Why do you think ATI's drivers have issues this year?

Retarp · May 6, 2006, 11:29 PM

It seems a lot of us on here have had a lot of issues with the catalyst driver releases so far this year.

Why do you think this is? Nintendo Wii? XBOX360? Windows Vista? The fact that NVIDIA had the PS3 contract and they are gunna get owned?

Or all of the above? lol!

X1800XTTOP · May 7, 2006, 01:43 AM

Im on my very first ATi video card. I have used all drivers from 6.1 to this very latest. I have yet to experience any problem with them. Everytime i upgrade, i get some kind of performance improvement. I mean, when i first got the card, i was scoring 9200 in 3dmark05. Today, with 6.4, im getting a score of 9800. And note that nothing is overclocked.

The only negative thing is that FEAR is much slower in the current release. I used to get 59fps avg, but with 6.4 im only just above 45. Many other have experienced the same problem and im sure it will be fixed eventually.

Yesterday i bought a new monitor. I used to have an old 17CRT, but got the SyncMaster 940B. After installation, i went into the CCC, and yes, it had detected the TFT and allowed me to change settings for TFTs. Very smooth! Im glad for the saturation option to, raising it by 10 really improves colours. And finally my screen isnt as dark as my old one was.

Good job ATi.

Ib Al-Musaheb · May 7, 2006, 02:38 AM

Well, I hope that the time won't come when I get serious problems with my system due to a freshly installed driver set.

I've been owning an ATI card since I've got my system back in march 2004 and therefore tested (almost every) Catalyst release from 4.3 to 6.3 (most of them were Omegas).
Everything worked and still works fine. I'm very glad and proud of ATI's work (and of course of Omegadrives work as well

).

I don't know why there are problems increasing about driver issues etc. Unfortunately, we cannot be sure what ATI is currently working on, but this mount of lacking driver quality might be due to ATI's decision to decrease staff which developes the Catalyst - whatever the reason is ... however, we don't know!

~~Alien1~~ · May 7, 2006, 03:51 AM

- CCC is nice but still a huge resourse hog

- ATI suffering from the "wrong shadows" (blocky or otherwise) problem in several games (from Homeworld 2 to Oblivion)

- Their Crossfire sollutions seems to suffer from several problems

- Their latest graphic card sollutions are way more noise than before and give more heat

- With every latest Catalyst Drivers they seem to lose their "stability" or a margin of their "quality"
from the causing of some small graphic corruption to some games to even more huge problems according the complains that i have heard until now

Ati team seems to fix something and something else is just broke

Gnerma · May 7, 2006, 04:01 AM

This is a support forum. If you look at any support forum anywhere it looks like whatever the product involved is a total disaster that doesn't work right for anybody. The Catalyst drivers aren't having any more problems than they usually do, and they aren't having any more problems than other video drivers do.

(trying not to sound rude or superior here) this kind of post/attitude is pretty old hat to most of us who have been playing this game for several years. Drivers come and go, and they're mostly all the same. No set or "period" of sets is as bad or as good as most people seem to think. Maybe people get lost in the game, I don't know.

Sandok · May 7, 2006, 04:03 AM

Dunno what you guys are on about... They are as good as usual.

The_Neon_Cowboy · May 7, 2006, 06:08 AM

needs to be more options in the poll, like: what problems? Your polling is strewed
to support only one openion and view. Just becouse you are haveing issues doesnt'
mean others are.

as for PS3 um ATI has xbox360 and on papr it looks BETTER then the expected specs
on ps3 and ps3 isn't intill NOV, long DELAYS.... Not to mention ps3's $599 price tag
vs X360's 299/399 (that ill fall). Nintendo Wii ? What would hardware
have to do with PC DRIVERS? BTW: done by diffrent TEAMS within ATI one doesnt
adversly affect the other...same goes for "Chipset & mobo development". "Multi
GPU catchup with Nvidia" you mean catchup and blow past right? when useithing
the tech "already there" just utiliseing it....rember nvidia had no dual GPU cards
untill what 5XXX, 6XXX series and ATI had since "rage" pre radeon about 6+ years
ago. Even matrox, 3dfx and others had dual GPU setups and cards. So going to
dual GPU wasn't so hard and the tech as already there chipwise. I mean ATI has
had dual and QUAD gpu video cards. Thier just so expensive that only specail use
millitary and so forth can afford them. Ie. Quad quad 9700 pros with 1 GB ram all
one one board. Don't forget either AFR patent belongs to ATI, you know it as the
most ppular SLI / crossfire mode... from years past... Nvidia just recyled and old
idea wich still isn't cost effective nor all that great for the consumer but maks them
a ton of money. Hice ATI jusmped back on te backwagon. Only company dual GPU's
completely was "new" to was nvidia.

Rayder · May 7, 2006, 10:44 AM

It's all nVidia'a fault with their "nVidia only" non-standard graphics calls. ATI has to make their drivers work with the non-standard nVidia garbage. Since nVidia pays game developers to purposely put that stuff in the games, ATI has to play catch-up.

Someone should force nVidia to stop that crap.

Remember when Intel payed programmer's so programs wouldn't work with AMD CPU's? Someone got sued for that and were FORCED to stop that crap. The same should happen to nVidia.

EnPassant · May 7, 2006, 01:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rayder

It's all nVidia'a fault with their "nVidia only" non-standard graphics calls. ATI has to make their drivers work with the non-standard nVidia garbage. Since nVidia pays game developers to purposely put that stuff in the games, ATI has to play catch-up.

Someone should force nVidia to stop that crap.

Remember when Intel payed programmer's so programs wouldn't work with AMD CPU's? Someone got sued for that and were FORCED to stop that crap. The same should happen to nVidia.

Ain't this the truth.

Seems lots of folks picking up dirty habits from Microsoft. Microsoft also did stuff like this and bankrupt a couple of Co's if i remember correctly. Something ATI should do something about before this becomes a real problem. Seems more than 3/4 of the games i play have nVidia stamped on the box.

Retarp · May 7, 2006, 01:53 PM

This poll is more to be humorous than much else. There is truth to it though.

I've been using ATI for a while now. I had 3DFX cards before they went defunct. A Built-by-ATI Radeon 9000pro 128Meg was my first card. It was perfect. IQ was fantastic, drivers were compact and stable. Since I had so much sucess and games were starting to really bog it down, I bought a Saphire 9800np. Overclocked that bad boy to almost the same as a 9800XT. The IQ was not as good, but the drivers still rocked.

I needed to build a new system, so I upgraded to PCI-express. I picked up a Radeon XPRESS 200 mobo & a GeCube X800XL. The X800 was hot, loud, and didn't have the IQ I was used to. CCC requiring .NET creates an unneccesaryly large overhead. I picked up a Powercolor X1900XT and that is a HUGE improvement from the X800. Even though it's hot, it's a lot quieter & the IQ seems better. I've updated to the cat 6.4 only to get some lockups & my overdrive does not work as good as it did with CAT 6.3 w/Oblivion hotfix. Add in the bonus of graphics corruption when I boot to top it off.

So yes, from my perspective the drivers/products are not as good as thier predicessors.

As for the consoles, chipsets, etc. being a moot points, anyone remember how lousy the Nvidia 5xxx FX series were? They were developed around the same time as NFORCE chipset & they had to play catch up with ATI on DX9.

Oh, ask anyone that has a VIVO or AIW card how bad the WDM driver & the MMC is nowadays

nicnik · May 7, 2006, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by X1800XTTOP

The only negative thing is that FEAR is much slower in the current release. I used to get 59fps avg, but with 6.4 im only just above 45. Many other have experienced the same problem and im sure it will be fixed eventually.

Im also having problems with FEAR, My post is here http://driverheaven.net/showthread.php?t=105825

Basically the 3d clock seems to go down when i run fear, can somebody launch fear and monitor their clocks and see if it goes down also with 6.4 catalysts. Im not using CCC btw. If possible pls post results under the thread i opened, thanks.

Dragunov · May 10, 2006, 02:48 PM

well I started with a rage3d PRO in link with a Voodoo 2

then I bought a 3D Prophet 3 Ti500 (very good board)

then a 3D Prophet 9800XT Classic 256MB

well, I hope they update their CCC to .net 2.0, cause it suffers from using 1.1 and I don't wanna install 1.1 again, so I just run .net 2.0 (it is an updated 1.1)

Flexkill · May 10, 2006, 03:26 PM

Where is the "I don't know what your talking about, I haven't had any issues" option at????

tech.Me · May 10, 2006, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flexkill

Where is the "I don't know what your talking about, I haven't had any issues" option at????

Absolutely agreed x10 times.

OCBigmike · May 10, 2006, 11:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tech.Me

Absolutely agreed x10 times.

Agreed as well. No problems with 6.4 on my X1900XTX or my X800XL in my second system.

OldBuzzard · May 11, 2006, 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flexkill

Where is the "I don't know what your talking about, I haven't had any issues" option at????

Exactly!!

I'd bet that 90+% of the 'driver problems' come from bad installations. Garbage leftover from previous installs, someone forgetting to load the chipset drivers after a format, and other such errors that we who have been on the forum for a decent bit of time have seen over and over and over. That, or it's not a vid card/driver problem but a game problem.

How many times have we seen the "OMFG these drivers (or this card) is crap because of <insert problem>" only to see if fixed by a proper install?

The first thing you should ask yourself is: "What did I do wrong to cause this problem?". We've all done 'stupid things', but at least let's put the 'blame' where it belongs. I've had a 'bad install' or two myself, and called myself a 'big dummie' more than once because of it.

The_Neon_Cowboy · May 12, 2006, 12:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Retarp

So yes, from my perspective the drivers/products are not as good as thier predicessors.

Well views very and haveing used countless of driver sets since
thier versions where known only by a long string of numbers. Since
the very 1st radeons. I've yet to have 1/100,000,000,000th of the
issues. Then again I'm only probubly in the top 5% of computer
users/gamers/ time spent gameing and same goes for internet
use...

Tip:format and reinstall every month or two it will change your life

As for CCC again not bad at all.....no affect on perfomance what so ever
unless mabye when your runing obsolete hardware....(that and for example
your boot order...)

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldBuzzard

Exactly!!

I'd bet that 90+% of the 'driver problems' come from bad installations. Garbage leftover from previous installs, someone forgetting to load the chipset drivers after a format, and other such errors that we who have been on the forum for a decent bit of time have seen over and over and over. That, or it's not a vid card/driver problem but a game problem.

so many possable sources problems the list is endless, but the drivers and ATI often
get the blame no matter whos at fault.

H3X4D3C1M4L · May 12, 2006, 07:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flexkill

Where is the "I don't know what your talking about, I haven't had any issues" option at????

I'd vote that way too

bug77 · May 12, 2006, 08:34 AM

You forgot the real reason: they don't work on drivers anymore, they fix the CCC

OldBuzzard · May 12, 2006, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bug77

You forgot the real reason: they don't work on drivers anymore, they fix the CCC

If you would have bothered (or are capable of) reading the release notes you would have found that in:

5.9 Issues addressed 51. 15 of those related to CCC.

6.1 Issues addressed 9. 1 of those related to CCC.

6.2 Issues addressed 24. 6 of those related to CCC.

6.3 Issues addressed 34. 16 of those related to CCC.

6.4 Issues addressed 36. 10 of those related to CCC.

bug77 · May 12, 2006, 09:51 AM

It's still too much work to fix something that wasn't broken in the first place. Meanwhile, their OpenGL performance and Linux support is top-notch, as we've come to expect from ATI; OpenGL performance is one of the reasons I went with nvidia last time.

EnPassant · May 12, 2006, 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bug77

It's still too much work to fix something that wasn't broken in the first place. Meanwhile, their OpenGL performance and Linux support is top-notch, as we've come to expect from ATI; OpenGL performance is one of the reasons I went with nvidia last time.

If your so happy with nVidia why are you posting here, go play a game or something.

Chaos · May 12, 2006, 10:01 AM

you should have an option for satisified users so that people from ATI could get a better balance of the good and the bad which would be more usefull in the big picture

bug77 · May 12, 2006, 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EnPassant

If your so happy with nVidia why are you posting here, go play a game or something.

Because I want ATI to relasease high-quality products AND support them like nvidia does?
All I hear from ATI is standard BS: 'we aim to deliver high-quality, unprecedented, blah, blah'. Then the users say: we want OpenGL performance (and no CCC). Then ATI says 'we aim to deliver high-quality, unprecedented, blah, blah'. This is definitely not what I want.
You tell me they fixed things in recent releases. You're damn right they did, if anyone buys a card, it expects it to work. Driver bug-fixes included.