Personally, I like my settings:
My first choice is to run everything on max graphics, but if it doesn't run nicely, I pump some graphics down.
My last resort is going anything below 1024x768 resolution, and I always like keeping bloom on.
Anti-Aliasing is something I only use if it runs perfectly with it, because usually the performance gap between with/without anti-aliasing is pretty large. I'd rather play on 1280x1024, then to have anti-aliasing on 1024x768.
I always like keeping everything as high as I can get on 1024x768, rather then tuning things down on 1280x1024.
So what about you guys? How do you perfer your games?
(Just got: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, that's what brought up the subject.)
Performance always. If it's less than a stable 60fps I'm not a happy panda. When going for quality tho, I always turn AA off (I prefer a sharper image), AF up, and crank the draw distance. Resolution isn't too important to me since I'm a console gamer and am no stranger to 640 x 480.
That said, WoW runs at max settings, 1280x1024, without a hitch in framerate. As does Half Life 2, so I'm set.
Anything below an average of 40fps and I start turning options down.
If you run a higher resolution though, AA has less of a visual impact so I prefer to run at a high res with no or 2x aa. I'll probably have to settle for a lower res in the future though when my graphics card gets old.
I rarely play games above 1026x768, and i can stand 30 frames per second. I don't bother with anti aliasing because my graphics card (gefoce fx 5600) makes too much hard work of it.
I also like to run games with vsunc turned on, but for some reason some games still play with tearing.
But with newer games i'm happy if they even run at a playable speed. My pc is about 3 years old now.