Are ATI drivers any good these days?

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AzN

Banned
Nov 26, 2001
4,112
2
0
Originally posted by: neothe0ne
Everyone's been giving you glowing impressions, so I'm here to bring a little reality. The Catalyst 8.12 is a POS. There are many users having issues with 4gb of RAM and HD 3870 cards for example, and others can't even install the driver (and are unable to roll back to 8.11 either). You don't need to take more than 5 minutes browsing http://forums.amd.com/game/categories.cfm?catid=279 to get an idea of how much trouble you could be in store for with the 8.12 drivers.

So I would have to say, no, ATI drivers are not any good these days, though they might have been a month ago.

One system might be working perfectly another might not. This kind of issue are also in Nvidia drivers as well.
 

djnsmith7

Platinum Member
Apr 13, 2004
2,612
1
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I had major problems using the 8.12 drivers with my 3870's, so I had to revert back to my older drivers. Other than that, I haven't had any complaints. This was the first time I couldn't get ATI drivers to work properly on a system...
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
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I've been running a 4870 512 since it was released and haven't had any issues with drivers. My only complaint was resolved when they incorporated manual fan control onto the Catalyst drivers.

Before this card, I had a 2900XT and a X1900XT, neither had any issues with drivers either. The 2900XT saw some healthy performance gains from driver releases as well.
 

sgrinavi

Diamond Member
Jul 31, 2007
4,537
0
76
Originally posted by: neothe0ne
Everyone's been giving you glowing impressions, so I'm here to bring a little reality. The Catalyst 8.12 is a POS. There are many users having issues with 4gb of RAM and HD 3870 cards for example, and others can't even install the driver (and are unable to roll back to 8.11 either). You don't need to take more than 5 minutes browsing http://forums.amd.com/game/categories.cfm?catid=279 to get an idea of how much trouble you could be in store for with the 8.12 drivers.

So I would have to say, no, ATI drivers are not any good these days, though they might have been a month ago.

Your perception is your reality.

If 20 people are painting a rosey picture and 1 or 2 are complaining then odds are the 1 or 2 have some condition that are causing problems with their drivers.

As far as 'browsing for problems' goes; you are not going to find many people making random posts about how great a driver is, a large majority of the posts you will find are from people having trouble (go figure) Do a search on nvida driver problems and you will find plenty of complaints too.

Both Nvida and AMD have been doing a good job these days - especially when you consider the aggressive time-to-market schedules and competitive environment.

There's a reason they call it the bleeding edge

 

WelshBloke

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
30,337
7,988
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Originally posted by: videogames101
I have never had an issue with Nvidia or ATI drivers in 4 years of video cards from both sides.


Apart from them both having crap control centers now :(
 

nOOky

Platinum Member
Aug 17, 2004
2,827
1,849
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I recently went from an 8800GTS 512mb to an ATI 4870 1 gig card. The 8.12's have been fairly unstable for me. Certain games (The Orange Box for example) crash to the desktop, moving my whole background to the upper left corner. Sometimes when I quit CoD 4 or 5 I get a warning Vista tells me my dislay adapter has recovered from a serious error. I'm thinking of trying the 8.11's, I have never used them but I might give them a whirl. CCC is okay, I prefer nvidias interface along with Rivatuner.
I love the card itself, it works 95% of the time, ATI just needs to fix their drivers a bit.

As for nvidia, I have the 8800GTS in another computer, and I have a plain 8800GT with an Accelero. No problems with the latest drivers.
 

Mem

Lifer
Apr 23, 2000
21,476
13
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Originally posted by: neothe0ne
Everyone's been giving you glowing impressions, so I'm here to bring a little reality. The Catalyst 8.12 is a POS. There are many users having issues with 4gb of RAM and HD 3870 cards for example, and others can't even install the driver (and are unable to roll back to 8.11 either). You don't need to take more than 5 minutes browsing http://forums.amd.com/game/categories.cfm?catid=279 to get an idea of how much trouble you could be in store for with the 8.12 drivers.

So I would have to say, no, ATI drivers are not any good these days, though they might have been a month ago.

I have 4GB and as I've already stated use 4870 card and do a lot of normal gaming and beta gaming testing,8.12s is what I use at the moment and they have been solid,the sad thing is there are other causes of instability for those users with problems ie overclocking,ram timings to name few,sometimes its easier just to blame drivers without any real troubleshooting.

I have even seen factory overclocked video cards cause major problems....I had this happen to me with a factory overclocked Nvidia video card(simple underclocking fixed the issue),now some users would blame the drivers, others Nvidia or the card itself...see my point.



As to your link that proves nothing really,look at this Nvidia one here, my point is you can find 1000s of users with issues with any brand,finding the real cause without guessing the problem is the key example given below.


Hey Folks....

I FOUND AND FIXED THE PROBLEM! NO REALLY! I DID!!!!

IT IS NOT nVIDIA or ATI, NOT THE VIDEO CARD/DRIVER, NOR IS IT WINDOWS XP/VISTA!!!

READY!?<drumroll>...............

IT'S nTUNE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (And I am sure that ATI has a counterpart to nTune!)
.


 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,085
5,618
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ATI has had the best Windows Drivers for a couple years now. Linux is a different story, but they have been improving there as well.
 

Genx87

Lifer
Apr 8, 2002
41,095
513
126
Originally posted by: dug777
Originally posted by: Genx87
I bought a 4850 after years of using Nvidia products.

I had an issue with it detecting and correctly running dual monitors. Then it cant figure out my HDTV. Those were minor and irrelevant to me right now due to the following.

The control center causes blue screens and cant be installed.

I really suggest looking at a slightly more expensive 260 if you dont want to deal with these annoying issues. I am not that impressed with ATI drivers.

I like you tried a 9600 AIW years ago and had nothing but nightmares. My favorite was the install that goofed up and on the next reboot the control center software would spike to 100% CPU useage with a high priority. The only option was to kill the process, uninstall, reboot, reinstall, and hope for the best. So I wasnt happy when my new 4850 exhibited annoying issues and the control center is still shit 5 years later.

While your personal experience is certainly valid (and I have no doubt entirely genuine) and exactly the sort of experience the OP was seeking to hear about, your personal problems with ATI drivers != your conclusion that the OP will suffer the same issues if he buys an ATI card.

If everyone, or at least a significant proportion of people using ATI drivers had these problems, then your conclusion would be valid.

Since they don't, your personal machines clearly have/had hardware or software issues exclusive to the ATI drivers which are creating/created the issues you describe.

That may be unpalatable to you, and no doubt it's more convenient to blame the ATI drivers, but your conclusion is quite simply unsupported by most people's experiences.

I personally also struggle to understand people's dislike of CCC, mine works very well and did for my 9800 pro, 3540 and now my 4850. While it was a bit sluggish to open with my old Athlon XP machine, it opens and functions as quickly and smoothly as any other similar control interface with any modern processor.

I can't see any real benefit to either CCC or the nvidia display driver interface these days, comparing my GF's 9600GT installed on an E8500 C2D machine to my 4850 on a Q6600 machine. Of course, the colour scheme comes down to personal taste, and I understand that many on here have a strong preference for either red or green ;)

Just my 2c at the end of the day.

That is fine, he asked for opinions, I provided mine. The machines that had these issues ran perfectly fine with Nvidia hardware. Nothing changed, only the video cards. The hardware is fine in my case, the ATI drivers were not.


 

Pelu

Golden Member
Mar 3, 2008
1,208
0
0
for me the drivers are awesome!!! why

BECAUSE I AM A FANBOI OF ATI!!!!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

PingSpike

Lifer
Feb 25, 2004
21,729
559
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I don't really like the layout of the CCC, I prefer (marginally) nvidia's setup...but their fixed aspect ratio scaling and 1:1 pixel scaling works great on my monitor. I've never had any crashing issues or anything. I never had any trouble with my x1900xt or x850xt either. I had a 8800GT for awhile which generally worked well, but I sold it because the scaling options never worked.
 

Wreckage

Banned
Jul 1, 2005
5,529
0
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Well according to a recent Anandtech article....

Maintaining a monthly driver release schedule is detrimental to AMD's ability to release quality drivers. - Derek Wilson
 

SSChevy2001

Senior member
Jul 9, 2008
774
0
0
Originally posted by: Wreckage
Well according to a recent Anandtech article....

Maintaining a monthly driver release schedule is detrimental to AMD's ability to release quality drivers. - Derek Wilson
Wow Wreckage I didn't know you owned at recent ATi card! So what's the last ATi driver you used and with what card?
 

Wreckage

Banned
Jul 1, 2005
5,529
0
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Originally posted by: SSChevy2001
Originally posted by: Wreckage
Well according to a recent Anandtech article....

Maintaining a monthly driver release schedule is detrimental to AMD's ability to release quality drivers. - Derek Wilson
Wow Wreckage I didn't know you owned at recent ATi card! So what's the last ATi driver you used and with what card?

My ATI laptop locks me into the Vendor. However my name is not Derek Wilson. If you have a problem with that statement take it up with him. I tend to read sites like Anandtech to keep up with such things. Maybe you should read that site as well, it's pretty good.
 

SSChevy2001

Senior member
Jul 9, 2008
774
0
0
Originally posted by: Wreckage
My ATI laptop locks me into the Vendor.
So you don't have any experience with current ATi hardware or drivers, yet your in this thread for WHAT!

 

Wreckage

Banned
Jul 1, 2005
5,529
0
0
Originally posted by: SSChevy2001
Originally posted by: Wreckage
My ATI laptop locks me into the Vendor.
So you don't have any experience with current ATi hardware or drivers, yet your in this thread for WHAT!

Actually I service many a system that runs ATI hardware, so I do have experience with their drivers. I just don't personally own a recent discrete video card from them.

When I install drivers I just use the one I have on CD that I know works, instead of the hotfixes, false-betas, etc.
 

Quiksilver

Diamond Member
Jul 3, 2005
4,726
0
71
Originally posted by: Wreckage
Originally posted by: SSChevy2001
Originally posted by: Wreckage
Well according to a recent Anandtech article....

Maintaining a monthly driver release schedule is detrimental to AMD's ability to release quality drivers. - Derek Wilson
Wow Wreckage I didn't know you owned at recent ATi card! So what's the last ATi driver you used and with what card?

My ATI laptop locks me into the Vendor.

Almost every laptop are locked into their vendor whether there ati or nvidia...
 

SSChevy2001

Senior member
Jul 9, 2008
774
0
0
Originally posted by: Wreckage
Originally posted by: SSChevy2001
Originally posted by: Wreckage
My ATI laptop locks me into the Vendor.
So you don't have any experience with current ATi hardware or drivers, yet your in this thread for WHAT!

Actually I service many a system that runs ATI hardware, so I do have experience with their drivers. I just don't personally own a recent discrete video card from them.

When I install drivers I just use the one I have on CD that I know works, instead of the hotfixes, false-betas, etc.
If you have experiences than share them not others peoples quotes.
 

evolucion8

Platinum Member
Jun 17, 2005
2,867
3
81
Originally posted by: SSChevy2001
Originally posted by: Wreckage
My ATI laptop locks me into the Vendor.
So you don't have any experience with current ATi hardware or drivers, yet your in this thread for WHAT!

For ATi bashing, that's what he does best in every thread whenever he can! :)

But seriously, I owned ATi cards since the ATi Mobility M6 series and I never had any significant issues. The videocard that most gave me issues was the Sapphire X800XT PE which loved to freeze up in rare circunstances when playing heavy videogames like Oblivion (But may be it was because I flashed it's BIOS to convert it to PE), and the X1950XT which never allowed me to play Call of Juarez because of the same lock up issue. Far Cry 2 runs with some weird micro stuttering looking stuttering (Rendundancy's department of rendundancy here), even though the game runs at over 50fps most of the time with everything on Ultra High on my HD 4870. AVIVO Converter sometimes doesn't convert the video properly and won't work on my PSP. Never had a significant issue which would crash my PC or wouldn't allow me to play games besides the X800XT PE which I modified, (Sapphire's quality was questionable at that time) :p
 

Leyawiin

Diamond Member
Nov 11, 2008
3,204
52
91
I've used ATI products off and on since 2003. Back then the drivers were fine "once" you got the CCC to install and actually work - which was a royal p.i.t.a.. Now they install fine and behave just as well.
 

taltamir

Lifer
Mar 21, 2004
13,576
6
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in the first 6 months after AMDs aquisition they have fixed long standing bugs in the drivers (ones that were there since 2001), bugs about the driver not installing properly, not removing properly, etc... Before that I wouldn't use an ATI card if it was FREE. Now though, their drivers are A-OK. (you could say that I still wouldn't use an ATI card, because these current cards are AMD, not ATI)