If they went to the trouble (e.g. paying a *** load of cash to M$) to get these WHQL it seems these are slated for an official release, it's way too expensive to get every beta whql passed.

How much does it cost?

Hmm im not certain anymore, last I heard put it around the US$10,000 mark (plus having to wait several weeks for it to be passed) they've probably changed pricing since then, so im not sure.

I haven't done any speed benchmarks, but quality does seem to be up quite a bit, especially in Morrowind I noticed everything looks much cleaner.

I went from 2814 (28.32, month or so back) to 3058 (29.80) w/ 2x AA for D3D (Forgot to turn it off both those times), -2.5 LOD (OGL & D3D, Normal setting), and level 2 anistropy (Normal setting). I get 3200 w/ the 29.42s testing w/ my normal settings. I don't have time to do the test again till tomorrow, but I'll post mine when I get the chance to do it. These are w/ a GF2 MX and a 1.2 GHz T-Bird. Image quality is DEFINITELY improved.

3190 w/o 2x AA for D3D. Drop of 10 from 29.42, up 52 from 28.32, and up 98 from 28.90. Oh well, it's only 10 points on 3DMark for much better image quality. Damn friends ditched me and then I was able to do the test after all ...