Why no new radeon drivers from new companys??

[EnragedPC]

Now that there are alot of other companies making cards with the Radeon chipsets why arent they making any drivers for them?...i mean people complain alot about ATI's drivers so why dont these companies make there own?

 

[AA0]

Think there are a few reasons.
1st is these companies don't have a clue on how to write drivers. They use nvidia drivers for nvidia cards, and motherboard bioses are the most major thing some have to write.

2nd, ATI drivers are far harder to write then nvidia. They have so many features, with dvd, dual monitor, truform, smoothvision, etc. The GF cards really only have their AA to deal with, the GF4s have a bit more now, but still not as much as ATI.

 

[merlocka]

The days of custom drivers from AIB manufacuters are just about over. Especially in the graphics market. Everything you get now will at best be reference drivers rebaged with some additional tools, ala TV out or overclocking.

2nd, ATI drivers are far harder to write then nvidia. They have so many features, with dvd, dual monitor, truform, smoothvision, etc. The GF cards really only have their AA to deal with, the GF4s have a bit more now, but still not as much as ATI.

There would be zero value in someone like Visontek or others to rewrite nVidia / ATI drivers. It would take alot of development $$$ and the end result would proabably no better than what nVidia provides for reference drivers.

 

[Eagle17]

actually there was a driver release last night from safiretech. But i agree with the above about ati adding all the features. it looks like the newest r250 will just be a speed increase and that means that ati might just have great drivers for it when it is released.... that would be a real first for ATI we will see if they can pull it off.