I did verify the split problem happens to me too.  The benifits of the memory issue with the textures will have to outweight the split problem for now.  Thanks for finding out that you need to weld first.  That will help if I need to do this.  They also fixed a memory leak problem when rendering to screen alot. 

LVS - Where Learning is Fun!  
http://www.lvsonline.com/index.html