Hardware always lags software on the technology curve.
The developers of DirectX 10 say "You know, if we update this code and do this with it, then the video card makers can do that with it." Then, the game designers look at the changes and say, "Hey, they've given us the ability to do this, let's try to develop our game to do that." Then the video card manufactures say "Thanks...now we gotta go back to the drawing board and figure out how we are going to develop a chipset that can keep up with that."
Point being, look at LOMAC. It was demanding...very demanding on the hardware, and I believe the hardware has caught up to the software's level of demand and it's a game that many enjoy, today.
Don't expect to get all the bell ands whistles from a game from you computer, because the next one you build/buy will always run it better and faster....unless the operating system changes well...then you really have a problem.