Let's say I'm working on a research project with and would like to try out how Direct3D 10's new features can be of advantage to me (and I do believe they can be). Is there a way one can obtain working samples of nVidia's G80 or ATI's R600 cards before they are avaiable on the market? I'm affiliated with a computer graphics group at a university in Florida. Do you guys know if ATI or nVidia is able to support research work carried out at universities or do they only provide samples to big studios such as ID, EA or Ubisoft? Thanks a lot, George

Using DX10's reference rasterizer doesn't require hardware and that's been available since last summer.

why not try and contact the respective companies and see what you can get out of them?