Direct X issue--should I upgrade?

[vbm95u2]

I recently upgraded to Direct X 8.1 from 7.0. After doing so EA's FIFA 2002 started having all sorts of crazy video problems. I know I have the latest video driver from NVIDIA, and when I reinstalled windows 2000 with direct x 7.0 it worked fine again. Is this a common problem with direct x upgrades? My other games appear to be fine with direct x 8.1 (and now 9.0), but FIFA 2002 is unplayable. The graphics throw all kinds of weird polygons in the screen, and the frontscreen flickers black and white.

Also, I purposely chose not to upgrade to 8.0 in spite of the fact that this is the directx that Civilization 3 and Medal of Honor both "require" according to the specs. However they both appear to be running under direct x 7.0, which has me wondering why I even need to upgrade direct x at all. What's the deal with all of this? Now I'm afraid that everytime I upgrade to a new version of direct x that some of my older programs won't work (and lets face it, FIFA 2002 is not THAT old!).

Someone fill me in on direct x. Do I need to upgrade? What's the benefit? Is there a way to fix the graphics problem I'm facing with FIFA 2002 under Direct X 8.0 or higher (FYI, I tried Direct X 9.0 too, and it didn't solve my video problem with FIFA).