"Iron" theme.

Nvidia didn't even come close to having such high numbers.

No need to exaggerate – I had a GT7300 with passive cooling – after 2 hours of operation, you could fry an egg on it.

Nvidia releases drivers that improve the performance of their cards, while Radeon releases them less often.

Radeon also releases updates, Catalyst, maybe less often – I won't argue, but the fact that Nvidia advertises more and their cards are cheaper doesn't necessarily indicate quality, but rather the opposite;)
I would say this: Nvidia is mass-produced, and that's all... Maybe they have good cards now, but I'm not used to trusting this brand – I remember all sorts of Riva TNTs too well...
And what about Stalker? Nvidia 7300gs refuses to handle this graphics, no matter how many drivers I install, and it's not a small amount, PCIe 256MB, but a simple AGP Radeon 9200 works perfectly...