>Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0b and OpenGL® 1.5 support I would hope that they mean DirectX 9.0c support by now.

what video card do you have though? and how are they better? what apps/games? and are you basing this on using these new drivers or the leaked ones prior to this release? lets have some how's and why's, instead of the "xxxx is better".

Update - According to page 31 of release notes they do, case closed.

If it's just for CounterStrike you could probably go back to even older drivers, maybe even back to the 12.xx's for even more of those precious FPS. Every newer release usually gets a tiny bit slower for existing cards and older games but adds features, fixes for newer cards/games. People always expect a boost in performance every time... never understood that.

I don't know if ATI is lying or not, but it certainly is somewhat confusing.

what video card do you have? and how many frames did you gain/loose? i cant imagine you loosing that many fps, the most diff i've ever seen was a few here or there, and if a "few" is enough to affect gameplay.. you prob need a new/faster pc:)