Hardmodded X800Pro@XTPE, weird CSS/HL2 performance

Beng

I have a X800Pro non-vivo which had a succesfull hardmod to 16 pipes@XTPE speeds 6 months ago. All the games/benchmarks show perfect scores, the card performs as if it is a genuine XTPE.

But now something weird;

I've noticed some strange fps dips (low twenties) in the CSS stresstest, at the point where you see those rotating glass/lead windows. But when i uninstall the Cat driver, and re-install a different version (for example going from 4.11 to 4.12, or back from 4.12 to 4.11) the fps dips are completely gone! Staying steady around 50 (1280x1024, 6xAA/16xAF).

But the funny thing is, this only holds for one Windows session. If i reboot the system the fps dips return! And guess, again un-install the driver and re-install a different version and the performance is back.

The same in the HL2 game too. I picked a shader-heavy situation, and i see a big performance difference before/after the un-install/re-install "trick".

I'm having thoughts that Valve's game handles my card as if it is a "normal" Pro, only using 12 pipes or something, the game in first instance is "fooled"
by the driver change. (this ofcourse is a guess)

The card has a XTPE bios, but the device id is still saying 4a49 (X800Pro). I think this is the problem. Ati secured that well.

Any thoughts what to do?

agenthex

I'm thinking that you should try the Omega drivers.

www.omegadrivers.net