Hi.
I continued searching and indeed found that this issue seems quite common, and I did just that which you proposed. Works nice, and I'm happy I am not bound to special startup sequences or such anymore. After tweaking I found the most efficient setting with mt 5, core 75, 111 PL with 31.13 Mh @ 115w measured. Touching memory clock at all wouldn't work. The eth pill in nbminer was just a tad more efficient (-0.1W/h), but not worth the trouble as t-rexminer has higher efficincy on all the other cards.
Thanks, going forward now.