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Are ATi drivers as bad as people make out?

coupe69

coupe69

coupe69

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Now I'm not wanting to start a flame war here, I'm just intrigued in hearing peoples thoughts on ATis more recent driver releases.

The last ATi card I had was an X1950XTX and can't remember the drivers being that bad, but reading through the thread on the latest 10.7 cats it appears as though lots of people seem to be having issues.

So is it all down to user error? or is there an element of truth when somebody states that "ATi drivers sux"?

Let's try and keep it civil in this thread guys, like I said I'm interested to find out because who knows the next round of video card updates may entice me to swing for the red team again :)
 
I have been using ATI for a while and never really had any problems with drivers, same with Nvidia.
 
I had a 4870 for two years and all the drivers worked fine for me, but then again i never tried crossfire and thats where a lot of the problems are i think
 
I think the phrase 'swings and roundabouts' is apt. Some drivers suck, others don't. I recall distinctly a couple of months ago Nvidia released several drivers which users took issue with (including the infamous fan stopping driver which caused cards to overheat).
 
A lot of it is legacy... since Jan 2009 ATI drivers have been considerably better than in the past... ATI is however generally still quite lethargic to respond to issues.
 
I think it's down to something that people just haven't gotten over. Like something you hear so often that it kinda becomes the truth.

Personally, I very rarely have driver issues with anything, but I do think user error makes up the vast majority of driver issues, especially considering the way you see people arguing over how you install drivers. "Do I uninstall, install over the top, do I use driver sweeper?"

I've been installing over the top of the old drivers for ages now, and any times I have issues, it's always coincided with me having a mess about with something, be it overclocking, or flashing the card with a custom bios.

Additionally, I see it used most of the time as a reason to keep away from ATi cards by people who haven't used them in a long time, so it's a bit pointless to listen.

But yeah, I think it's an issue that's said far more than it actually occurs.

Having just upgraded to an Eyefinity 6 5870 from a 4850 (well two, but I had crossfire off so I could use 3 monitors) and it once again being extremely painless, I just don't understand the fuss that's made.
 
Considering the number of variations people's PC's can have, hardware/software/bad set ups/clueless individuals etc. it's no surprise that some people have problems with any drivers. Best bet is try them for yourself on your setup and see. I've had good experiences with AMD. The odd time there has been a problem but that could have been down to something else like the Creative drivers which I have had far more issues with!
 
I havn't had any major driver problems since i switched from my 7800gtx to the 4870X2 and now my 5870 drivers have always been stable and ok. Neither maker is spotless in the lousy driver department but for some reason ati get lumbered with a reputation for bad drivers whilst nvidia can make some absolute howlers and no one holds a thing against them i never have worked that one out.

Some people cite drivers in the purchasing process but i honestly wouldn't hold drivers against a good bit of hardware be it ati or nvidia and i speak as someone that had a complete nightmare last time i had an nvidia gfx card and chipset mobo.
 
I went from a 8800 gts 640 to a 4890 to 5870. At first i had problems and it was all sorted when i reinstalled windows. After that there were a few issues with DOW2 but new drivers sorted it out. My only gripe with ati drivers is custom profiles. I think its the only feature i would bring from nv drivers. I know you can set the profiles manually but for me i like it automatic. We get new kit to go faster, it bugs me to slow down to load a setup. For me its very relavant if you play old games and apply huge amounts of aa and eye candy.
 
RizlaKing said:
whilst nvidia can make some absolute howlers and no one holds a thing against them i never have worked that one out.
Click to expand...

Because usually nVidia do get things fixed fairly quickly - the GPU "melty" drivers were pulled within minutes of nVidia being made aware of the problem and replacement drivers up in hours - compare with say the issues with BC2 where ATI users were getting lines in the game, corrupt/flashy textures, large crosshair, etc. which hung around for a month or 2 before anything happened and even now people have related issues with the game on some setups.
 
elmuzzy66. said:
I went from a 8800 gts 640 to a 4890 to 5870. At first i had problems and it was all sorted when i reinstalled windows. After that there were a few issues with DOW2 but new drivers sorted it out. My only gripe with ati drivers is custom profiles. I think its the only feature i would bring from nv drivers. I know you can set the profiles manually but for me i like it automatic. We get new kit to go faster, it bugs me to slow down to load a setup. For me its very relavant if you play old games and apply huge amounts of aa and eye candy.
Click to expand...

I think it may be down to this a lot too, when people have swapped between ATi and nVidia and nVidia and ATi, this is where the bigger problems seem to come from.

As for your profiles request, there's a new peice of software from ATi called RadeonPro, which should do exactly what you want.

http://www.radeonpro.info/
 
If you go back to around 2003-2004 (IIRC) ATI had a few big problems. The ATI purple sky strobe thing sticks out but Nvidia had that no clip issue.

Considering everything from over the last 5 years its been pritty even on the support front IMO.

Nice to have you back Kyle.
 
jigger said:
If you go back to around 2003-2004 (IIRC) ATI had a few big problems. The ATI purple sky strobe thing sticks out but Nvidia had that no clip issue.

Considering everything from over the last 5 years its been pritty even on the support front IMO.

Nice to have you back Kyle.
Click to expand...

Thanks :) nice to be back.

Also, I personally consider pre AMD ATi and AMD ATi to be different companies. ATi's support and performance as a company definitely increased when they were purchased by AMD.

AMD have made ATi what they are today.
 
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