Recent ATI Owners. Good Experience or Bad?

[BF_TEXMASTER]

I've been a loyal fan of Nvidia for a long time.

But I've been entertaining turning my geforce 4600 in for a Radeon 9700.

What has been the experience of ATI owners?

Has the drivers issue improved?

Thanks.

[OC Noob]

The 9700 pro is my first ATI card.

I downloaded the Catylist 2.3 drivers first and have had no problems...that weren't my fault:p

Sometimes when I first load games they run like s$#t, but after updating the game everything goes well. Better then well actually.

[cwb27]

I've owned 2 All In Wonders (128 PRO PCI and 8500DV) In my opinion the driver issues have improved a little... I don't run into as many problems as I used to... Random freezes during installation of drivers, poor performance, drivers messing other things up, atc... All in All, I'm pretty happy with my cards.

[cursor]

I have an ATI Radeon 8500. I wish I had paid the extra $ and gotten a GF4 4200. Drivers for 8500 are still lousy.

[CaptBill]

Have to older one in my older computer, but it has been trouble free and great.

[funnyperson1]

my Ati has been just as or even less temperamental than my Geforce2 Pro....never had problems installing drivers...just lagging issues in GTA3 which didnt occur as badly on my old computer

[nunez1980]

I change fron r8500 to r9700 and couldn't be happier, the drivers are great, and the performance with all eye candy on is just awesome:D , If you want the best then r9700, if you are a nvidia fan then go with them, cause if you do go with an r9700 an anything happens, hard drive, mobo, ect, you will definely blame it to the r9700,

drivers: excellent
performance: best

Most of the time, users are the problem:p

[PhobMX]

i also was a loyal nvidiot until i fried m gf3 (still dunno why :confused: ) so on the tigt budget i got this r8500LE 64mb and oced to the speeds on my sig, man i believe i can hit 10k 3d marks with this setup if i get a better memory tooc the cpu a little more. The drivers are well right now, catalyst 2.2 where a bit slow, but 2.3 ones suck up the best of r8500/9700, so i think things are even in the vid card market right now, just get whatever you can afford, either ati or nvidia. BTW, i love my r8500, its graphic quality is better than a geforce4, not that fast though but its worth it ;)

[Deathknight]

So far so good. Had a few bumps in the road with my 9700 (such as lockups in battlefield 1942) but those have been addressed by a patch to the driver.

[Maxvla]

why would you go from ti4600 to 9700? :confused:

one top of the line to the other. not like there's that much difference. ti4600 will play anything you throw at it.

the nv30 is just around the corner since you have a top card i'd wait and see what pans out. its not like you are being kept from playing games.

[hellrazrblade]

ive had really good luck with 8500's
i have used two myself and my friend has one.
but yeah, theres no reason to get a 9700 if you have a 4600

[PreservedSwine]

Just got an R8500- Best card I've ever owned.

Frequent driver updates, both official and beta's.

Every game I'ver ever tried has run flawlessly, all driver updates go w/out a hitch.

The anisotropic quality and performance is unparrelled. And the performance of FSAA is excellenet, and the performance quite nice at lower FSAA levels on my 1.4 T-bird.

[TranceBear]

I am a convert to ATI when I found out they are the best bang for the buck. They were the 1st to hit over 10,000 in 3D mark.

[Malakai]

Originally posted by nunez1980
I change fron r8500 to r9700 and couldn't be happier, the drivers are great, and the performance with all eye candy on is just awesome:D , If you want the best then r9700, if you are a nvidia fan then go with them, cause if you do go with an r9700 an anything happens, hard drive, mobo, ect, you will definely blame it to the r9700,

drivers: excellent
performance: best

Most of the time, users are the problem:p


fanboy?

i had an 8500 back when they were new, and it sucked. the drivers were horrid. and dont even think about tellong me it was user error.

the 9700 looks nice, and if the 9500pro is as good as Kyle at [H]OCP says its gonna be, than it will be a definate contender for myu next card. but since i can get a Ti4400 for the same price and have garunteed stable drivers, probably not.

Nvidia has earned my trust, while ATi sold a card with blatantly broken drivers. they will have to work to get any of my money, like some serious proce/performance + solid drivers

[Malakai]

Originally posted by TranceBear
I am a convert to ATI when I found out they are the best bang for the buck. They were the 1st to hit over 10,000 in 3D mark.


but they were usually slower than the Ti500 in almost every other benchy. and for almost a year major selling point features didnt work.

the r8500 ordeal really ****ed me off. I LOVED my original Radeon 32mb DDR, the 8500 was a serious shock to me thats gonna be hard to get over.

[Cisco Kid]

love my 8500LE , it is my 4th ATI card, I have not had any issues that I did not create myself. PLan to go with a 9500 Pro next time, to me their cards are the best bang for the $$ imho

cisco kid

[Cowboy X]

I have been blessed with my first ATI ........ the 9700 Pro . Since getting it last month I can happily say I've had only 2 lockups .

One in warcraft 3 when i was running F@H at the same time and the other when I decided to try NFS HS2 demo with the driver set said not to work . Of course i got a black screen which was remedied when I put in the new stuff .

I am a very happy camper .

[Stumpjumper5200]

This is my first ATI card too (9700 Pro)

Before this, I had a Gf3Ti500 which was pretty nice. I was wary of ATI though, since I had heard how bad they were with drivers. Thankfully, they must have turned over a new leaf, going the nVidia way with the Catalyst drivers (kinda like Detonator)......drivers for everything in just one download.

BTW: the 9700 is kinda expensive, but if you're really into gaming there's nothing that can come close (until nVidia finally decides to put out the nv30, then we'll see)

should be an interesting match

[KiKaL]

I have the 9700 Pro and The Radeon 32mb. I love them both. I currently have both of them running and my geforce 4 mx out collecting dust. Of course those 2 card are in separate comps.

[Rav]

I just got a 9700 Pro. Let me tell you its a good feeling to pop in a new card and triple your 3dmarks. I'm running resolutions I've never previously dreamt of. AA and AF are standard in my games now. I haven't had a single problem except for the NFS2 demo. I previously had a original Radeon 64MB, which ran great without problems since I received it from preorder.

-Rav

[lutjens]

I recently bought my 9700 Pro after using NVidia exclusively since the original Geforce.

I'm very impressed with the power of the card, and the drivers seem fine.

My only complaint was driver install. It's way too cumbersome. They have an install program for every little component. I'd much rather they go the NVidia route and have everything you need in one exe file...

[Ghost68]

its funny to see this as i was talking about ati's drivers earleir today... for old cards (rage fury pro) ati's drivers are and always will be crap (considering that the card is currently unsupported)
at first the radeon 8500 series cards had crap driver support... but recently they have got their act together (about march of this year) they are actively updating their drivers for the 8500 and 9x00 series cards and imho they kick @ss

[Oni]

ATI has really gotten their act together about driver support. It's been excellent lately. When the first Radeon line came along, it sucked, but since then, they've really been getting better.

[cV]

On one had you can't just be the "nvidiot" and say that everything ATi including the drivers are crap, but at that same time you can never say ATi didn't have frequent major issues with their drivers. In fact, they are still not as easy to set up and tweak as the nVidia drivers, IMO, and still have lots of quirks. Still, however, their cards are fantastic.

I used to be a blind nvidia follower until my PNY Ti 4200 fried itself (rounded cap and burnt voltage regulator), and a 9700 Pro for rock-bottom price was right next to me (guy didn't like it because it had a "crappy v1 PCB." I don't care, it performs well, even though it is not a good clocker.

[Maxvla]

way to raise a thread from the dead :rolleyes:

[Evnas]

Originally posted by cV
On one had you can't just be the "nvidiot" and say that everything ATi including the drivers are crap, but at that same time you can never say ATi didn't have frequent major issues with their drivers. In fact, they are still not as easy to set up and tweak as the nVidia drivers, IMO, and still have lots of quirks. Still, however, their cards are fantastic.

I used to be a blind nvidia follower until my PNY Ti 4200 fried itself (rounded cap and burnt voltage regulator), and a 9700 Pro for rock-bottom price was right next to me (guy didn't like it because it had a "crappy v1 PCB." I don't care, it performs well, even though it is not a good clocker.

How can the ATi drivers not be as easy to setup? All driver installations should go as the following...


1)Uninstall old drivers
2)Reboot
3)Install new drivers
4)Reboot
5)Enjoy

I did that with nVidia, and i do it with ATi

[Hurk]

Originally posted by Evnas


How can the ATi drivers not be as easy to setup? All driver installations should go as the following...


1)Uninstall old drivers
2)Reboot
3)Install new drivers
4)Reboot
5)Enjoy

I did that with nVidia, and i do it with ATi

heh.. With my ATI 8500 it was...

1) Format
2) Install drivers
3) Reboot
4) Reboot
5) Format
6) Install the latest drivers
7) Reboot
8) Enjoy

=)

[Jawsome]

My friend just got a 9700 Pro AIW, and the evening he put it in it fried. RMA'd it, got it back a couple weeks later, installed it, and the only catalyst drivers that work are the 2.4s, any newer drivers will crash his system for some odd reason when he tries playing games. But oddly enough the 2.4s run solid for gaming. He has the latest bios update for his albatron kt400. It runs fine but he wishes he could get the new cats to work. Other than that the thing is sweet.

[JCLW]

I've always had an ATI card in at least one of my systems since my EGA Wonder (~1987).

I've had:
#1) Trouble with VGA Wonder XL drivers when WinFW 3.11 was released (~1994)
#2) Trouble with Rage Fury drivers when Win2000 was first released - lack of support (~2000)
#3) Trouble with Rage drivers on a KT133 chipset - stability (~2001)
#4) Trouble with Catalyst (?2.2?) drivers - AutoCAD cursor corruption (~2002)

- JW

[Oni]

http://24.150.153.125/SA/threadnecro.jpg

I just recently picked up a BBA 9700 Pro, and I couldn't be happier. Some of the best money I've ever spent on a video card :)

[spclwpns]

"Some of the best money I've ever spent on a video card"

Says it all right there. For the first time I felt I bought something that worked !!!! Instead of paying an Engineers rent for a month (or 6) while he upgrades (?) to the next model (nv) LOL !!!
Hang around this industry for awhile, you'll see what I mean ;)

[akajimmy]

I love my 9700pro and I am thinking of getting a 9500pro for my second rig.:D

[petery83]

currently use a Radeon All-in-Wonder, had some problems with the drivers that came on the installation CD, but got the Catalyst drivers and that solved the random reboots, random freezes, and messed up displays

[USAPGAPRO]

Im a loyal ATI owner. My 9500 Pro is my 3rd ATI card. I will never buy anything but.

[Shade00]

I switched to my R9500 not too long ago. Absolutely fabulous. Great quality construction and even better performance.

I also managed to snag an 8500LE out of Newegg's refurb bin for $49 the other day. Even if its memory is at 200, it's still going to be a great secondary card.

[Lazlo Panaflex]

Just got my Hercules 9700 Pro a couple of weeks ago, Upgraded from a ti4200, i could not be happier.

[freshy98]

I'm very happy with my R9700 Pro. Put some extra cooling on it so it runs fairly faster than spec :)
It's so much faster then my old GF2 GTS :D

[lchen66666]

I have ATI 9000 Pro for 6 months. ATI has improved their driver quite a lot. So far havn't encounted any problems.

[Michfan]

Minus a huge crash i had on Planetside (Its a beta anyways) its run flawlessly in my system. I couldnt have asked for anything better.

[lchen66666]

I have ATI 9000 Pro for around 6 months now. So far I haven't encounted
any problem. Recently I just upgrade OS to windows XP, and installed
all software and drivers again. I feel driver version 3.2 is much better than 2.5.

[Kekkai]

I just received a Sapphire Radeon 8500LE (64mb) for $53. The primary reason I chose ATi was because of the Hydravision capability. The other reason was that the ATi's driver were supposed to be a lot better lately.

Although I have not fully tested it out, I am somewhat dissapointed because it is the second Radeon 8500 I bought that will display TV-out in only black and white. I used to watch movies and anime all the time on my Geforce2 Pro and it outputted it in color just fine.

:mad:

[Enigma422]

Since the days of the nVidia 128ZX I've owned an nVidia card (TNT, TNT2 Ultra, GF, GF2, etc.) and from my first impressions of the ATi 9800 Pro (my first ATi card) I am very happy with it. Cat 3.2 drivers appear to be stable. In fact, dare I say, more stable than nVidia drivers. I noticed that with nVidia drivers when you OC too high the system would crash on you. From my overclocking experience with my 9800 Pro, I would see artifacts first which would give me time to abort the benchmark and downclock what needs to be downclocked. I never was able to do this when OCing my nVidia cards. I would just get a BSOD with the nv dll error and a reboot. No warning that I was going to high, but maybe its just me.

Anyway, this year is ATi's year, but who knows what next year will bring.

[Xevuhtess7]

my opinion is that sticking purely to one side of the battle is not smart. just go and buy whatever card is the best value or performance(whatever suits your wallet) at the time. thats what i did, ive had nvidia cards just cause thats all dell ever gave me. they worked beautifully, no hitches whatsoever. then i built my own computer for the first time, and went with a 9700 pro. this thing is killer, and i am defaintely happy about my buy, but however a few yeras down the road, it may be a totally different story again. just choose for the moment, cause thast all that matters.

[Enigma422]

Originally posted by Xevuhtess7
my opinion is that sticking purely to one side of the battle is not smart. just go and buy whatever card is the best value or performance(whatever suits your wallet) at the time. thats what i did, ive had nvidia cards just cause thats all dell ever gave me. they worked beautifully, no hitches whatsoever. then i built my own computer for the first time, and went with a 9700 pro. this thing is killer, and i am defaintely happy about my buy, but however a few yeras down the road, it may be a totally different story again. just choose for the moment, cause thast all that matters.

Well said Xevuhtess, totally agree with you. If I were a hard headed nVidia fan (use to be one, but have sinced reformed) I would have probably bought a 5800 Ultra and missed out on the 9800 Pro.

[Jojo1971]

The only ATI card I had alot of problem with was my 8500, I guess it was more of a driver issue back then. But when I upgraded to 9700 and 9800, things just got better.

[DaddyB]

Maybe somebody should make a sticky that says something like "NO THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH ATI CARDS OR DRIVERS"... This question seems to come up a lot and aside from the odd person or two (and yes the same could be said for nvidia) everyone basically says "my ATi card works great".

No offence intended, it's not a bad idea to ask questions about a product you have never owned or know little about but this question does seem to pop up a lot and always gets the same answer.

[PhobMX]

daddyb, its been suggested lots of times even by me, it would save lots of posts and bandwidth... and maybe some zealotry LOL

[texuspete00]

It's nice only wondering how much AA or Aniso to use. In game settings are just highest resolution your monitor syupports up to 1600 * 1200, everything on max.... period. Even Aniso is pretty quick. It takes some AA and high quality settings to bog it down.

edit: Whoa... oops... didnt know this thread was the walking dead... Sorry to contribute

[Agent Z]

i have had loads of problems with my AIW 7500 and i just got a geforce 4 mx 440 and i love it.... i am never going back to an ati card....

[PhobMX]

Originally posted by Agent Z
i have had loads of problems with my AIW 7500 and i just got a geforce 4 mx 440 and i love it.... i am never going back to an ati card....

your experience is valid, but what sux is that you are not open to give ati a second chance now that most of ppl in these forums are jumping ship... i did myself. Ill say it again... Catalyst are as good as Detonators if not better. This is no fanboyism, i just want you peeps to get the best out there right now, and ati has most of the priceranges owned in an objective point of view

[SpoonMaN]

*hugs his 9700*
i switched when my gainward GF4 ti4200 card died but hey im always open to a better card once my 9700 cant play nothin at 800x600 (my guess would be around 2 years)

[Mr.Guvernment]

i haeva ti4600 and a 9700PRo - it is worth it!

[OC Noob]

GREAT

[Diggrr]

SUCKS

I have an 8500LE on an Abit AT7 mobo.
There's some driver conflicts going on between those two seriously. When I install the VIA 4 in 1's (including the AGP driver) the system's display is unusable with 1/2" black stripes in overlay across the screen. The conflict is so bad that there's no monitor listed in device manager because windoze can't detect it.

Problem isn't so much with win2k pro, but XP automatically installs the VIA drivers for me (changing the plug-n-pray to just pray), with no option to remove them. So no XP on this system either. My last was an ATI card (and a Matrox too) and an Abit mobo, and that wouldn't work either.

Oh how I wish they'd stop pointing at each other, and actually fix the issue. I'm done buying from both companies, as I've thrown FAR too much of my cash at these two jokers.
On another board, they may be great!

[Rereg]

I had switched from a ti4200 128mb to a 9500pro and wasn't impressed plus I had upgraded to the newest ATI drivers after installation. On bench tests the ATI was higher but my system seemed to run more consistantly with the GF4. Maybe it was because of the older BD7II mbd or the overclocked P4. My experiences with an 8500 and GF3 were similar with my system runing more favorably with the GF3 than the 8500. I'm still open-minded though and will try another ATI product at another date.

[PhobMX]

maybe you didnt try massive AA and AF where nvidias show their weakness and ati its strength

[Xevuhtess7]

i think most ati owners have their problems below the 9x00 series. in my opinion the 9x00 series is awesome

[OC Noob]

Guess I should add this too since everyone is adding their NVidia experience.


I've installed 5 Gf4's on different systems and had problems 3 out of the 5 times so I'd say Dets are pretty flawed. Quantity over quality seems to be the detonator credo in my experience.

[12si]

Well, if the previous card you used was a gf2mx400, any card that flattens it will be good enough.

[Mr.Guvernment]

i have owned previous ATI cards from the AIW rage 128 chip and up - and i can honestly say i have YET to have an issue that was ATI's fualt - this is why i do not like seeing people say ATI sucks cause it did not work with their system - when it can be a number of things, not the card directly.

[cV]

First ATi graphics I used was an integrated Rage Pro LT. That seriously bit the big o ne.

Then I was nearly given a 9700 Pro. Better than the ti4200, actually fluid with AA/AF in almost everything! Still driver probs tho.

I've also recently worked with a 7500 AIW. IT's not the speed demon the 9700 is, and not even as fast as the GTS I worked with, IMHO, but is still quite a fine card.

This all illustrates how far ATi has come since the rage days. A long way.

And about the image quality thing... the difference between ATi and nvidia to me is nonexistent...

[bafbrian]

Even though you probably have reason enough, I will still post, I would say that when I got my first ATI card, R8500, it was the best investment that I made.

I got everything and then some out of this card before I killed it.

[Agent Z]

Originally posted by PhobMX


your experience is valid, but what sux is that you are not open to give ati a second chance now that most of ppl in these forums are jumping ship... i did myself. Ill say it again... Catalyst are as good as Detonators if not better. This is no fanboyism, i just want you peeps to get the best out there right now, and ati has most of the priceranges owned in an objective point of view

Ok i will give ATI another chance what is a good card to get...i want to play all the games at the highest settings but i don't want to spend more than 200...

[LawyerLynn]

I've been using ATI All-in-Wonder cards since their first incarnation with a whopping 4 MB of video ram and Windows 3.11 for workgroups on a 486 DX2 66. My home 'puter is running an AIW 8500 with 128 MB RAM, my Office computer has a AIW 128 pro PCI and another office computer has an AIW Radeon (1st incarnation). I've had no noticeable problems with any of the cards and have captured several hours of video using them and find they work well. My current 8500 with the digital output running to my digital LCD monitor is great.

[PhobMX]

Originally posted by Agent Z


Ok i will give ATI another chance what is a good card to get...i want to play all the games at the highest settings but i don't want to spend more than 200...

radeon 9500 PRO around $160 (Much better than gf4 4600)

dont try modding the non pro, its success rate is very low and they are rare already

[Agent Z]

Originally posted by PhobMX


radeon 9500 PRO around $160 (Much better than gf4 4600)

dont try modding the non pro, its success rate is very low and they are rare already

ok so how is the 9500 to the 9700? Worth the Money to go to the 9700?

[Agent Z]

i went to the ATI website to look at the cards....
what about the 9600pro any real dif between the 9500pro and the 9600pro?
...

[mcortz_2000]

I am as happy as a camper. Games run great. I went from a Ti4600 to 9700np. Their drivers overall have improved a lot.
2 thumbs up from me....:)

[OC Noob]

The 9500 pro is better then the 9600 pro unless you get a killer overclock on it because the 9500 pro has 4 more dedicated pipelines, but the 9600 pro is clocked higher and with a great overclock it can make up for having less pipes in most situations.

The 9700 would be as good a card as the 9500 pro in its respective price range. So I would buy which ever you can afford.

[Agent Z]

ok great..thanks!

[PhobMX]

ditto... they can be ordered in terms of bang for the buck like this:
r9600<r9500pro<r9700np...

since you are upgrading from a dated card, i would suggest you to go straight to the r9700np, its worth the price since the fic at newegg can reach r9800 speeds with relatively no effort and onl 230

[Cereal Killa]

First PC, first graphics card: Radeon 7500 LE :p
of course, in this day and age you can't get the performance you want from this crap card but I never had any troubles with drivers or all that crap.
Good card. (not very performance giving when playing UT2003 and that stuff:cool: )