Nvidia vs ATI driver problems

[Guest]

I just wanted to know which brand experiences more driver issues and driver compatibility with games, ie, modern warfare 2, battlefield 2, nfs games, maybe strategy games or whatever- generally speaking.; I am talking about the newer generation of cards ie: gtx560 or ati 6850/6950. I know there used to be more problems with ati, but im not sure about the recent ones. And i need someone who speaks from experience and brains...more experience than brains though.

 

[COLGeek]

To be completely honest, the fanboys/girls of each vendor (ATI/AMD or Nvidia) will tell you how great their favorite is while bashing the other. The bottom line is that they are both comparable in their "goodness" to deliver solid driver support for their products. However, often when a brand new hardware model is introduced there will often be some glitchiness with drivers right at launch that will improve shortly afterward.

My advice, you can't really go wrong with either chipset vendor. If you have a preference for either, go with that preference and your budget and you will be fine.

So, what is your budget? What are you primary uses? What are the basic specs for your targeted rig?

Good luck!

 

[capitaboarder87]

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=192020

There are issues with the current drivers for the 560, and Nvidia has failed to awknowledge the problem even though it is all over their forums. Not saying they don't care, but from what I can tell based on most people's issues, it appears the current 560 drivers cannot support OC'd cards, but they have not cornfirmed/denied that there is an issue.

I had 2 560's in sli and the same issue happened to me. I had the gigabyte 900Mhz core cards, and the first time I run into an enemy and fire in crysis, screen goes black, and sound loops in the background until I hard reboot the computer. Rift also could not withstand any Rift event. BFBC2 would have the same issue within 15 minutes of playing any map. I got sick of it, and couldn't find any answers, so I took them back and got 2x 6950's and flashed them to 6970's, and I couldn't be any happier. But it is all up to you, as COLGeek said, I just thought i'd let you know about the current nvidia driver issue with the card you specified...Although I have posted that a few times on this board, and everyone seems to ignore it....Either I am an extreme minority with having issues (had it on 2 seperate cards, in sli, and each of the 2 cards individually), or no one else has owned a 560 to test the problem.

Edit: This only applies if you are OC'ing the card, or get a factory OC'd card, reference models seem fine.

 

[COLGeek]

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=192020

There are issues with the current drivers for the 560, and Nvidia has failed to awknowledge the problem even though it is all over their forums. Not saying they don't care, but from what I can tell based on most people's issues, it appears the current 560 drivers cannot support OC'd cards, but they have not cornfirmed/denied that there is an issue.

I had 2 560's in sli and the same issue happened to me. I had the gigabyte 900Mhz core cards, and the first time I run into an enemy and fire in crysis, screen goes black, and sound loops in the background until I hard reboot the computer. Rift also could not withstand any Rift event. BFBC2 would have the same issue within 15 minutes of playing any map. I got sick of it, and couldn't find any answers, so I took them back and got 2x 6950's and flashed them to 6970's, and I couldn't be any happier. But it is all up to you, as COLGeek said, I just thought i'd let you know about the current nvidia driver issue with the card you specified...Although I have posted that a few times on this board, and everyone seems to ignore it....Either I am an extreme minority with having issues (had it on 2 seperate cards, in sli, and each of the 2 cards individually), or no one else has owned a 560 to test the problem.

Edit: This only applies if you are OC'ing the card, or get a factory OC'd card, reference models seem fine.

This is a newer GPU series and makes a great example of what I was saying. Another example would be this, when I bought my HD6870, current ATI drivers at the time didn't even support it. I had to use a patched earlier version for a period of time. ANow, all is well. Vendors often rush products out before the software support is fully ready.

In the case of the 560s, it sounds like the basic Nvidia drivers have some issue with tweaked/OCed 560s that has yet to be resolved.

This happens with both ATI/AMD and Nvidia GPUs. One is not better than the other, over time, in this regard. All mud-slinging aside.

HOOAH!!!

 

[capitaboarder87]

Agreed. Both GPUs will have driver issues, and i'm sure over time (hopefully not too much time), the issues are resolved by both companies. Just make sure you do a little research either way you are leaning towards, to make sure no driver issues will have an immediate impact on you, so you know what to expect. I just installed 2 6950s flashed to 6970s last night, and haven't had any immediate drivers thusfar.

 

[jaguarskx]

The only issues I had with drivers in the past two years were:

1. AMD HD 5850 - While playing Mass Effects, there were a few times when there was a "shadow artifact" during the cinematic scenes along the neckline.

2. nVidia 9600GT - If I played two videos at the same time my PC would crash.

 

[17seconds]

Here is a thread discussing the latest AMD 11.2 drivers:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum2.php?config=tomshardwareus.inc&cat=33&post=309630&page=1&p=1&sondage=0&owntopic=1&trash=0&trash_post=0&print=0&numreponse=0&quote_only=0&new=0&nojs=0