nVidia is better than ATI because they have better drivers?

[Wolfshanze]

Originally posted by: Wolfshanze
Did anyone stop to ask/think if WinXP is the culprit, not ATI video drivers? I'm under the assumption your friend has a relatively current OS, if that's the case, and he has WinXP, I can almost assure you without the slightest doubt that WinXP is the culprit, not ATI.
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Yes I remember some voices in my head suggesting that, was that you? A valid proposition, however since I don't have any problems with my system, and I'm using WinXP as well...

I'm not trying to be cute, I'm trying to help.

Since your post was vague to begin-with, forgive me if I don't know everything that's going on with you or your friend's problem. You only mentioned your friend had problems and you didn't... you didn't bother to mention OS of either system, or the games on either system. You also didn't mention if the SAME games are having problems, or just "some old games on his system aren't working" vs "some (differant) old games on my system are working".

Are the SAME old games NOT working on his system and ARE working on your system? Which games are we talking about... a lot of issues are game specific, and if you really want to be helped, it might be nice to mention which games you're refering to, along with system specs to get a proper response that will help your friend.

 

[dredd2929]

Originally posted by: Wolfshanze
I'm not trying to be cute, I'm trying to help.

Yes, of course. I apologize if I was rude. I wrote that when I was at work, and since I work third shift (full time) and go to school all day I get very little sleep, and sometimes I'm not my most tactful self when browsing the forums.

I remember Warcraft III gave my friend a lot of headaches. He ended up having to run it in Direct3D instead of OpenGL. It seemed like it was always a tossup as to whether or not a game work in OpenGL. I realize that's not much of an issue now, but I'm hesitant to get an ATi card, or recommend one to someone for that matter, in the event I want to play an older game. At the time my friend was running WinXP and I had Win98 SE. Now I use WinXP, and come to think of it I've never tried to run Warcraft III on this system. It's pretty new and I've been so busy with school I haven't been able to play any games anyway. School=:thumbsdown:

Oh well, yeah I guess that could have been the reason. I'll have to try some older games on my sys and see what happens.

My system specs:

(see signature)

My friend's specs:

SOYO Dragon (something) motherboard (KT266 chipset)
AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.7Ghz
1GB DDR SDRAM (FSB:333)
ATi Radeon 9800 Pro
WinXP Home
SB Audigy 2

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Well, I do know that ATi has rendering issues with the Freespace Source code project, and we never did get an answer about whether or not sacrifice actually runs properly or not. Anybody know?

 

[junkyardDawg]

I'm running a 9800 pro/xt, play a lot of older games and have had no problems with the latest drivers although performance seems to have leveled off since ver. 4.12.

If your friend plays a lot of openGL he should probably get a nVidia card

 

[Concillian]

Right now my wife's computer is an A64 2800+ / AGP x800pro / 2GB and my machine is a 3000+ / PCI-e 7800GT / 2GB and I play games on both machines sometimes (or, more accurately, use whichever is open). So I get to compare the two on a regular basis.

I mostly play WoW and Rome:Total War.
R:TW has seen no issues.

WoW sees a rare issue with the nVidia machine where the 3D literally just stops working. The game will go black, but it's still running and I can hear sound effects and people on Teamspeak tell me my character is moving and such. I can alt-tab out and be fine, but no 3D games will run (they tell me I don't have a 3D driver). I have to re-boot to solve the problem.

When this issue crops up on the ATi card, the game will pause for a bit, then I guess ATi's drivers are smart enough to restart the 3D driver on their own, because the game will come back (but gamma settings, etc... are all messed up). In this case I can continue playing until it's convenient for me to restart WoW. No need for a re-boot, just a game restart to get the brightness / gamma set right.

Obviously WoW is the ultimate problem for this case, since this happens on both machines, (both are incredibly rare, maybe once every week - two weeks or so.) however, the ATi drivers seem to handle that specific situation a little more gracefully.

 

[Wolfshanze]

I remember Warcraft III gave my friend a lot of headaches. He ended up having to run it in Direct3D instead of OpenGL. It seemed like it was always a tossup as to whether or not a game work in OpenGL. I realize that's not much of an issue now, but I'm hesitant to get an ATi card, or recommend one to someone for that matter, in the event I want to play an older game. At the time my friend was running WinXP and I had Win98 SE. Now I use WinXP, and come to think of it I've never tried to run Warcraft III on this system.

That would explain a lot... I do believe there was a problem with Warcraft III and WinXP SP2. I believe there is a game patch to Warcraft III which resolves the conflict with WinXP... make sure your freind (and yourself if you play it), update Warcraft III to it's latest version from Blizzard.

Also, I know for a FACT there are older games then that which simply will not run on WinXP no matter what you do. Since you last were gaming on a Win9X box, and your friend was gaming on a WinXP box, I can assure you the answer to your original question is a WinXP issue, not an ATI driver issue (and remember, I'm an NVidia guy, not an ATI fanboy).

Since I still love to play old games, I have a dual-boot system that boots to either WinMe or WinXP (believe it or not, WinME isn't bad when fully patched and running on a beefy-enough system). If a dual-boot system is not an option, when playing older games on WinXP, make sure the game is fully patched... also try "compatability mode" with the game, and if all-else fails, you can use something like "VirtualPC" to run a true Win9X OS in a window (or full screen) in WinXP.

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: Wolfshanze
use something like "VirtualPC" to run a true Win9X OS in a window (or full screen) in WinXP.

LOL, that's just funny. Using "VirtualPC" to run a PC OS on a PC...

 

[Wolfshanze]

LOL, that's just funny. Using "VirtualPC" to run a PC OS on a PC...

Hey, if it works, use it... I've known multiple folks who couldn't get certain older games to run on WinXP no matter what they did. These same folks (self included) were able to get those same games to run once they had a Win9X VirtualPC running in WinXP.

I don't use Virtual PC anymore because I have a dual-boot system... but it is an option for those dead-set on playing an older game on WinXP when said game normally won't run on WinXP.

Bill Gates lied when he said WinXP would run everything Win9X did... but then again, we didn't really believe him, did we?