Hmm, I guess the only benchmark that would matter is doom 3, and it only beats it by like 5 fps with ATi's new opengl drivers.
It looks identical to SM 2.0. There is nothing 3.0 can do that 2.0 can't do. The picture you're probably referring to are the ones nVidia released in Farcry, which were really 1.0 v 2.0, because the 3.0 patch hadn't been made. The reason ATi didn't include it was because of that fact; that it doesn't add ANY MORE IMAGE QUALITY. They're only including it in the next line because of all the popular demand for it by people like you who think it actually does something.
Yes it is, it's in farcry and in half life 2. But they add NO image enhancements.
Hm, well I'll look at 01, 03, and 05. Oh, looky, x800xts are leading all 3!! One xt even beat 2 6800Ultras in SLI configuration, there goes your theory -_-.