radeon 8500 and driver issues... what are the issues?

[Sid03]

i was reluctantant when i purchased my 8500 a couple of months ago, due to the number of posts i see regarding "issues". two months later, i have yet to see one issue.

my question is:

a) have i just not been doing whatever the problems are
b) or is this just a reputation that's blown out of proportion


what are the "issues" that people are seeing, where they state that ati has poor driver support. i know that in the past, the driver support was questionable, but i have yet to see one problem with my 8500.

 

[rbV5]

Remember that folks usually only post when they have problems. There is such a huge variety of hardware, that there is no doubt that some folks do have issues. For the most part, most users probably never have any problems, but most folks also never change their drivers, don't overclock their card/rig, probably didn't install their card, all they know is it works when they push the "on" button.

the nVidia sites have always had large numbers of problem posts, just like the ATI sites, and the PowerVR sites and the Matrox sites, and just like here everytime a new card comes out. Large amounts of probem posts generally relate more to large amount of users rather than a large amount of problems with a particular card, and a large amount of driver bashing comes from folks not even actually using the hardware interestingly enough.

 

[babylon5]

I was reluctant a few months ago when I wanted a new video card. The driver issue certainly discouraged me somewhat. So I was holding off for the Geforce 4200 because I wanted a card that is about $200. But ATI is releasing more and more driver updates that fix most problems, and its famous 2D & TV-Out quality as well as dual monitor output with DVI adaptor finally sold me, as I can't wait for 4200 any longer. So a week ago I got the Radeon 8500 64MB for 180 dollars.

To be honest, I am a heavy 3D graphic user myself, and it has a slight problem with viewport display in 3D MAX 4.2 after I rendered, plus Open GL can be funky at times.

However, I have played games from ST: Voyage Elite Force to Return to Castle Wolfenstein 3D, and I encountered no problems whatsoever. The game plays smoothly and beautifully. I supposed if you want you can wait till the 4200, but if you don't do 3D graphics but only want a card to play games and just watch video, I think you'll be very happy with what 8500 offer now that it can be had for 160 bucks.

Like the previous poster said, people only posted when they have problems, and a lot of bashers don't even on the card they bash on.

 

[tenoc]

Add in that some people install the latest beta driver that hits the net and expect
it to perform like an officially supported one, often ending up with remnents of previous
drivers screwing things up.

The latest Detonators did give a nice bump to my GF2 gts pro/XP1700, while my R8500/
XP1900 seems happiest with official ATI releases.

That said, some NVidia users report problems with the newer drivers and some Radeons
thrive on the latest betas.

Add in combinations for MB drivers, sound drivers, different OSes and GKWE, it's amazing
whe have any stable systems!

Find a driver set your system likes, then go by "if it ain't broke....."

 

[BFG10K]

Current known issues with Radeon drivers that I'm aware of:
-texture corruption in AvP2.
-excessive HD activity in certain titles during gameplay.
-crashing in Serious Sam2 (may have been fixed in the 6052s).
-speed problems with smoke, water and other transparent objects (may have also been fixed with the 6043/6052 drivers).