ATI Drivers Still Archaic

Mikerocks2112

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 23, 2008
Messages
362
No gaming profiles.

No way to force Triple Buffering in D3D.

If you enable AA in the drivers and AA in the game, AA will not work.

Adaptive AA gives graphical anomalies in some games.


I was a firm ATI believer through the 9800 to X850XT PE series until I upgraded to a 8800GTS G92. All those issues above were then finally resolved when I made the switch. So recently I decided to upgrade to a 4870 1gb. I thought for sure that the ATI drivers must be up to par with Nvidia by now....nope. Same old song and dance. I had to install 3rd party programs just to match the options given to me in the default nvidia drivers.

Morale of the story.... if you are on the green team thinking about making a switch....don't. You will just be disappointed with ATI's archaic and craptastic drivers. Until ATI includes/resolves some of the points I mentioned above, I will not buy their graphics cards.
 
No gaming profiles.

No way to force Triple Buffering in D3D.

If you enable AA in the drivers and AA in the game, AA will not work.

Adaptive AA gives graphical anomalies in some games.


I was a firm ATI believer through the 9800 to X850XT PE series until I upgraded to a 8800GTS G92. All those issues above were then finally resolved when I made the switch. So recently I decided to upgrade to a 4870 1gb. I thought for sure that the ATI drivers must be up to par with Nvidia by now....nope. Same old song and dance. I had to install 3rd party programs just to match the options given to me in the default nvidia drivers.

Morale of the story.... if you are on the green team thinking about making a switch....don't. You will just be disappointed with ATI's archaic and craptastic drivers. Until ATI includes/resolves some of the points I mentioned above, I will not buy their graphics cards.

+1, not a fanboi of ati or nvidia. Recently tried the 4850x2 from my 8800gt g92 and the experience was a nightmare, ati drivers in my opinion suck, stick green unless u want a headache.
 
If they put just half the effort into the actual drivers that goes into that sloppy piece of shit they call 'Catalyst Control Center' everyone would be happy.

And I'm no NV fanatic, I've got machines with both camps installed.
 
the bad transparency aa is annoying but i never found a use for game profiles. I usually just adjust in game options... anywho, I havent found the drivers to be enough to affect my buying choice. i find bang for $ to be more important.
 
Fixed Ratio scaling doesn't work, Adobe Reader crashing, texture filckering, driver downgrade issue, and BSODs.

There is no solid evidence showing that the driver from a company is better than the other company. Both companies have their own issues. Luckily I'm not having any problem with my ATI driver and I'm sure that there are a lot more people without any problem using their ATI or nVidia driver.

I really wish that 3DFx is still around, not because they will have a perfect driver but if they are still around, we can have drivers from 3 companies to whine about and spread FUD instead of just 2 companies.
 
Fixed Ratio scaling doesn't work, Adobe Reader crashing, texture filckering, driver downgrade issue, and BSODs.

There is no solid evidence showing that the driver from a company is better than the other company. Both companies have their own issues.

I really wish that 3DFx is still around, not because they will have a perfect driver but if they are still around, we will have drivers from 3 companies to whine about and spread FUD instead of just 2 companies.

Nice post, I was just gonna say Nvidia has its fair share of problems with drivers. No company is perfect.
 
LOL, i understand the fan boys always have something to bitch about, but what you said that ATI driver sucks because it is different from nvidia is among retardest I have ever seen
 
My one and only complaint about ATI's drivers is the lack of game profiles the way Nvidia does them. I wish they would allow us to tinker with different CF/AA/AF profiles for different games.

Anyone know of any 3rd party apps that do this?
 
My one and only complaint about ATI's drivers is the lack of game profiles the way Nvidia does them. I wish they would allow us to tinker with different CF/AA/AF profiles for different games.

Anyone know of any 3rd party apps that do this?

you can create profiles for games and launch them manually. :>_>: this is not a new feature either
 
i can't complain about ati they fixed the driver issue that was causing BSOD with a CF setup :)
 
Fixed Ratio scaling doesn't work, Adobe Reader crashing, texture filckering, driver downgrade issue, and BSODs.

There is no solid evidence showing that the driver from a company is better than the other company. Both companies have their own issues. Luckily I'm not having any problem with my ATI driver and I'm sure that there are a lot more people without any problem using their ATI or nVidia driver.

I really wish that 3DFx is still around, not because they will have a perfect driver but if they are still around, we can have drivers from 3 companies to whine about and spread FUD instead of just 2 companies.

You are my new favorite [H]ardOCP user. I was about to post all this (but add the shimmering bug still present on nVIDIA hardware) when you posted this. I switched from nVIDIA tri-sli 8800 Ultra's to Quadfire 4870X2s and have found the same sort of driver issues on both nVIDIA and ATi.

But none of the issues prevent me from enjoying my games.
 
I've used both ATI and Nvidia cards throughout the years (still do) and drivers are the reason I won't use ATI cards in my main machine. The CCC is also a major turn off for me. I cannot stand that peice of software.
 
developing any kind of software is time consuming

develop, test, fix test and release within 1 month is not an easy task :p

so that basically means, each driver update is really a patch for the last update!
 
Nvidia's drivers crash more often then ATI's - fact according to Microsoft
ATI's drivers dont have the features of Nvidia's drivers - fact according me.

Ill just choose the cheaper one and be happy.
 
In my experience NVIDIA's drivers aren't perfect, but they are less problematic than ATI's are.
 
I am sure he is basing it on more than just one particular case.

Also, wait till silus and his cronies see people agreeing with you, they will be mad :D
 
Wasn't your problem related to the Quadfire on the Skulltrail setup?

Well I've had more problems with ATI drivers than that. I'm just generalizing over the totality of my experiences with both video card brands. I've had more game specific problems and issues with ATI drivers than I have from using NVIDIA cards and drivers. Another difference is that when an NVIDIA driver sucks, I usually only have to wait a week or two tops for a newer beta driver which fixes the issues 90% of the time. With ATI I'm guaranteed to wait at least a month for a new driver which only resolves the issue about 40% of the time.
 
nVidia & ATi have their own fair share of driver problems but i still prefer nVidia drivers, just because they are less problematic than dealing with ATi's CCC
 
nVidia & ATi have their own fair share of driver problems but i still prefer nVidia drivers, just because they are less problematic than dealing with ATi's CCC

Other way around for me; nvidia's control panel never seems to detect any game I have installed for profiles, and desktop color settings don't reapply after a 3D app.
 
Well I've had more problems with ATI drivers than that. I'm just generalizing over the totality of my experiences with both video card brands. I've had more game specific problems and issues with ATI drivers than I have from using NVIDIA cards and drivers. Another difference is that when an NVIDIA driver sucks, I usually only have to wait a week or two tops for a newer beta driver which fixes the issues 90% of the time. With ATI I'm guaranteed to wait at least a month for a new driver which only resolves the issue about 40% of the time.

When was the last time you had the problems other that your Quadfire Skulltrail issues? I know that earlier ATI drivers are quite problematic but since the HD 2900 days, when I still had my X1950 XTX, I think that I hardly came across any major issue. Before that I was using 6800 Ultras and 7950GTs so I've had my nVidia driver moments too.
 
I can't upgrade the drivers on my 4850 in XP64, the 8.12 drivers would chain reboot, but when I had a 7800gt, after upgrading drivers once, after a 6 month wait with old drivers, the computer would randomly blue screen.

Result? both drivers sets suck.
 
8.12HF does an admirable job of fixing the litany of issues wrong from 8.11 on. It still however suffers from the multimon crashing bug when overclocking the vidcards. I got around this by disabling the oc in a profile before I switch to multimon. The new drivers are pretty nice all in all once you figure out ati's profile system. If multimon keeps limping along non-overclocked like it is now then I am pretty happy. If they fix the issue altogether in 9.1 or 9.2 then I will be even happier. 8.11 and 8.12 were outrageous abortive versions of drivers though and have given ati a very tarnished name.
 
<-- guess that I must be the exception!

No BSOD, shimmers or driver issues for that matter on a nice shiney new 4870 x2.
 
I must be in the minority, after switching to a 4870 from the 8800s, I've no crashes with any drivers, but it was a new learning experience dealing with AA/AF modes. In game settings are more important to ATI than nvidia, but I couldnt be happier with my 4870.
 
the first 2 people to post and whom agreed with each other both had less than 150 posts and leads me to believe this is propaganda or just flame bait either way you should ignore this topic.

both companies have driver issues.

edit: after further review of their post history they seem to be having constant general computer troubles and this could be the straw that broke the camel's back.
 
Yeah, one of the reasons I went back to nvidia, driver optimization and no CCC. CCC is just a bloated pig of a program.. But I love ATI for leveling the playing field money-wise..will never forget that.
 
Fixed Ratio scaling doesn't work, Adobe Reader crashing, texture filckering, driver downgrade issue, and BSODs.

There is no solid evidence showing that the driver from a company is better than the other company. Both companies have their own issues. Luckily I'm not having any problem with my ATI driver and I'm sure that there are a lot more people without any problem using their ATI or nVidia driver.

I really wish that 3DFx is still around, not because they will have a perfect driver but if they are still around, we can have drivers from 3 companies to whine about and spread FUD instead of just 2 companies.



Thank you sir! i guess some people wont be buying any video cards and using onboard intel :), shall we also add the list trhe SLI fiasco with Vista when it came out.. how bad were NVIDIA drivers for months!

personally, all my BSOD were with NVIDIA cards and nv*.dll crashes and crap, ATI has never given me a BSOD

BUT, one problem i do have is with cat 8.12 abd a 4850, if i use overdriver to overlock it tests the card, and then turns both montitors grey.. i have to reboot and if i dont reset to default the speeds, screens go grey again.
 
Go to nV News or Rage3D to see people having problems with either camp.
Choose your poison and stop thinking another's choice reflects on yours. :eek:
 
nv_disp BSOD anyone?

Oh that and I really don't like NVIDIA's default color profile. ATI's colors seem to be much more vibrant and "true".

Yes I know you can go in and adjust all of that but still, it is the little things in life right? Just like the OP's post.

*cry *cry
 
Thank you sir! i guess some people wont be buying any video cards and using onboard intel :), shall we also add the list trhe SLI fiasco with Vista when it came out.. how bad were NVIDIA drivers for months!

personally, all my BSOD were with NVIDIA cards and nv*.dll crashes and crap, ATI has never given me a BSOD

BUT, one problem i do have is with cat 8.12 abd a 4850, if i use overdriver to overlock it tests the card, and then turns both montitors grey.. i have to reboot and if i dont reset to default the speeds, screens go grey again.

Ironically, overclocking the GPU is one of the "grey areas". You'll get a warning saying that overclocking is not supported by the manufacturers and the card is only guaranteed to work at stock speed by the manufacturers. If overclocking is really not supported, you shouldn't have the overdrive option at all.
 
When was the last time you had the problems other that your Quadfire Skulltrail issues? I know that earlier ATI drivers are quite problematic but since the HD 2900 days, when I still had my X1950 XTX, I think that I hardly came across any major issue. Before that I was using 6800 Ultras and 7950GTs so I've had my nVidia driver moments too.

I have always had problems with the ATI drivers causing issues with certain monitors. That is a long and drawn out story, but basically after installing the ATI drivers, from the Radeon X800XT-PE to the Radeon 4870X2, the system won't output any video signal over DVI to certain monitors. One monitor is my Viewsonic VP201s which is an old monitor at this point, but you get the idea. I've seen this even with more modern displays, but I've never had the problem with my Dell 3007WFP though.

As for game issues, I had issues with the 4870 X2 in Crysis on multiple systems. So it wasn't just isolated to my Skulltrail setup. The best ATI cards for me were the X1950XTX and the X1950Pro. I had those in a couple of different systems and even with Crossfire enabled on both of them, everything always worked very well for me. So I'm not saying I've always had problems with ATI drivers in all scenarios. Not at all. However there are certain irritating problems that I've never seen a resolution to such as the DVI issues. Then again, I've heard NVIDIA cards have that problem in some cases too. I've never seen it though.

I won't normally hesitate to put ATI cards in my systems provided that they are providing the best performance possible for my money. The last time that was the case was when the 4870 X2's came out and I ended up returning one and selling the other one off because I couldn't make them work.
 
<-- guess that I must be the exception!

No BSOD, shimmers or driver issues for that matter on a nice shiney new 4870 x2.

Maybe we both are in the exception. Except I flashed mine to the 4870x2 top bios and
am having no issues. I am getting awesome performance in Grid / fallout 3 / cod5 / etc.
Can't believe how smooth crysis warhead is at 1920x1200 gamer settings.
 
Only time I ever have had any issue with nvidia is during the 3 months after vista was released debacle. Other than that those drivers were solid as a rock going back all the way to the RIVA card I purchased back in '98 if I recall. I never had SLI though. Every single issue I have had with my 4850's has been due to horrible driver support for crossfire, i.e. bsod's, black screens, multimon issues, inability to install or uninstall, etc, etc. I'm pretty sure that if I were using a single card that I would never know there were any problems. Coming from nvidia drivers to ati CCC really is quite a shock though as the profiles and options in nvidia drivers spoils you. CCC is not that bad though once you get used to it and create your own profiles. I have said all along that if ati could deliver some whiz bang drivers for the 4800 series cards that they would own the market. They still have yet to deliver on that some 7 months after release. The 8.12HF are MUCH improved, but that multimon bug needs to get fixed ASAP. Why they have dragged their heels on this issue for 3 months now is beyond me.
 
Only time I ever have had any issue with nvidia is during the 3 months after vista was released debacle. Other than that those drivers were solid as a rock going back all the way to the RIVA card I purchased back in '98 if I recall. I never had SLI though. Every single issue I have had with my 4850's has been due to horrible driver support for crossfire, i.e. bsod's, black screens, multimon issues, inability to install or uninstall, etc, etc. I'm pretty sure that if I were using a single card that I would never know there were any problems. Coming from nvidia drivers to ati CCC really is quite a shock though as the profiles and options in nvidia drivers spoils you. CCC is not that bad though once you get used to it and create your own profiles. I have said all along that if ati could deliver some whiz bang drivers for the 4800 series cards that they would own the market. They still have yet to deliver on that some 7 months after release. The 8.12HF are MUCH improved, but that multimon bug needs to get fixed ASAP. Why they have dragged their heels on this issue for 3 months now is beyond me.

During that time frame I ran Windows XP on my gaming machine. My laptop and other systems were transitioned to Windows Vista. The main reason why I held off on Vista for gaming for so long is because the NVIDIA drivers were pretty terrible at first. Once they started to properly support SLI and the performance was no longer shit, I upgraded.
 
That time period left a very nasty taste in my mouth Dan. Nvidia was completely incompetent about the entire affair and imo probably never even started to code a single driver for vista until January that year. It truly was never even on their radar. I am a fan of neither and will always buy the best performer for the buck, but I have to say that these current ati drivers have worn my patience to its limit and it might be time to switch back to green. I've got everything working now by doing some creative profile juggling so I will stick with the 4850's as long as this continues to work or ati fixes the remaining issue. I really have to say though that the gtx285 is very alluring to me right now to get the same performance from a single card solution with none of the power draw reqts and multicard quirks. I may buckle and grab a gtx285 if they are reasonably priced and then craigslist the 4850's for 80-100 bucks each.
 
i have a multi gpu ati and a multi gpu nvidia card. both run great. i have run sli for years, without problems. the only issues i have ever had with video cards have been hardware related. and since i stopped overclocking my video cards, these have stopped also.
 
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