look somewhere else for your
problem, the bios can not be changed with a driver upgrade, impossible. two completely different animals.
my radeon 9700 Pro sucks eggs big time with the drivers that came with it, pixelations, colored squares, etc, you name it, as soon as i upgrade to the newest cats, she runs fine.
i have pulled a 19,400+ with this card in 3DMark 2001, and, no, i am not a Mark Whore, so you won't see the score posted in their database.
as far as half the memory goes, it is a very strange occurance, very strange.
baldy:D