Ok, where do people get this information?

[Rizen]

Everytime a new video driver is released, I see people ask "Hey will these hose my system?" "Quick, someone test them out! Did they crash your box?"

I have never once had drivers cause ANY problem on my PC other than perhaps a specific game crash/problem. They have never "hosed" anything that couldn't be fixed by reverting to a previous driver.

Why the concern?

I'm particularly referring to ATI's 4.9bs. I have had zero problems with them, hell, they already went through one internal QA so it's likely that not much more will be changed in them before the code is frozen for publication. Yet people are going to great lengths to extract the OpenGL driver just so they can run 4.7s but get the Doom 3 boosts. Why not just run the 4.9bs?

 

[inotocracy]

..because there beta and beta implies instability?

 

[Rizen]

..because there beta and beta implies instability?

Have you ever had a specific instability because of a video card driver? Because I certainly have not. Maybe a specific game but nothing that will cause system-wide problems.

 

[inotocracy]

Actually, yes. Back in the 12.xx series, some people were unable to use TV-Out unless they decided to flash there cards bios to a generic one to solve the problem-- so many people stayed with the 7.x's until the 12.xxs were official (and the problem was fixed then). But, no, I don't think using a beta driver will "hose" your system, but yes I do believe it can make your computer unstable-- which is why I tend to stay away from beta drivers (even though it seems theres a new one out from nVidia every other week.).

EDIT: Also, some beta drivers use new features that weren't used before which are somewhat untested so those could also cause major stability problems as well.

 

[tranCendenZ]

I know some fake drivers were released for the 6800 series before officials were out in sketchy places that messed with the card.

 

[Josh_B]

Well, if you don't *do* anything with your PC, then no, simply installing a driver won't normally fsck things up.

My little bros PC got hosed last weekend when I tried to install the 4.9b's though >:|

 

[Rizen]

Well, if you don't *do* anything with your PC, then no, simply installing a driver won't normally fsck things up.

My little bros PC got hosed last weekend when I tried to install the 4.9b's though >:|

In what ways was it hosed? I haven't heard of that happening to anyone either here or on Rage3D. It sounds more like user error to me, sorry.

 

[tranCendenZ]

Well, the guy who programmed Coolbits2 and happens to be a fairly knowledgable fellow, detailed some fake 6800 drivers he D/Led that raised his core temps and caused lockups and other issues. Fake drivers do popup sometimes.

 

[inotocracy]

Well, the guy who programmed Coolbits2 and happens to be a fairly knowledgable fellow, detailed some fake 6800 drivers he D/Led that raised his core temps and caused lockups and other issues. Fake drivers do popup sometimes.

.. why would an nVidia employee download fake drivers?

 

[Gaiden133]

Actually, I run an ATi Radeon 9800 pro, and once I saw the 4.9b, I decided to try it out. Once I restarted, there were some problems, apparently I had malfunctions with windows detecting security problems and my settings were reset to 800x600 instead of my usual 1280x1024, etc.. So I had to download the catylyst uninstaller and reinstall the 4.7s. So yeah, there are some instances where betas won't run on certain computers.