BUT here's the kicker my effective hash rate on the pool is about the same if not a little less than it was before applying the driver. So my question is this.
Is the driver merely creating false readings on the cards with no actual effect on total shares submitted to the pool much like when you think you have found the golden card that reports a hash rate of 45Mh/s when in reality its only hashing at the same speed as the others. Had the new Driver running for 7 hours now ....so of course I need test some more just incase its the pool on a go slow....although it normally only takes a couple of hours to get fairly accurate readings.
In my test I used two identical rigs.
One with an old driver, one with the new one. Both
with new wallet addresses (I wanted to remove suspicion about pool luck and variable difficulty)
Start simultaneously in the same pool.
After 6 hours I saw the positive difference in favor of the new driver ... the small difference, but visible difference.
My only fear is of "bugs in sleep".
appreciate in sharing your observation.. we can't remove doubts. i am doing the same as you did.. looking forward to see the results tomorrow..