normal! the softmod is just for people with older 9500's, or 9800 SE's (the SE's only have 4 pipelines enabled, and on some vid. cards, i guess these omega drivers can enable the other 4 pipes)....
you have a 9800 pro, so use the normal setting
i don't think it matters if you install directx before or after the drivers, but i'd install it before the drivers