I can say with a high degree of confidence that ATI DRIVERS SUCK, lol.
Well, I switched to xp32bit because no 3d app would run in win 7 or vista. I also pulled the second card. Card #1 almost burned my finger off so heat is definitely a major issue with the cards up against each other.
Ran just card#1 and the Good news is that vista/win7 is borked. Bad news is that nothing's wrong with card#1 and it runs 3dmark06 fine in winxp32.
I'll continue this adventure summorez.