Driver age and 3D Mark 06 results

[Bill Kunert]

When the 177.83 driver first came out my 3D Mark 06 score was 9415. That's only 4 days ago. Today I ran it and got 9055. Same setup. I reloaded the drivers and got 9422. My computer is a X2-3800 @ 2.76GHz, 2 gig DDR400, EVGA 8800GS SC @ 745/1765/2040. What in these drivers causes a slowdown like this after only 4 days use? I didn't even uninstall the drivers, I just reloaded them in safe mode. The strange part is that the FPS of the 6 tests was the same at 9055 as it was at 9422. The difference was in the SM2.0, SM3.0 and CPU scores. I'm running XP Home SP3 so I can't use the new 3D Mark. What do you all consider a better test than 06?