Fair Weathered Friends?

jfs1967 · Oct 4, 2003, 06:34 PM

I have used ati extensive ( albeit not the 9000 series ), and I chose the FX 5900 because I got fed up finding an ati driver that worked well with "any" game. I chose nVidia and I will stick with it. Go to the ati driver support files page and look at known issues with certain games. It took me 'forever' to convince them that the drivers produced 'artifacts' on Aliens vs Predator 2.

With nVidia the fps may not always be tops, the antialiasing and ansiotropic filtering may not always appear to be perfect (ati's antialiasing and ansiotropic filtering has always kicked nVidia's tail "when the driver's are good". But ati drivers tend to be good for one game and then not the next.

imho.

***Veridian3*** · Oct 4, 2003, 07:44 PM

Out of curiosity, what other issues did you experience?

Stu

jfs1967 · Oct 4, 2003, 08:14 PM

The most "reoccuring issue" would be a driver update would fix something for some games and all of the sudden the performance or appearance of other games would be degraded. And so you might find yourself in a situation trying to find that driver suite that did not result in "anomolies" in some games and not others.

Consistency, some graphical issues with stuttering images. Hard to tell. I would suggest that anyone go to the ati website and look at issues addressed by driver updates. There is a knowledge base there related to games, though you might have to browse around for a while to find it. I have experienced most of those issues myself, but they tend to only be relevant to a few games. They just don't seem to find that one driver solution that resolved glitches with rendering for "all" applications.

In other words, they curiously run into a lot of application specific driver issues.

***Veridian3*** · Oct 4, 2003, 11:51 PM

Did you ever apply to be a beta tester? Seems like you would have been a good candidate lol. Well i hope you enjoy your FX...what brand did you go for?

Stu

jfs1967 · Oct 5, 2003, 10:24 AM

I bought the MSI TD-128 (FX 5900). MSI has a good reputation, several forums and user reviews I read lauded what a "quiet" it is (and it IS a quiet card), and it was the most reasonable card using a copper heatsink which is a component (or part) I wanted.

I had looked at an eVga 5900FX and it is advertised at the eVga website as having a 5800 GPU! At that point I became "very" suspicious of any 5900FX card that was priced considerable less than the others!

It does have that "scrolling noise" some have talked about when using the mouse wheel, but so what? I read somewhere that disabling "smooth scrolling" may take care of this. I use a logitech wireless usb and I am not sure how to make that adjustment.

ATI has, since the 8000 series, always had superior antialiasing and ansiotropic filtering. So why did I choose nVidia? Their driver support is still head and shoulders better than ATI.

One time I found a version of drivers for the 4600ti that created a screen flicker on Commandos 2: Men of Courage, but other than that I have never had driver updates introduce significant anomolies.

I am currently using the 44.03 drivers that shipped with the MSI GeForce 5900 FX TD-128. I had been reading that nVidia has been working on the drivers to enhance disappointed ansiotropic filtering and had seen screenshots where there was "missing light" in a later version.

Do you have any driver suggestions? Updating them is such a pain.

~~HawK~~ · Oct 5, 2003, 10:42 AM

So.. you just want to play your game, and not look futher correct, you found one ATI page with driver problems, and a halfbaken try with an ATI (albeit not the 9000 series), and now your happy with your 5900 correct?.
Ok I sure can live with that, still something is wrong with your comparing don't you think ?
Oh btw.. here is a google on NV driver problems about 400 sites

jfs1967 · Oct 5, 2003, 10:55 AM

Oh geese. I am in the nVidia forum and "not" looking for a flaming war. I am talking about how I became disaffected with the ATI and chose nVidias imperfections over theirs as a matter of personal preference.

It's not like I stick their logos on my things.

And I did mention that I stuck with the 44.03 because nVidia has not gotten the ansiotropic filtering correct and that ATI's antialiasing and ansiotropic filtering is better when the drivers are good.

I am not concerned about "benchmarks" or "picture realism". I am talking about finding something that works and not playing with driver updates.

I owned an ATI. I suggested this person go to the ati website to get "their" description of problems I have personally encountered.

This product pride wars is nonsense.

~~HawK~~ · Oct 5, 2003, 11:07 AM

No no, I sure wasn't posting to flame you, but you are comparing an older card (which one?) & drivers, and in the current day's the Catalysts are a relaiable driver set, ok not every game runs perfect on it ( do not forget the diff. users) but you cannot see the millions that never have a problem and do not post about it.
I have no problem with you using a 5900 honest

But i do have a problem when you suggest that NV drivers (again: do not forget users) are without those problems, hence the google search.
ok ?

Markius · Oct 15, 2003, 09:36 AM

i have never had ANY problems with any nvidia drivers (through 5 nvidia cards) and ive played tons of games from all genres,BUT on that same note im going to go ATI on my next card because:
1:9800pro (what ill get) is the best card overall out there (wether people admit it or not)
2:i have read at many sites that ATI drivers are good these days
3:coz i wanna try out an ATI. i havent had one before!
and finally....
4:my current FX5600 is utter shit and i am pissed at nvidia for making such a pile of horse dung.(shouldve got a r9600)

and as ALOT of people in these forums will tell you "if you are happy with your card, thats all that matters!"and i agree!!!!

jfs1967 · Oct 15, 2003, 10:06 AM

I got the 9800. I hate to admit it. You are correct. I am literally going to boycott the nVidia company after finding out how they short-changed consumers trying to match ATI benchmarks. They basically stripped out alot of 3D rendering functionality.

With a 5900 FX 128, Halo "barely" runs at 800X600 with reduced quality settings.

With the 9800, Halo runs beautifully at 1024X768 will all options maxed out and the cloak looks so damn cool you won't believe it.
It looks like a transparent glass creature running after you instead of an invisible thing with a sword.

No matter what nVidia does next, I will not return my business to them because I sincerely feel the NV30 series chipsets were a fraudulent marketing ploy and they made a conscious decision to market a very substantard product at exhorbitant prices.

I feel nVidia "pillaged" their loyal fan base, and if a company does that just once with me I never return my business to them.

Hopefully news like this will get back to ATI, applaud their standards and serve as a caveat not to take consumers for granted.

By the way, you can buy two Geforce cards from me for 250.00 together on another forum.

Any moderators with a connection to ATI here? Would you pass this one along?