Have you guys that run the Cat Drivers tried the Omega Drivers yet ?
http://www.omegacorner.com/I use these drivers to softmod my 9500 to a 9700 and am not experiencing what you describe. The Omega Drivers are not only for softmodding, but can be used intead of the Cat Drivers.
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The purpose of the Omega Drivers is to provide gamers with an alternate set of drivers, ones that have more options and features than the original sets. The drivers contain optimizations, extra features (like OC capabilities), more resolutions and internal tweaks that can give them the edge in a gaming enviroment over the normal drivers, which are often tailored for synthetic benchmarks. All Omega driver sets are tested (unless noted) by myself in my own PC or in an alternate PC (in the case of the nvidia drivers) to ensure maximum compatibility and reliability.
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THE OMEGA DRIVERS ARE COMPATIBLE WITH ALL ATI RADEON CARDS: (IT DOESN'T MATTER IF THEY ARE DDR, SDR, PCI, AGP, RETAIL OR 3RD PARTY)
All In Wonder Radeons
Radeon 7x00/VE/LE
Radeon 8500/LE
Radeon 9x00/PRO/XT/TX
All Mobility Radeons (M6 and up)
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Omegacorner has drivers for ATI, Nvidia, and 3DFX.