Do AMD / ATI Drivers really suck??

Savi

Savi

Gawd
Joined
Nov 11, 2009
Messages
657
Hello

Would like to know if AMD / ATI Drivers really suck, I have seen people say they suck, others say they are fine. I have not used a ATI card in many years so do not know. But might buy one of there new cards soon or just grab a gtx 770 not sure yet.

One game I am worried about is Skyrim. I have read of many people having problems with ATI cards and Skyrim. Want to play a heavy modded game. Right now I am just runing out of vram so yea need a new card lol. I posted here because I would think this forum would be a little more neutral than the AMD or Nvidia forums
 
having 3 nvidia systems, 2 amd and one intel.

yes they do, worst to use. while not as bad as it used to be. certainly not good
 
I've had many green and red cards and AMD is just fine, never a problem with updates. Don't hesitate going red if you are worried about re-learning a new driver package, preferences etc. Just look at the reviews for the products and go with what makes you happy, their is nothing wrong with both companies.
 
I have 2 Nvidia systems and 1 AMD system.

I have more issues with the Nvidia system that I use for HTPC as sometimes while watching a movie on Netflix the screen will just go black.
 
skates15 said:
I've had many green and red cards and AMD is just fine, never a problem with updates. Don't hesitate going red if you are worried about re-learning a new driver package, preferences etc. Just look at the reviews for the products and go with what makes you happy, their is nothing wrong with both companies.
Click to expand...

explain why AMD still hasn't improved high latency in crossfire and weird lines in 2d mode.
 
I haven't had any problems with amd drivers. If your system is stable you'll have no problems. I feel like a lot of problems (not all) are because of system instability not related to the gpu. And that goes amd and nvidia.

Recent owned amd cards: 4870, 5870, 6950
 
On average I honestly think that Nvidia's drivers are more consistent. Although, AMD drivers are far better than some people will lead you to believe.

TroyX said:
explain why AMD still hasn't improved high latency in crossfire and weird lines in 2d mode.
Click to expand...

No one called them out on the microstutter until recently. Nvidia only fixed it this gen as well.

I'm pretty surprised to hear that they haven't fixed those lines. I sent in a 7950 for an rma over that before I knew that it was a driver issue. Apparently most people don't see it.

I had a ton of issues with GTX 680 at one point. Its not like Nvidia doesn't also have issues at times.
 
hmm It has been many years since I went red but I just might again, Think I will wait till more reviews of there new cards and check to see if Nvidia lowers there price at all. Still not sure but seems the Driver are not as bad as I thought they were
 
Savi said:
Hello

Would like to know if AMD / ATI Drivers really suck, I have seen people say they suck, others say they are fine. I have not used a ATI card in many years so do not know. But might buy one of there new cards soon or just grab a gtx 770 not sure yet.

One game I am worried about is Skyrim. I have read of many people having problems with ATI cards and Skyrim. Want to play a heavy modded game. Right now I am just runing out of vram so yea need a new card lol. I posted here because I would think this forum would be a little more neutral than the AMD or Nvidia forums
Click to expand...

Considering how old ATI cards are, it is no wonder they suck in Skyrim. :p

I had horrid experience with ATI RageIIc and quite a few annoyances with X1800 XT (which died shortly after one year warranty ended). People say that things are getting better (does it have game profile support now?) but in multi GPU situations NVIDIA has definitely better driver support.
 
It honestly depends on the driver version, just like Nvidia.

As a ATI/AMD user for 10+ years, there are only a few times they have consistently sucked.
-Pre Radeon 9700 release in 2002.
-First few months of release of the Catalyst Control Center requiring .Net to be installed. circa 2004-2005. The drivers were fine, but CCC was a bloated piece of shit for several releases that barely worked. Eventually ATI figured it out and it became awesome.
-All-In-Wonder TV tuner drivers especially late in the series, specifically the AIW X1900 series circa 2007 for Windows XP. Please note this was only the TV driver for those cards, the graphics were fine.
-Crossfire issues with a couple releases in 2011.

I can't comment after that, since I have been using an Nvidia 560ti since early 2012. I'm sure others that have used Nvidia can point out just as many times in Nvidia's history they have had shitty drivers.
 
AMD drivers are fine.

I find it funny to see people who can't bring themselves to resist upgrading on a yearly basis complaining about driver issues from last decade.
 
There are so many different setups and variables its impossible to make a perfect driver. Lord knows how many are pebkac.
To answer: No they don't suck.
 
Only problems are if u update and run into an issue. Ive tried every different tool possible andi dont think ive ever been able to rollback drivers without reformat. Nvidia u simply click custom install and check clean install. Way easier. Amd needs to implement this.
 
I have two computers running HD5850 in crossfire and one computer running just a single HD5850. I had problems with the graphic cards crashing when they were first new but after the bios updates that problem was solved. All three computers are running in eyefinity and the bios problems had to do with videos and clocking of the graphic cards.

I do get problems with the monitor that is connected to the DP port when I am running folding on the gpu. The monitor will start flickering till I reboot the computer. I have also had problems in the past with the cursor getting corrupted on the monitor connected to the DP port in games. But I haven't experienced that problem in awhile. I had a couple of versions of CCC in the 12 series that put a line on the DP monitor. But again, AMD has solved that problem and I haven't seen it in about a year.

I have noticed that crossfire has improved with the HD5850 vs what it use to be. It is still not twice as fast as a single card but still better than it was in the beginning.
 
I've been on the red team for years now.

If you game of choice is Skyrim, TRUST ME: Go with Nvidia.

It is literally the only game I've had any real issue with, with all the random stuttering / fps-spikes etc. Even after massive tweaking, it's still not near as fluid as I've seen on Nvidia cards.
 
AMD releases new drivers beta/final at a slower pace than Nvidia, it's only natural that AMD might fall behind in some areas or take longer to catch up on some games. However, rolling with Nvidia since the FX 5000 series I can't say Nvidia doesn't have its own problems. Nvidia's biggest issue is almost releasing so often you'll be caught in version hell.
 
Besides gaming, they also suck if you use VMware Workstation. You have to turn off video acceleration or it keeps crashing. No such problems with Nvidia.
 
Both companies are hit and miss with drivers if you ask me.

Single card drivers AMD and Nvidia are fine.

Multi-Gpu AMD is terrible (but getting better slowly). Nvidia's Multi-Gpu drivers are usually good, but the last 2-3 months they have been pretty terrible.

Either way you are going to have some kind of issues with certain games etc etc.

Any real [H] PC gamer knows that you will have always tinker with shit to get it right.

my 0.02c
 
I haven't had issues with AMD drivers - I owned a 6970 and 7970 at launch and enjoyed both while I had them, although they were both sold long ago. Never had problems with either driver wise. I since went to the 680 SLI and now a 780. That said, what I don't like is that doesn't have quite as much functionality as the NV control panel and NV inspector. I've grown quite fond of NV inspector and hope AMD can match that functionality at some point.

But as far as just working and what not in single card configs? Haven't ever had major issues with AMD drivers. IMHO, they're fine, although I haven't used AMD cards in over a year (I don't think anything has changed, perhaps they've gotten better since then..) I just wish for slightly more options like NV has and what not.

CF on the other hand was a fucking nightmare. Nvidia definitely is better in terms of multi GPU drivers.
 
Last edited:
xoleras said:
I haven't had issues with AMD drivers - I owned a 6970 and 7970 at launch and enjoyed both while I had them, although they were both sold long ago. Never had problems with either driver wise. I since went to the 680 SLI and now a 780. That said, what I don't like is that doesn't have quite as much functionality as the NV control panel and NV inspector. I've grown quite fond of NV inspector and hope AMD can match that functionality at some point.

But as far as just working and what not? Haven't ever had major issues with AMD drivers. IMHO, they're fine, although I haven't used AMD cards in over a year (I don't think anything has changed, perhaps they've gotten better since then..) I just wish for slightly more options like NV has and what not.
Click to expand...

Yea I will agree with you on that one. Only thing I wish Nvidia would fix is being able to use full color threw HDMI to a TV. AMD has it in CCC, but Nvidia doesn't in the control panel. I had to use some funky program for it to work (like you do with AMD and wanting more options)

Anyway im rambling now.
 
you have been on the forums for 4 years and still dont know where the search function is?

this has been beaten to death.

For some they do, for some they dont, same with nvidia

end of thread.
 
Suck? Nah not really, but I do find them to be somewhat problematic, more so than nVidia. The issues I've encountered lately are largely related to OpenGL and to Enduro. I personally buy nVidia because I find it to be less problematic. However AMD drivers aren't a complete disaster or anything, wouldn't be so many gamers with them if they just didn't work all the time.

I've owned a few AMD cards (and have a 7870M in my laptop now) and at this point won't buy more because I am tired of the issues I have with them that I don't with nVidia, but that is a personal thing, and not all the things I have issues with would apply to all people (like Enduro, that is only on some particular laptops).

I would say if you want the most hassle free experience, go with nVidia. However if you find AMD cards appealing, and your use is primarily DirectX gaming, then AMD will be fine, the card isn't going to kill your cat or anything.
 
They're no worse or better than NVidia's driver experience.
 
They've been great for the 12 months I've used them. Was nVidia before that and didn't have any issues either. This is just for gaming and web browsing essentially.
 
Sycraft said:
Suck? Nah not really, but I do find them to be somewhat problematic, more so than nVidia. The issues I've encountered lately are largely related to OpenGL and to Enduro. I personally buy nVidia because I find it to be less problematic. However AMD drivers aren't a complete disaster or anything, wouldn't be so many gamers with them if they just didn't work all the time.

I've owned a few AMD cards (and have a 7870M in my laptop now) and at this point won't buy more because I am tired of the issues I have with them that I don't with nVidia, but that is a personal thing, and not all the things I have issues with would apply to all people (like Enduro, that is only on some particular laptops).

I would say if you want the most hassle free experience, go with nVidia. However if you find AMD cards appealing, and your use is primarily DirectX gaming, then AMD will be fine, the card isn't going to kill your cat or anything.
Click to expand...

I think in terms of mobile GPUs, nvidia definitely has an upper hand. Enduro doesn't work properly while optimus generally does.

I have not ever had issues with AMD on desktop GPUs, ever. But for mobile, i've heard some bad things relating to Enduro. Not sure what's going on there. So essentially, I wouldn't hesitate to buy AMD for desktop GPUs. Mobile is a different story however; I'd have to think long and hard before buying an ultrabook with an AMD mobile GPU. (aside from the fact that nearly all ultrabooks use HD4400/4600 anyway).

I think there is a pretty large rift between the driver situation between desktop and mobile - often times, the driver situation is controlled by the OEM And they won't even allow reference drivers to be used. It's a pretty dumb situation at times. Generally speaking, though, NV seems to be better on average for mobile.
 
I've never had a serious problem with either. Every now and then one will have an issue like Nvidia having crappy performance on Vista early on or AMDs recent crossfire issues.
 
mdp said:
I keep hearing about issues using multi AMD gpu's, but since adding a second 7950 to my rig, I've had zero problems.
Click to expand...

it's a hit and miss if you ask me. I have had crossfire and trifire 6970's and 7950's. Loved the performance, but man it was a game by game case. I am sure frame pacing fixed alot of issues as well. I am talking from experience. I am sure you can find my old posts in here with me bitching about it over and over...

I also had tri-sli 480's and 780's in Sli. While the 480's did ok just alot of heat (and where fine running at 95c!!!!). It was the 780's in SLI i had issues with here and there, sold them recently here on the forums because I had a hunch AMD would make Nvidia drop prices on the 780 by quite a bit (which im shocked they havent).

Anyway rambling again damnit
 
I've been w/ Nvidia for a while, but decided to go all AMD on my latest HTPC. Honestly did not experience any problem using AMD drivers w/ my 6870. Games run fine, never had one crash or blue screen or anything.
 
I have owned both over the years and I can say without a doubt that AMD drivers suck compared to Nvidia drivers. I have played multiple games on AMD (ATI) card in which stuttering was a big problem and as soon as I switched over to Nvidia the problems went away. I'm not saying Nvidia does not have any problems, but compared to AMD the problems are minor in comparison.
 
The only issue I have had with AMD drivers is the 'desktop mouse lag'. That's it. It affects very few users and it may have to do with Logitech software (mouse). But switching to different drivers can fix the problem or make it worse.
 
I read a lot of 290X reviews and no one mentioned any issues with any game, many of the reviews pointed out that they had no problems. From my personal experience I haven't had any issues since they were ATI.

horrorshow said:
If you game of choice is Skyrim, TRUST ME: Go with Nvidia.
Click to expand...
Sometimes this works. Some people on Nvidia had the same issue. Skyrim is a POS console port.
 
Amd drivers have been solid for 8 months now, 2 months crossfire, but still needing work. Single card amd drivers "STILL" great .
 
I have both Nvidia and AMD in current setup and past iterations of the older GPUs. I have never had a problem with drivers from both companies. I only run single GPU setup with the exception of 4870x2 (dual GPU on single card).

I have always recommended AMD GPUs to friends due to price and back it up personally that they will not have driver issues.

We built PCs using name brands we trust to avoid compatibility issues. Sapphire/EVGA, Asus (mobo), Corsiar/GSkill (RAM) are what we buy the most. I download all the latest drivers for the GPU and MOBO for my friends. They install them in the correct order and the PC runs fine till the next upgrade.
 
Last edited:
I had a 6850 and switch to nvidia specifically because of crappy drivers.
 
horrorshow said:
I've been on the red team for years now.

If you game of choice is Skyrim, TRUST ME: Go with Nvidia.

It is literally the only game I've had any real issue with, with all the random stuttering / fps-spikes etc. Even after massive tweaking, it's still not near as fluid as I've seen on Nvidia cards.
Click to expand...

This is the same for me. I play Skyrim a lot. Skyrim and AMD do not get along, at all (I've been trying it from 12.11 all the way to 13.8b2 and the same issues persist). Other than that weird game I haven't had much of a problem with AMD drivers that I can really remember. I've been through at least 10 79XX cards, a couple of 78XX, a 7770 and I currently have a dinky little 7750. Everything seems to work great except Skyrim.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top