ATI HD 5770 is Hell on Earth

It is true that not every nvidia driver release has been flawless, I readily cede the point; however, there's a huge difference between a buggy nvidia driver and buggy catalyst drivers.

Typically, a buggy nvidia driver, like the current release, may lose some functionality... like riva tuner or the evga precision tool won't work. It's quickly corrected, either by nvidia or by a third party within hours. On the other hand, with ATI, buggy drivers usually mean "catastrophic failures"... followed by incessant blue screens and an inability to even uninstall the software by normal means... even for really experienced users who know their stuff... like skunksmash. These aren't solved easily or quickly because ATI, besides being notorious for writing bad drivers, is also know for being very slow to admit their drivers are bad.

I'm not talking out of my keister here... I've had a few ATI cards... hardware = great; software = teh suck... and yes, on more than one occasion I've had the uninstallable control panel issue... something that's never happened with nvidia.

Now, while I'm sure we could drum up an nvidia horror story, I'm also sure that we could drum up exponentially more ATI horror stories.

RST101 said:

I'm sure your aware of the driver problems ati have had since the beginning of time. I steer well clear form them and creative.

After recently grabbing a Auzen X-FI Forte 7.1 (basically a Creative card) - I'm inclined to agree.

ATI + Creative drivers = Double FFS

Fumz said:

It is true that not every nvidia driver release has been flawless, I readily cede the point; however, there's a huge difference between a buggy nvidia driver and buggy catalyst drivers.

Typically, a buggy nvidia driver, like the current release, may lose some functionality... like riva tuner or the evga precision tool won't work. It's quickly corrected, either by nvidia or by a third party within hours. On the other hand, with ATI, buggy drivers usually mean "catastrophic failures"... followed by incessant blue screens and an inability to even uninstall the software by normal means... even for really experienced users who know their stuff... like skunksmash. These aren't solved easily or quickly because ATI, besides being notorious for writing bad drivers, is also know for being very slow to admit their drivers are bad.

I'm not talking out of my keister here... I've had a few ATI cards... hardware = great; software = teh suck... and yes, on more than one occasion I've had the uninstallable control panel issue... something that's never happened with nvidia.

Now, while I'm sure we could drum up an nvidia horror story, I'm also sure that we could drum up exponentially more ATI horror stories.

very very true.... haha i know its flawed..... but.... it works for me so i'm happy

DarkPhoenix said:

LOL .. Nvidia has had just as many driver problems since the beginning of time.. depending on the system.

I believe it's Not the card... it's Not the Drivers.. it's the system.

I have seen so many people who swear they always had trouble with nvidia cards/drivers and never ATI cards/drivers.. then you will find just as many people claiming the opposite.

I used to love nvidia back years ago when their cards and driver would work better in my system than ATI.. I stayed away from ATI for years.

Now with this system, Nvidia cards and drivers hate it.. gives me huge problems.. but the ATI cards and drivers work just fine.

Depending on you motherboard, processor, power supply and OS you will have problems with either of these products.. it does not mean one is really any better or worse than the other ATI or Nvidia. To claim this is the case is silly IME. - (In My Experience)

I respectfully disagree with the position that it's the system and not the drivers.

Granted, not enough people do their due diligence when it comes to finding out what hardware works best with their other components, and all sorts of problem can ensue; poor choices in hardware typically manifests in graphics errors as that's usually when the biggest demands are placed on the system. For example: Seasonic = great PSU's; Corsair = fairly decent RAM; DFI = great oc board... however, for the longest time DFI was telling people not to use either Corsair or Seasonics with their boards because they just didn't play nice together. Despite the warnings... well, you know... a lot of bitching and moaning.

However, ATI's seem to have more than their fair share of driver issues even when the system is otherwise solid and in perfect working condition; when all parts are working well together and when the user is competent. Take for example ATI's current drivers and their 5x series. Great hardware, but even solid rigs are being taken out because ATI has just always managed to screw up in terms of drivers. I don't think I've read a review yet on the 5x series that didn't bring up this topic in one form or another?

... We are also not impressed with driver issues that keep cropping up in recent games, and what seems like a lack of focus on features and performance in brand new game titles as soon as they hit the shelves. We can’t blame AMD for the lack of DX11 titles right now, we know those are coming, and look forward to playing them with AMD hardware.
When the Radeon HD 5970 works, it works incredibly well and will give you the highest framerates we’ve ever seen in games. However, not every game is bug free; there are some titles where CrossFireX scaling is poor, and lack of features like AA support hinder the 5970’s value. Hopefully AMD can get the software side of things worked out, because AMD does have a nice piece of hardware here that is going to have a home in my computer.

Conclusion - AMD ATI Radeon HD 5970 Video Card Review | [H]ard|OCP


How long before ATI fixes this? It's been what now, almost 3 months? As for nvidia, they just released a buggy driver too; however, Unwinder fixed the issue in less than 24 hours: 196.21 WHQL Breaks AB and Precision... - Page 2 - Guru3D.com Forums You just never see that kind of rapid turnaround with ATI.

The most damning evidence against ATI though is time. If you give ATI enough time, then sooner or later that piece of hardware that didn't play nice with the system will all of a sudden work as it should; when they finally get the drivers right. Come September, the 5 series is going to be badass.

Personally, I think that the quality of driver developments for a very wide range of products has generally declined overall.

As to why, I doubt theres a single simple answer. Maybe more modern OS'es (ie Vista/7) are harder to code for, less talented staff, less actual development staff employed - who knows

The end result is still the same = dissatisfied customers for a lot of products.