Short answer : yes, they are, both of them.
The graphics arena is worse than anything else in the IT industry, and that situation is the consequence of a deliberate decision process on both ATI/AMD and Nvidia's part.
Neither company pulls any punches, nor do they shrink before any decision that could bring them a victory on the FPS front.
Deliberately "slowing" the cards in the initial driver release has already been done on both sides, in order to allow for impressive gains down the line in a finely-timed "optimization" point release which happens to be made available just at the same time, or shortly after the rival has released a new something (driver, card, whatever else).
It's a war, and both sides make it as bloody as possible, fueled by the encouragements of the rabid fanbois.
On the bright side, it has brought real-time video performance that is absolutely stunning and breathtaking at the same time, as well as architectural innovations that will be with us for generations to come.
So there is a price, but for the consumer, there is a real benefit.

Charlie's out to lunch @ EVGA but wanted this relay'd :

THEY SUCK ,CRASHED MY WORLD AT WAR GAME .

charlie would rather soak his testicles in tobasco sauce than report a sliver of good news for the green team. but that's not the real issue here. as an owner of both a 9800GX2 and a pair of HD4850's, my question is: why did it take both nv and daamit to provide full proformance for their products (ati will be reliasing a comparable driver early next month)? are they intentionally holding back performance in case they fall behind in the FPS war? this bothers me because i feel like i'm never making a properly informed decision when i go to buy a graphics card.

I always post to save nvidia from the inq bashing, but now, without the usual "nvidia suck", "this drivers are corrupted and cheat with your wife", and whatever... well.. I feel lost
:,(

We need to hear that NVIDIA cheats! No matter how, but we want to hear it from you CHARLIE!! We need some nvbashing.

The GTX260 is faster in most cases from a 4870 with this new driver !!!

Good work Nvidia !!!

What!? That's it? I'm dissappointed in you Inq? Usually you use something as simple as a driver update to tell us every reason why NV sucks and ATI pwns.