Where ATi's 8500 was able to achieve technological parity with NVIDIA's flagship, the 9700 goes one step further, becoming the first card to fully support and implement all features specified in Microsoft's DirectX 9 gaming API. For now, this is a victory on paper only, since the upgrade to DirectX 9 is unlikely to happen before fall of this year, probably not until the fourth quarter. As with almost every new DirectX generation, it's hard to tell when games using these new features will even become available, although it's safe to say that it may be a while.
Nonetheless, technological evolution is essential in this industry. Several factors work hand-in-hand here. The potential buyer needs to be convinced of the validity of the technological platform before buying a given product. The more people who buy the product, the greater the installation base, which in turn helps convince software companies to include these new features in their own product. And the more software titles that implement these features, the more interested buyers are in getting Pro Aduct that also offers these features. Thus, without the technological innovation from NVIDIA, ATi and others, the state-of-the art would be stuck at the same level it was at years ago. To sum it up, although new features may not be implemented in games immediately, there is definitely a long-term payoff, in the form of feature evolution, so to speak.