Managed to solve this problem.... And it was really effing simple. As usual!!
Thanks to all who gave me tips and pointers and things to try, you guys are great!
Discovered the card shipped was the dx10 version of the card... so running on dx9 was hindering it slightly for some reason. Recently did an upgrade to vista and now everything is running smoothly. Quake4 on ultimate settings at 1280x1024 with a constant 60fps! HUGE improvement!!