http://english.bonusweb.cz/interviews/carmackgfx.htmlJust when it started to look like we might again have more than one horse (ATI and nVidia) in the video card race. Multiple product choices are the only chance the consumer has.

If what John says is true, and if better drivers don't resolve the DX9 performance issue, guess I should sell my FX5900 Ultra instead of my Radeon 9800 Pro.David

By the time any flight sim product is released that makes use of DirectX 9 the FX5900 series will be archiaic museum pieces and Radeon 9800' will be in use as door stops.FS is still a DX7 game.Allcott

I don't think anyone should be making buying decisions based upon this. People keep thinking that Nvidia can't fix this issue with a driver. Okay. Let's assume that they can't. Does Valve really want the millions of people using Nvidia cards to get crappy results with their game? What about future game developers? Does it make sense to adopt the Id engine that utilizes OpenGL and looks and runs GREAT on the GF-FX, or does it make sense to adopt the DX9 engine that MAY have problems on Nvidia hardware? No one knows how this will play out.Jim

DX9 is where it's at. Doom 3 will use DX9, as will half life 2. Make no mistake, these will be the among the biggest releases ever. FS is chum compared to the other two. I as a gamer and a flight simmer will want to make sure that my video card can handle both of them, and right now Nvidia isn't making it. We'll have to see what Nvidia comes up with in the 50.xx detonator series, and what new hardware they come out with. If anybody knows what they're talking about, it'll be the folks at Valve.

Doom3 will use DirectX for DirectInput and DirectSound, but it doesn't use Direct3D, so the Nvidia issue is moot. OpenGL and Direct3D are two entirely different technologies.Jim

I am going to wait I think. I will use my other 2 rig for a while.Radeon 9800XT will be intorduced on Alcatraz Island on 30 Sept. If you purchase the card, $399.00 in stores 2-3 weeks after the announcement, it come's with HL2 bundled with the card. So far 415mhz core and 730mhz memory Looking good!:-beerchug__________________________________________________________________

I have to admit that the more I read about this issue, the more I become convinced that Nvidia has a serious problem on their hands. Judging from the material I read from pretty reliable sources (John Carmack, Valve, etc.), Nvidia's problem appears to be in hardware and not in the driver. Unless they can flash the hardware, current owners of Nvidia cards will have to contend with some issues when DX9 games start really hitting hard.If things continue in this way, I see an ATi Card in my future. Time will tell.Jim

"I have to admit that the more I read about this issue, the more I become convinced that Nvidia has a serious problem on their hands."Indeed, their current state of affairs is troublesome. While I recently replaced my nVidia video card with and ATI, I'm more than happy with my nVidia chipset motherboard. They have been such a force in the video card market for so long, and they have a great deal of resources to tackle their problems, one can only hope they'll get it all sorted soon. They're losing market share on a daily basis. Gotta stop the hemorrhaging soon.