I just came off of an FS9 flight around San Francisco Bay. Since having installed the Cat. 7.10's the enjoyment of this sim has gone through the roof!Now here is what has me wondering...and ALL views are welcome...Whether it is ATI or nVidia, could all this time, the incremental releases of graphics drivers from the Big Two---well, could they from a (and I really truly understand if so...) business practise have been 'tempering' and 'holding back' truly stellar driver performance in each new graphics family, so as to SLOWLY scale up the performance of one's present card?Would this be to 'encourage' the user to buy the next and latest generation of the Big Two, rather than bringing out the FULL POTENTIAL of the card that the user has to date?Why I ask this...and I DO invite differing or aligned viewpoints...is that if I were to place my previous graphics performance of my X1950Pro (with driver suite 7.1 at let's say 100 percent (as a baseline), the installation of the new 7.10's has increased this cards ability to render blurry-free, fast update, crisp textures, with new graphic subtleties to at least 180 percent of that base. This is in ONE 'update'. I had tested all the updates between 7.1 and the present 7.10's with REDUCED output when using the 7.1's as the base on that.To bring forward such fantastic and stellar performance increases with one SEQUENTIAL RELEASE(!), makes me suspect that the Big Two might intentionally NOT bring out the full 100 percent of each cards (series) for reasons of continuing business i.e. to encourage the user to buy the 'next generation' in hopes of achieving that level of graphics output that he/she wishes for all along.With what I am getting as output now with the 7.10's driving my X1950 Pro, I certainly have no burning desire to update to the next level. Like in having made the decision to stay with FS9, so too will I now stay with my X1950Pro. The FS9/X1950Pro combo has me **now** where I had always hoped for in the suspension of disbelief that I am not truly 'up there'....I know this is a long post but please bear with me....I now, just have a feeling that with the INTENSE pressure to come up with, or to surpass their competition (nVidia), ATI opened up the driver floodgates in addressing their FLAGSHIP X2900XT (DX10) part. Up until now, the owners of the top of ATI's food chain had been screaming that the performance was totally sub-par. With the release of the new nVidia top-end cards, ATI must have felt totally pressured by that as well as their top-end user base screaming their heads off--- to let 'er all fly! The result? The release of the 7.10's that has opened up the floodgates of **ALL** the 1000 series cards, not just the targeted X2900!!! We all benefited.So, back to my first pondering....have we all been totally 'farmed' and 'managed' all these years, by having drivers that have SLOWLY...SLOWLY passed on improvements, so as to NOT bring too much to bear upon the present card's table---and encourage the user to buy the next card..down the line to get that user's perceived graphic 'improvement'?It makes one wonder...especially with what magic is happening (ATI Cat. 7.10's) reported by many users of 1000 series PCI-E ATI cards....The bottom line, is that I would understand the practice if my suspicions in fact do have merit. I mean...with what I am now getting...and with having no intention of buying a DX10 card in the near future....why would I wish to buy the 'next' release? The 7.10's opened my card to what I believe is now its FULL rendering potential, as I think it has for all others....no matter their 1000 series cards.Cheers,Mitch

Interesting point of view. But really hard to prove, unless you happen to work @ either nVidia or ATI. ... *blows a whistle*

>>Interesting point of view. But really hard to prove, unless>you happen to work @ either nVidia or ATI. ... *blows a>whistle*>>-----------------------------Very true, but I think with using the 7.10's and in hindsight, there is evidence for the argument! :)Mitch

Hi Mitch , I have read lot of positive comments from Cat. 7.10.I come from ATI, and should like to know how is the performance into clouds (heavy clouds) at 1660X1200X32 4XAA and 8AXAF?I am interested in how really performs these drivers, because for me the performance in all the situations were very very good in FS9 , almost comparable to the 8800 Series, but into clouds the performance hit was from 60 to 20-25 fps. Also the IQ was very very good. I fact I have a great memories from the Radeons...That was the weakest point of my Raedeon 1950XT. Thanks in advance.Miquel Egea.

Well, I don't think they are holding anything back.I think 100% of the problem is that DX10 is still in its infancy.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

The drivers get into the hands of moddders who dissect them line by by line of code.There are actually things the card makers do to limit the performance mostly to keep you from catching it on fire and to make it more stable.So yes, there are alot of limitations built into the code.There are alot of different modded versions of each driver. Some are for pure performance, others quality.

Hi Miquel,Upping your ante, at 1920x1200x32x4AA and 16AXAF...into heavy clouds and I mean HEAVY with clouds cranked full up in FS9, entering them...I will drop from 30 constant to 24-26 FPS, and then recover and stay at 30 FPS whilst among/in them. I think that the very fast drop and recovery is the card setting up the scene with ensuing geometry.I am having a blast with this driver set. Blurry-free graphics,...the whole shooting match. I HIGHLY recommend them, Miquel!Cheers,Mitch

Thanks Mitch, this weekend , I