NO, it appears everything is done correctly. We have iSCSI and Fiber. We have 2 separate SAN array, I can get speeds between 60 and 70 MB/s consistent.. and slightly higher on iSCSI...
My point is that VMware or ESX isn't the problem, but the fact that you reported 7.6 MB/s means that is a 100 MB network (I assume). IF you were getting 20 MB/S that would mean it's using the 1G bandwidth, and then I would suspect drives or maybe something else, but the fact that is the same speed I would expect from a Fast Ethernet, is very suspicious.. there is a NIC (maybe the vSwitch on ESX itself is limiting) that isn't allowing the full bandwidth.
Did you enable jumbo frames for the ESX host and the port on the switches? Maybe there is a problem with VLAN configuration.. something doesn't seem right with network setup....
I know you said you moved traffic, but what I am trying to acertain is the actual path from ESX all the way back to the NAS/SATA array may not the be the same path EXACTLY as another phyiscal host. IF you unplug a NIC from the ESX host, and put that physical ethernet into a physical server so they both share the same exact topology, that will prove the network is fine.. but I feel as if there is a setting missing or some network that isn't set just right..
It only takes 1 little setting to mess it up...the chain is only as strong as the weakest link.
If you checked, verified, and it all looks good, then I don't know what else it can be.. but we can get really good speeds on VMware \ ESX, I know there is no problem there.