This probably doesn't hurt:
Disable Post-Processing. The Disable post-processing checkbox disables full frame post-process effects in all graphics tests. The post-processing in the SM2.0 tests does bloom filtering that is done by rendering every frame to a texture and modifying the frame using a pixel shader. The bloom filter is a cinematic effect that makes bright surfaces appears over bright. The bright surface not only gets brighter discarding any details too small to be visible in the intense reflection, the light also partly spills over darker areas in the frame surrounding the bright surface.
The HDR/SM3.0 graphics tests use a much more advanced post-processing bloom effect, where the scene is rendered to a texture and progressively halved downscaled versions of that is generated (a bit like mip-maps). Each of these sub-frames is blurred using a Gaussian filter of the same pixel size. The final frame is then produced of a weighted sum of those downscaled and blurred frames. We are also using a star shaped glow effect that again uses the progressively halved frame copies for six separate line convolutions, one for each of the 6 streaks in the star. Each line is rendered in 3 passes. The first pass takes 5 samples of the image at the beginning of a line. The second pass takes again 5 samples from the output of the first pass, spaced five pixels apart. Finally the third pass takes yet again 5 samples from the output of the second pass, spaced 5*5=25 pixels apart. This simulates the six edge shutter of traditional cameras with exposure control. Also a ghost/lens reflection effect is being done. We paste copies of this new buffer on the screen, each scaled around the centre of the screen using suitable scaling factors.
In addition the above, the whole image is being processed by tone-mapping in order to get the correct light values for normal displays. Disabling the post-processing from the options disables all the effects mentioned above, and thus does not represent the way the scenes were designed.
In 3DMark06 the post-processing is always on by default.
(or are you the guy that flashed his bios on a regular x38 to rampage?) 
