Originally posted by boneplaya
^umm, I'm pretty sure that was a joke. I've got an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500, and It runs NL 1.7 (with many of the high settings on, e.g. reflective, complex water, best lighting, but also some lower settings including low texture detail, etc.) at about 20-30 FPS. It can get as low as 4-5 if there is a lot of scenery, and on heavily terrained rides, it normally runs in about the 10-15 range. btw my card cost me like 40 bucks.
I have a NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GTX on my Laptop. I get 100 FPS fairly consistently, even with 3DS intensive "FPS Killer" tracks. My resolution is 1920 x 1200, Textures on High, LOD distance on Far, and Reflections on Everything. If I pull the plug on my laptop my FPS drop to 30, but generally, I'm plugged in and enjoying a crisp 100 FPS with my NVIDIA.
I've always been satisfied with NVIDIA graphics cards. I had an ATI in my old laptop, and was disappointed with it. I mean, I figure that a laptop graphics card will not be able to perform at the same level as a tower's card, but the ATI was always weak. Back when RCT3 first came out I installed it on both my Tower with a NVIDIA and my then on my laptop with an ATI. I can't remember the specs on those machines exactly, but the tower was a couple years old at that point and the laptop was brand new. The tower could handle higher resolutions, and many more graphical options with RCT3 than my laptop, even though the tower was older and RCT3 was made for ATI cards.
I would whole heartedly recommend NVIDIA based on my experiences, but you are entitled to your opinion.
I also agree with Casper, no one knows with NL 2.0 is going to be out, not even Ole. NL 1.7 wouldn't be a bad investment, and you'll probably be covered for all updates until 2.0 does come out.