S!
The driver issue affects performance as well as the artifacts, so waiting for the update eagerly. ATI has no problems running IL-2 now either if you count out the blocky texts etc. I can run it at 1920x1200 32-bit OGL at Perfect with 24fps min 296fps max and 97fps avg on Black Death track..so hardly poor performance there
And I run on a "lesser" rig than your i7 920, an AMD 965 BE..