before i say anything here are my specs
cpu: core 2 quad q6700 @2.66ghz
gpu: 512mb nvidia 8800gt
hd: 320gb hd
ram: 8gb
monitor :lg w2452t
using nvidia driver beta bf3/rage

whats all the fuss about (considering there have been updates applied to the game patching the issues), just finished the game last night without any problems (on the pc). I definitely got texture popping, but to my surprise the game performed and played through start to finish. I enjoyed the game and would love to see the game in full performance and full graphics. with the new update i set my texture cache to large and the anisotropy to low and a lot of the texture popping went away. Otherwise i would assume more cuda cores on a new gpu would solve the texture popping (nothing extravagant, maybe just a GTX 460) Otherwise, the game was playable and I think ID should be rewarded for making a game with such detail playable on my pc. I would have cried if I could not play this game because my specs weren't up to par.

Specs

core 2 duo e8400 3ghz
2 GB Ram
8800gt / 5770 ati

My experience in steps:

1. I purchased a 5770 1GB ati card in anticipation of this game

2. Installed Rage and then was confused and sad that the game was lagging every 5 seconds for 10 seconds and had artifacts and glitches.
3. Could not play game.

4. Installed old 8800 gt, still could not play game- glitchy and crashes.

5. Re-installed 5770 1GB and waited and for new drivers for 2 days.

6. New drivers and rage patch came out, I was excited and installed new drivers / patch. Game still unplayable for same reasons above.
7. Got really sad and angry and felt betrayed that ID would release a game that would not at least play in some capacity of the specs on the game box,
I never expected xbox360 or ps3 level of performance. I just wanted to play the game even at 30fps on low settings.

8. Decided out of desperation (and from some hints from forums) to put the 8800gt back in and grab even later nvidia drivers bf3/rage beta drivers.

9. Thrilled the game actually worked and run and looked ok at 1024x 768 quite happy with experience (had gpu transcoding switched on)

10. Was convinced that it was that transcoding option that was why I could play rage (option not available on 5770)

11. Switched off transcoding to see if the game would start lagging again.

12. Game starts running twice as fast even at higher res and anisotropic filtering !!

13. Amazed at the speed and level of detail that this game is now running on my old hardware.

14. Little bit of texture pop in forgivable for the level of graphics I am getting to enjoy on my oldish hardware.

15. Confused and excited and totally regained faith in ID and Carmak.

16. Totally loving Rage so far; art, gameplay, character and environment styles are fantastic.

17. sorry for anyone that reads my dribble, totally happy I got to vent.

P.S. still annoyed that my 5770 is still useless for this game.

this is my point exactly, i think that this is proof that without the cuda cores, the game will not run (or be unplayable). if the game runs ok on an 8800gt, just imagine what it would be like on a GTX460. 8800gt having 112 cuda cores and the 460 having 336. I think these cores help with the texture popping as well. check out these links to nvidia and ati, i also added a wikipedia link to cuda core information.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_8800_gt_us.html
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-geforce-gtx-460-us.html
http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-5000/hd-5770/Pages/ati-radeon-hd-5770-overview.aspx#2 (unless ATI has their own patent comparable to cuda processing, there are no signs of that specification for the card)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUDA

Just trying to shed light on the information, if anyone knows of a good ATI card that this will play rage properly then give a post. Just trying to share knowledge here.

my MSI 8800gt runs this game fine....im not sure if i can turn up the texture cache as the card only has 512 video memory but im getting 60 frames. a bit of texture pop but i dont mind too much...i just wish the textures would clear up as you get close to them because the compression artifacts ruin alot of those awesome textures...but everyone has that problem i suppose...im atleast getting the same experiance i would on a console but it would be nice if they would release a version that utilizes peoples new PC's...a high end pc is about 10 times as powerfull as the xbox...so i would like to see rage at ten times the quality wen running on those machines...too bad everybody is getting the xboxish version textures