driver question about radeon ve

[galas]

hi, i know that ati had major driver issues in the past, and only recently got into better habits about their drivers with the 8500...i was wondering if the older radeons like the radeon ve have had their drivers improved since then too...like the way nvidia (i think) releases the 4n1 drivers which are sorta universal to a spectrum of their cards so even their older cards still get performance increases...

thanks,
.:galas:.