A note about DirctX 9:
The change from DirectX lies in code routines included to take advantage of new graphics hardware features.
At the time of writing this, the only graphics card with the ability to take advantage of this are the top end ATI cards (9700 upwards) and the Geforce FX cards.
However, owning one of those cards is not, in itself, sufficient to see any visual improvements. The software has to be coded to take advantage as well. The bad news is that FS2002 isn't. The good news is that FS2004 is.
As far as performance goes, I've seen several posts recording an increase following installation of DirectX 9. There really shouldn't be any as Microsoft haven't coded anything differently apart from the aforementioned new graphics routines.
However, DirectX is a piece of software that is VERY prone to corruption. It's a fragile and sensitive piece of software. Consequently, if you do install a new version (or re-install an old one), there's a very good possibility that you're correcting DirectX problems that you were previously unaware of, thereby generating the performance increase. If you ever change drivers (Graphics or Sound in particular) always re-install DirectX afterwards.
Having said all that, computers are strange beasts. Despite being what should be the most logical piece of kit on Earth, they often defy logic. So the fact that DirectX 9
shouldn't result in a performance increase doesn't necessaruly mean that it actually won't.
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