Afraid to buy an ATI!!!

[Bob43]

I'm really liking some of the cost/performance ratios of some of the ATI cards, especially the 8500 series. But man, a lot of the driver complaints are scaring me from making the plunge! Hate to get home with a $50.00 game and find out that the card can't run the thing.

Is ATI past that now - and is upgrading the driver as easy as NVIDIA's unified driver model?

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by Bob43
Is ATI past that now - and is upgrading the driver as easy as NVIDIA's unified driver model?

No and no. It's not as bad as you think, but nVidia smokes ATi in this area.

[T-Bird]

My 8500 retail never gave me any drivr problems.
My new 9700pro(BBA) hasnt givin me one issue yet.

Ati is getter better and better after the release of the 9700.

They are taking in mega cash for the sales of these graphics cards, amd applying to even better technology.

[NDD]

nVIDIA drivers support is still so much better ...

[$1500-P4 gamer]

My bro and I both have ati. I have a nvidia too, G3 original Visiontek to be exact. Both my ati 8500 and my nvidia run every game/app I have so wheres this driver issue? I have yet to find it. Before radeon yes they sucked but now its a hole new gnere of ati. They have taken 3d seriously now and that includes their driver TEAM. So these driver problems, I cant seem to find them no matter how hard I try. The older radeon driver package is slower perfomrance but not buggy. The newest is the fastest so I stick with them- even witht he dx9 and their drivers still no issues. And they have two file downloads. One is the ati driver package "unified" meaning all of the cards drivers in one download like nvidia does. And the other is the control panel drivers. Nothing coplicated there. As to wether you buy one or not is ultimatly up to you-but this drivers suck **** is pretty laim IMHO.

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by $1500-P4 gamer
this drivers suck **** is pretty laim IMHO.

No one said they suck. We just think that nVidia is better.

[AllGamer]

well only time will tell

but ATI has my vote

new drivers from ATI are being released almost every 3 to 4 weeks now

that's an excellent support

and they list all the fixes bugs that was fixed

and in a separate list any new features they added

you can't get better support than that

BTW, nvidia has been lacking lately after the 40.x drivers

[Mr Miyagi]

Hmmm... I've had three Radeons in a row (DDR VIVO, 7500, and now 8500). I have had not so much as one peep out of any of them. My 8500 is at 285/285 and rock solid with Catylist 2.5. I think its more of a fad to say that ATi drivers suck. In fact it has been nVidia that has had the driver issues as of late. But, I built my sis a box with a GF3 Ti 500 and it worked fine too.

[KraZy_SkitZy]

ATI has been good about their drivers lately. The 8500 used to just barely lagg behind the GF3 Ti sereis, now it blows them away! ATI has an upperhand on driver updates over NVidia due to the fact ATI has Microsoft on its side (DirectX 9)

[MoxManiac]

ATI is pretty on the ball now. I haven't had a Nvidia card for awhile so I can't comment on their current driver quality, though I assume it's excellent.

[NDD]

Originally posted by ND
nVIDIA drivers support is still so much better ...

[BipolarBill]

I suppose that ATI has caught up, but there's a saying:

"Once bitten, twice shy."

[KraZy_SkitZy]

Originally posted by BipolarBill
I suppose that ATI has caught up, but there's a saying:

"Once bitten, twice shy."

I have faith in ATI

[gilerzz]

Yeah ATI drivers is getting better and better + drivers were updated much faster recently...

Systems Spec:
AXP1800+ (palomino) - Soon to XP1800+ Tbred A/B or 2400+
MSI K7T-Turbo2 (KT133A) - Soon to N-Force2
2*256MB APACER PC133 CL2 SDRam - Soon PC2700 DDR
128MB ATI Radeon 9500 Pro OEM (BBA)

Default = 9933
Card O/Ced = 10349

P.S : Those Scores seems about right?

[BipolarBill]