Microsoft has found some mercy in its heart and will finally end the agonising wait for DirectX 9 and is likely to release it tomorrow. With three betas and two release candidates version we saw slowly and surely that DirectX 9 is about to become a fully fledged bird that will help some companies live happier and release DirectX 9 drivers.
The only currently shipping card(s) that support it are Radeon 9700 and 9500 Pros and Amateur, which many will find glistening under the Christmas tree.
Nvidia did present its DirectX 9 supporter, Geforce FX but this card will be available no sooner than February in quantity.
ATI will be the first to benefit from this, since they have been shipping DirectX 9 hardware from September and now they will offer their customers free drivers with full support for DirectX 9 final as soon as it"s officially released. ATI is already offering an RC0 version of DirectX 9, its fancy demos and drivers for 9700 and 9500 generations but in about one day it will have the final one ready for its rocking role.
Developers will finally have a real API that they can play with.