I've stumbled upon a couple of forums which describe the detailed workflow for softmodding our x1600 in mbp and turn it in to a firegl v5200.
when i was using radeon x1600 driver in xp. it turns out that it has got display problems in maya viewport when i was trying to use high quality viewport rendering together with normal maps.
i've check the compatibilty list in autodesk website and it seems like the radeon x1600 isn't compatible with maya 8. in order to fix this, i've tried the driver which i've modded according to guide from the forum i've found. and it turns out working beautifully.
here's the before and after.



Here's the link of the modded firegl driver for mbp 17".
http://rapidshare.de/files/36315290/firegl...-34003.rar.html
just extract it and install manually by using the "have disk" option (do not use the setup exe for the driver). and install the ati control manually from the installation folder. just go to <location of your unpacked drivers>\CPanel and run Setup.exe.

for more details to make the firegl driver works for imac or macpro. just jump in to the thread where i found the info and follow the instructions to make ur own modded firegl driver.
cheers.

http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/19550-anothe...eon-owners.html