they were above 25... Now see,, 470 is coming for 15,000 and look at that card located in high end series... It was second high end card at that time, now it;'s in just in TOP 10 only.... Now i got two cards and they together perform better than Single Fastest card.... with bonus few worries... If all is not matter to you... GTX 580 is in TOP and Best performer in TOP END>..
Both ATI and Nvidia have cons and pros.. So don't concentrate them too much, just stick to the ones which works better for you...
In Nvidia , PhysX is plus point.. Example if you Take MAFIA II, which i am playing full night too
.. I am stunned to see difference between ATI and Nvidia.. Sometimes in some games PhysX does matters a lot... The car or Things blow in this game is hugely mattered between ATI and Nvidia.... In Nvidia i felt like the car is shooting into sky...
ASk me if you have any doubts......
@Everyone...
I am not thinking I am arguing with anyone.. It's just i feel group discussion...