Don't think of the 8800's as DX10 cards, they are way too weak to even be really considered. Just think of them as the last batch of high-end DX9 cards, and DX9 seems to be here to stay for the next 2 years as Vista is just bloatware that has poor support and left alot of people (who have alot of computer savvy!) strung out to dry until SP1. That is IF SP1 will even help that much for the horrible DX10 gaming performance.
My prediction for when Vista will be defacto standard for games:
Mainstream system spec for a sub-1500$ system:
-DX11 is out, and people are wondering if the 1st gen DX11 games are worth buying, if the 1st gen drivers will take a year to work properly, and if the 10850GTX PCI-2.0 with 2 GB of DDR6 vram could run the new games ok, or if it is only "good enough" for DX10.
-People are asking themselves if the graphics justify the price of the PS4 as they look last gen PS3, or if they should wait until DX11 is going to be better, or if the PS3 will ever get any games as the pile of dust on the system is thicker than the "pile of games" they promised.
-People will be checking the back of game boxes for system specs and seeing Blu-Ray AND HD-DVD versions, as games will move towards massive textures on large screens, plus all the ads and movie plugs you'll be FORCED to watch as you install the game on your 400GB SSD (solid-state drive) that you use as your game/OS drive to be able to load these monsters (games AND Vista). And yes, game companies will STILL release these games on CD-ROM, and everytime you go to Best Buy that will be the only version left. I promise.
-Mid range gaming systems will be Windows Vistax64
-16 GB DDR4 RAM
-Quad Core or some will have gone Octo-core, with a small minority gone 64 core as there are "benefits" to having 64 cores for 64 bit, and the new AMD 64 WAY-64 has fallen to sub-800 dollars BOX (HSF included with Fan-off throttling when system is in standby operating at 15 Watts).
-People will wonder if they should put a WAY-64 in 1 processor socket, and install a Fusion GPU/PPU in the 2nd processor socket and just get an 8800GTS 640MB in the PCI 1.0 Legacy slot to "make do" to run older games, as the current Fusion drivers suck and won't run Doom 3 properly (for some reason). People will be wondering if processor sockets are too close together on "Brand X" Rev. 1 boards to install "X" Zalman cooling solution, or if they should go Zalman on the Fusion and stick to stock HSF on WAY-64 and not overclock beyond it's 1.2 GHZ clock, or maybe just go to 1.4...
-Intel will still be working on some new case layout and nobody will be paying attention. It will probably involve hooking up your garden hose to it for cooling its "answer" to WAY-64.
-"Will this graphics card fit my Sonata IV"
-"HELP!! Can I run Crysis 2 @ 1440x900 DX 11 on medium settins with x driver or will it still look like FarCry"
-"Will my WAY-64 bottleneck my 8800GTS 320MB"
-"What are the system specs for Duke Nukem Forever, and will the game demo be included on "X" game and will I get a coupon for a free copy of DNF with this DX12 graphics card if I buy it now (of course, the video card will have 320 MB DDR9 vram)"
-People will find Vista 64 is "secretly" allocating 56 cores to DRM to "enhance the user experience".
-Computers won't overheat, they'll underheat. Requiring a 1200 Watt PSU to bring them "to temperature".
-People can't find a Wii in stores still, so they have rigged their PC games to use 2 mice. Yes, 1 in the left had, and 1 in the right hand. Even though a mouse + keyboard has been fine since Wolf 3D. And yes, the joypad people will still be arguing that if someone had a mouse and keyboard, EVERYONE would need one to win. And they shouldn't. Because it feels too much like being at the office playing a game, not sitting on your butt at home with auto-aim cranked to 10.
Well, I am just talking out of my butt, nobody forward this to the Inquirer please, I am too busy enjoying Oblivion MAXXED at 1440x900 on my 8800GTS 640 that I got for 379$ CDN to give them an interview as their "insider source".