You're welcome!

1) I built the system back in the Dec/Jan timeframe and haven't updated the software since it was put into production.  I've been contemplating an update to ESXi, I might give it a shot over the long holiday weekend.

2) Yes, I'm using the VMware tools version that is included with my slightly down-rev version of ESXi, which likely explains the VMware SVGA 3D driver also being slightly down-rev.  I believe I misstated in an earlier post that you need WDDM 1.1 drivers for all of your mis-matched video cards in order to work correctly in Windows 7.  I based this statement on the WDDM wiki entry, specifically, the following is listed as a "new feature" with WDDM 1.1:

- Support multiple drivers in a multi-adapter and multi-monitor setup

In my case, it appears that my AMD 6850 has a WDDM 1.1 driver, while the VMware SVGA 3D driver is WDDM 1.0.

3) I created the VM, installed Win7, ran windows updates, and then shut the VM down to add the GPU via PCIe passthrough.

Note that I borrowed an old AMD RadeonHD 3450 for my "proof of concept" testing before ordering the 6850.  I was successful with both the 3450 as well as the 6850.  I would expect that any of the ATI/AMD PCIe cards between the 3450 and the current 6800 series should work fine, but you never know unless you test a specific combination of hardware.

Thanks for the tip on OpenIndiana support for VMXnet3.  I was quite disappointed when I realized that I woudln't be able to utilize this driver during my build (all of my other VM's are running with this driver, it's too bad the NAS is the one that doesn't work).  At the time of my build, I considered OpenIndiana + NAPP-IT for the NAS, but I felt like OpenIndiana was a bit "too new" at the time for my data.  You've inspired me to build an OpenIndiana VM and do some A/B testing with the same array to see how much of a difference it makes.  In theory, I can just re-assign the SATA controller from the Nexenta VM over to the OpenIndiana VM.

I'm happy enough with the current performance, but I'm always willing to try out something that will provide an increase.