Basically the thread title says it all. I've never been able to understand what all the different effects used in moderns games are or what they look like, much less understand when they're actually ...

With an exception of the RightMark 3D 2.0 Steep Parallax Mapping test, which is both pixel shader- and texture-bound, the Radeon HD 5870 shows off its phenomenal raw pixel shader throughput in these ...

There is an engrossing technical article over at Beyond3D this morning, which goes into the detail of the Shader Model differences in top game title of the moment, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory.