Windows 7: Low fps in games compared to XP

I somewhat managed to improve my framerate alot by:

1.Downgrading my drivers to WDDM1.1(I dont know why but for my rig 11.2 drivers are horrible)

2.Turning off catalyst AI , which gave me big framerate boost(again why??, In xp there were no difference turning it on or off).

3.Setting power option to high performance.

I still dont have framerates like in xp, but that difference is about 5 fps.

My only guess would be the soundcard(when i turn it off i get same fps in Windows 7 compared to XP with sound turned on).

I tested performance with Unreal tournament 3.

Is there anything more that can be done?

This the sound card?

SPEEDLINK / Products / PC Accessories / Sound Cards / Stage 4 Channel PCI Sound Card

If so you install the driver for it? If yes and it is happening then try it with the onboard Realtek instead; uninstall the driver for the card and pull it first. You can find the latest driver for the onboard here,

Latest Realtek HD Audio Driver Version

The onboard audio is not working anymore(because mo jack broke, and i replaced it with speedlink card).

Yes, i have installed the latest driver for it.

I think UT3 runs in DX10 mode in Vista/7 but still im not sure. Maybe the AA is turned on. Also games require more System Memory in 7 as compared to XP

I disabled dx10, turned off AA it is still bad fps. I even talked to more tech sawy guys, and they said it has to do something with my mainboard(P35-DQ6), and how it handles power management.
However i havent been able to find newer bios version. Others suggested that it has to do with my core2duo which is badly optimized for Windows 7.
I even tried putting extra ram. No go.
It is definitely compatibility related stuff.

UT3 (Unreal Tournament 3) Is a DirectX 9 game - see system requirements here - Unreal Tournament 3 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

List of DX10 games - List of games with DirectX 10 support - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
List of DX11 games - List of games with DirectX 11 support - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please see step #6 for DX11 and Windows 7 - Tips on Troubleshooting Game Issues

I already update dx web runtimes, gave me no difference. This is clearly a mainboard+cpu compatibility issue.
There are dozens of pages without solution on different forums with same hardware that i have, so i decided to start my own thread, maybe someone will happen to have solution

Actually you pretty much answered your own question,

Despite it still being sold according to the Speedlink site, the audio chip on that card (C-Media CMI8378) is close to 10 years old. Found a couple of reviews for cards using it going back to 2002-2003. Speedlink may even have a compatible Windows 7 driver, but inside the zip file they have is also the drivers for XP and Windows 98 (with the Windows 98 driver dated from 2004).

That you say the game performs as expected when you disable the sound says to me that it is the sound card and its drivers that are the problem, not your video card or a combination of your CPU and motherboard.

A couple of things to try,

1. What are your in game audio settings? Have a look here,

TweakGuides.com - Unreal Tournament 2004 Tweak Guide

that card of yours would fall the second or third option, and definitely not the fourth.

2. Go here,

Downloads

and download and install the oalinst. That will install the OpenAL files, which with your card will make use of the software renderer portion and not the hardware version. Then try the game with the "System Driver" option checked and unchecked to see if it makes any difference.

Thanks that's why i wrote before im still not sure. Now i know

Actually my problem is related to UT3, which unfortunately dont have option to change the software or hardware audio, but i will try to install the latest openal and see how things work out.