Fri Apr 18, 2003 4:55 pm by Nog
Patch= Game updates released by the Developement team to repair any bugs or issues that were not found in the initial testing phases of the game.
Especially in PC based multiplayer games, there can be issues that do not appear untill large amounts of people are able to play the game. Most Dev teams have a small circle of 5 to 15 paid beta testers and then a larger circle (up to a thousand) who are often offered a free early version of the game (usually complete) to report back bugs in the game. Still, even the best testers are bound to miss something simply because it did not show up on their machines.
The problem with your card was not caught before release most likely because none of the testers or crew actually owned one to test on. But the Read me states that there may be an issue with your card so it's obvious that D.A. saw something in the cards specs that rang a bell with them. The newest features in the GeForce chipsets involve dynamic mapping and scriptless model animations (neither of which are used in Freelancer) so I highly doubt the D.A. had any reasons to request an OEM version of the newest Nvidia chipsets from Nvidia itself and had every reason to expect the card to run fine in Freelancer despite any questions about the specs.
