HOnestly both companies have problems, of which many could be sorted by making a full proof install guide that is updated with every change they make to it.
IE both companies HAVE to provide a list of EVERYTHING you should have installed. A updated list of Windows Updates required, of .net versions you should have and links to get them, a list of incompatible hardwares. a list of softwares that work for tweaking, both companies need to add in a powerplay type control device so if needed you can press one button and turn it into 3dpower mode only, so you get no slow down and any games that aren't triggering the speed aren't a problem. Both companies make horrible mistakes with their drivers, such is life. But I would think a large portion of problems are down to people following their same uninstall procedure they used back on win 95. The amount of people that insist on using driver cleaner or some arbitrary deleting package that causes problems, the amount of times a fresh install without the right .net package installed causes an installation error, its a joke and really because theres no foolproof guide and no real standards anywhere.
MS and Nvdia and ATi need to get together and sort that stuff out. I've rarely had ATi issues, they had problems with the early790fx drivers in that doing an uninstall of ATI drivers caused your chipset drivers to uninstall ALONG with raid drivers which would cause windows to become unbootable, not great, long since fixed but a fairly simple error that should have been documented.
People have one problem and assume its global, everyone has it and its unavoidable. I would suggest that if you've installed 50 systems and each one is a problem, that at some point along the lines you'd do a little research find the problem and fix it. you either got an entire duff batch, which is almost impossible, or you're simply not installing something required that you're just not aware of which IMHO is far far far more likely.
Then you need to remember, theres people who think saying the number 50+ is remotely impressive, like the normal person has built 2 computers, I'm uber because I made 50. You might want to bear in mind that many people on a computer forum have built in the 100's, and plenty would have worked in the area for 25 years now and built 1000's of computers for people. Heres a hint, your opinion ISN'T more valid because you can post an unprovable number in your post.
Games are getting FAR more complex, as are the DX versions, the game and rendering styles are varied and you can't, you literally can't expect flat perfect support for every game ever made, its retarded to assume so. You can expect BOTH companies to do their best to get games working, to fix glitches and to improve performances but you can't just assume its possible and they are screwing you over not getting it done. There will be games , varied games where both companies have niggling issues, its life, get over it.
I'm sure Nvidia's main problem is long since fixed but having tried lots of drivers, quite a few cards and lots of research their 64bit vista drivers for a stupidly long time were inherantly unstable. If I switched to XP it was fine, they were just bad drivers, and probably had it on the backburner as relatively few people used Vista in the first 6 months and before ATi had their dx10 cards out they didn't seem to care. Thats my one real gripe against Nvidia as having a 8800gtx and instability in too many games that all worked flawlessly in XP was a bit of a joke. But I won't "never" buy an Nvidia card again or claim it was industry wide on every platform without any possibility of using the card at all and makes nvidia the devil, it doesn't.
I do however have aproblem with their prices, their FAR to large a gripe on developers and their pumping money into game titles to "prefer" their hardware as frankly it seems anti competition and almost illegal.
ALso none of what anyone said makes the 295 anything other than a joke and desparate attempt to tell everyone they are the fastest. But the 295 being a rip off, expensive, pointless, hot, you know its going to be loud and not remotely worth the cash doesn't make their technology awful, or their cheaper cards not a viable option, its just means what it means, that card is a joke.
tried an nVidia card in the original PC and no problems...
(and the 4870 is the bane of my life right now so thats where some of my ATI dislike comes from).
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. It can't be favouritism? 
