The Video Card has absolutely NOTHING to do with image quality, only performance. You get the same picture no matter what comp. your running it on if the settings are the same.
If you can't notice the difference, my card blurs the lines on the road and looks like crap. The other guys card puts out a much nicer result. I have the latest drivers.
I had the same problem with the blurring of things in LFS at one time, I found in external view looking at text on cars was blurry I adjusted some of the settings in LFS NOT the video card in windows to correct it maybe you need to do the same
PM me and I'll send you my current settings etc see if we can improve the output for you?
Layers just make it a lot easier to make a picture, think of each layer as a see through bit of paper, you draw onto it, then if you dont like it you cant just take that layer away and still have the layers below it.
You can also add different effects to a layer, and they will only be applied to that layer. If im making a pic of a car, and i want the background blurred, i can cut out the background, copy it to a new layer and blur it, change the brightness/contrast, sharpen it etc, and it will only effect the background because the car is in different layer.