Drivers

Highguard

Hey guys..sorry if this is the wrong place but i am going to buy this:

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 - Immortal Gaming - Extreme Gaming Hardware

as I have believe it ot be the best card for my budget atm.

But reading some reviews I have read that the drivers are still a bit iffy from ATI. I have been using Nvidia cards for the past XXXX years so just would ike to know.

Thanks in advance

mkk

While both companies have their occasional kinks with different driver versions I wouldn't hold the overall quality of drivers against either of the two when chosing a card. After I went from an Nvidia to an HD3870 ATI card early this year I've had mostly positive experiences and not experienced more odd things than when using my old 7900GTX card. I have been running Vista x64 most of the time.

Zardon

Yeah I wouldnt let it put you off the card. The Catalyst drivers are pretty good now. I would still say the forceware sets are slightly more "polished" but ive been using a 4870 and 4870 X2 for several weeks intensively and everything works very well.

Rest assured you are getting a very good card, just make sure you do a nice clean transfer with regards to the drivers.

OldBuzzard

First off, WELCOME to DH!

ATI has a history, of getting more performance out of a new card with each driver release. The good thing is that they release a new CERTIFIED driver every month, not just when they feel like it, and rarely will you see a BETA driver ftom ATI.

The 4870's have been out for a few months, so the serious bugs have been squished, and they are performing better now than when they were first released because of that.

If you do have any questions about any ATI card or their drivers, this is one of the best places on the net to get answers. We have some ATI employees that post occasionaly, and at least one of them, CATALYST MAKER, is pretty high up in the food chain at ATI

Don't hesitate to ask any question, even if you think it might be silly or n00bish. Unlike some other sites, you will get a prompt, and civil answer, as long as you are civil to start with.

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Highguard

Thanks guys..you have been a great help.

The card is now ordered so thanks again for your advice and look forward to my new toy

Judas

imo.. since the intial few releases of the catalyst drivers way way way back in (2003?) the driver improvements have become excellent.

Before that date ati had a horrible history of driver related mishmashes... alot of people i know would crinch when installing a ati driver way back when lol.

But overall,

Comparing ATI's Driver to Nvidia Drivers are pretty much weighted identicall... with only a few mishaps between either of them occuring once in awhile... that's just to be expected.

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SeraphicSorcerer

Yeah the drivers are extremely stable, I am just waiting for 8.8 and the performance buff that will come with it. I have never waited so anxiously for drivers before. haha.

Zardon any idea on performance?

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CATALYST maker

I may be biased but I respectfully disagree with anyone that claims our drivers are not the most stable out there for Vista.

Here is my proof from documents released by Microsoft

Vista-capable lawsuit paints picture of buggy NVIDIA drivers

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brutusmaximus

Did anyone in here say they were unstable? I think everyone in here complimented the drivers?

I gotta say they must be better now than the last time I used them because I had nothing but troubles. This was the last straw for me personally http://www.hardwareheaven.com/vista-ra...ing-error.html

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Judas

the 7.3 driver problem was indeed a widespread issue... which seemed to be a combination of things occuring....

problem was easily resolved by backtracking to an earlier version

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SeraphicSorcerer

Indeed the drivers themselves are quite stable in either Vista (64 bit, 32 bit) my only complaint is waiting so long for the performance enhancements when you jusr get the latest gen video card, such as the 4870 which has had the initial release, and 8.7, I'm hoping 8.8 makes crysis beg for mercy. . Oh and implements better fan controls, and moves the overclock higher for the core, since mine is running stable.

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