Do you mean what we look for when we buy a new gfx card ?
In my case I always go by reviews when I'm looking for a new card. Price/performance ratio is something that I do keep in mind, but it's not the deciding factor for my purchase. Although I wouldn't spend 100 bucks extra on something that performs a tiny bit better (i.e. certain oc'd cards).
That said, I always go for the latest series/architecture. ATI has disappointed me too many times in the past, that's why I'm a trusty NVIDIA supporter now. Even though ATI is still king in hitting that sweet price/performance ratio with their cards, I'll still pay a bit extra to get the NVIDIA equivalent. It's just something that gives me peace of mind.
Specific features that are important to me are:
- Latest series/architecture
- Non-reference PCB design (i.e. MSI Twin Frozr 3 cards, improved thermal design and vrm's, for improved overclocking abilities)
- Non-reference cooler (i.e. Asus DCII and MSI Twin Frozr cards)
- Amount of VRAM (I'm running 3 24" monitors in surround @ 5960x1080, so more VRAM serves me well)
- Mild factory overclock
- Looks (I like to mod stuff, and make my stuff look good. So I'd like to have all my hardware look nice together)
That's about all I can think of at the moment.
If possible I go for MSI cards, but Asus/EVGA/Gigabyte are pretty decent too.
ATI cards are like a busses, they're big, red and have bad drivers. (/troll)