Its because the 8800GT has got the G92 chipset.. That would be my guess.
I also heard that e.g. in Flight Simulator 2004 the G92 chipset just leads to annoying flickering and some people even do not get AA & AF to work correctly, etc.
@Rubini: Did you try out nHancer so far?
BTW: I almost got the same rig as you... But I decided to take the ASUS P5E MB instead of Gigabyte. I'm now waiting for my Gainward 8800GT 512 GS GLH which isn't available for weeks now...
If you say the image quality is much better on ATi, i think ill order the PC 3870 PCS
Greetings,
Periscope