AMD/ATI drivers VS nvidia drivers?

[Deleted]

I never had problems with AMD drivers. My brother has an Nvidia card, and he's constantly facing some issues, such as flash player errors, driver has stopped working and some other weird things.

I feel that this might be issues caused by something else, rather than the graphics card driver.

[n0cturnal]

I believe for AMD the "best" manufacturer is typically Sapphire (this is what I have heard, apparently they are like the EVGA of AMD cards) whereas for NVidia it is EVGA.

Asus and Gigabyte are close seconds.

I don't get this EVGA deal. It might be that EVGA has a really weak presence in the Nordic market but all I see from them is reference cards with bad cooling. From what I've seen Asus is the big dog around here.

[BicycleMafioso]

I don't get this EVGA deal. It might be that EVGA has a really weak presence in the Nordic market but all I see from them is reference cards with bad cooling. From what I've seen Asus is the big dog around here.

ASUS does have a strong presence in the Nordic region.
However, eVGA, at least in the Northern American scene offers full lifetime warranty, no questions asked (iirc) and their famous step-up policy; If a stronger/newer card have been released within X aimed at the same marketshare, you can replace it. I forget if you pay a token fee or not.

I'd really compare XFX with eVGA, personally - albeit preferring the former, as they do also make decent aftermarket cooling solutions.

[glo]

I feel that this might be issues caused by something else, rather than the graphics card driver.

If it's flash related, it's more than likely PSOD or driver crashes with the 460/560 (and their various versions).

Latest drivers seem to have widely solved the issue though.

[Sheor]

I've owned a few on both sides, each have had small issues but nothing ever serious. Just seems to people with bad experiences raging,"AMD SUCKS" or "NVIDIA SUCKS".
When something does arise with say a driver its usually fixed fairly quick with the next set of drivers.

[Rennadrel]

Never had a problem with AMD drivers and I have been using AMD/ATI since the ATI Radeon 9200 days. My 5770 was great for drivers, never had an issue and my 6870 has yet to run into problems with drivers either. People who say AMD has bad drivers are just Nvidia fanboys or they had one bad experience which was more then likely caused by more then just the drivers and it made them hate AMD forever. Suffice to say I have never owned an Nvidia card and my reason being that they are out of my budget when I build systems. I like AMD because they offer quality performance at a great price, and even if they forever remain inferior to Nvidia, the price is as much the driving point of sales as the performance is.

---------- Post added 2012-07-04 at 07:18 PM ----------

I don't get this EVGA deal. It might be that EVGA has a really weak presence in the Nordic market but all I see from them is reference cards with bad cooling. From what I've seen Asus is the big dog around here.

It's all a preference, but when it comes to quality cooling with AMD cards, you pretty much can't go wrong with Asus, Gigabyte, Sapphire and XFX, though most users tend to avoid brands like Powercolor and HIS because their coolers are sub par.

[Dizey]

I think MSI is a solid choice as well.

I'm inclined to agree with you Noct on EVGA. Most of EVGA's cards seem to be reference cooling on a reference PCB, although most companies do use the reference PCB. It really feels like they've dropped the ball over the past year or so. The warranty is nice, but most good companies offer a warranty that is more than sufficient for how long you'll probably use their cards for before upgrading. Hell, XFX has a double lifetime warranty so you can resell and transfer it to a 2nd owner.

Oh, I believe there is a Flash issue that is resolved by disabling hardware acceleration. Not sure if that is what was being referred to, but thought i'd mention it.

[glo]

I'll chime in with my experience as well.

Cards I've owned:

GeForce 3
GeForce 6800
2x GeForce GTX 8800 ultra (woo, I had no expenses then!)
GTX 460

Radeon 4850
Radeon 5670
Radeon 6790
Radeon 6770


The -only- issues I've ever had with drivers were with the 460 and PSODs. The -only- issues I've had with faulty cards were with the 6790 (it was just poorly designed by the card maker).

[Milkshake86]

I believe for AMD the "best" manufacturer is typically Sapphire (this is what I have heard, apparently they are like the EVGA of AMD cards) whereas for NVidia it is EVGA.

Asus and Gigabyte are close seconds.

Sapphire is likely the best "AMD" only choice, MSI and ASUS coolers are usually a bit better, however sapphire trixx is pretty amazing.

[glo]

XFX is arguably on the same level as Sapphire. They're AMD exclusive for the most part, aside from them making GT 520s, 210s, 430, and the like for whatever odd reason.

Their double down (DD?) are one of the best cooling solutions available right now for AMD outside of MSI Twin Frozrs.

[Cilraaz]

XFX is arguably on the same level as Sapphire. They're AMD exclusive for the most part, aside from them making GT 520s, 210s, 430, and the like for whatever odd reason.

Their double down (DD?) are one of the best cooling solutions available right now for AMD outside of MSI Twin Frozrs.

Triple down with the lifetime warranty! Although they did start limiting which models can get the lifetime warranty. It's down to only the Double Dissipation series and model numbers ending with 'R' for the 7000 series. All cards below the 7000 series are able to get a lifetime warranty, though.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Triple down with the lifetime warranty! Although they did start limiting which models can get the lifetime warranty. It's down to only the Double Dissipation series and model numbers ending with 'R' for the 7000 series. All cards below the 7000 series are able to get a lifetime warranty, though.

Usually only in the USA and Canada though, same as EVGA. European customers only ever get the standard 24-36 month warranties.

[Gilgemesh]

As a whole, Nvidia has provided better drivers and faster fixes and updates than AMD/ATI. This does not fit as of late. AMD seems to have picked up on their driver quality considerably lately. The same cannot be said for offering processor support for windows. The Bulldozer architecture should have been a bigger improvement than it was, but the software simply does not support the design. I've heard that could be fixed soon, but you only get one first impression.

[Cilraaz]

Usually only in the USA and Canada though, same as EVGA. European customers only ever get the standard 24-36 month warranties.

Well... umm... only the US matters?

(Note: I sometimes forget during a post about my international brethren. The above comment was intended as humor. I don't actually believe that only the US matters.)

As a whole, Nvidia has provided better drivers and faster fixes and updates than AMD/ATI. This does not fit as of late. AMD seems to have picked up on their driver quality considerably lately.

Frankly, ATi's drivers were pretty bad a lot of the time. Once they were picked up by AMD, they got much better. Right now, I'd say it's a coin toss on whether AMD or Nvidia will have the next faulty driver.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Yeah, well, if XFX had the life-time warranty in Europe, or even just in Germany, they would have got 350 euros from me when I bought my 7950. As it is, however, they did not, so my money went to Gigabyte instead.