In retrospect...

ATi's history of poor driver support, doesn't seem nearly as bad as the alternative.

I used to use an nvidia card then I uninstalled it and bought an ati card but nvidia drivers never get uninstalled %100 so that caused major problems with my ati card like constant crashing, restarts etc.

Ouch!!. Glad i dont buy video cards until they become cheap enough and are -guaranteed- to work on my OS. By which time this kind of problem is well known.

I've never had a problem with an nvidia chipset but loads with ati's. Never had a high end ati card though. Always integrated. My newest card is 2.5 years old now heh.

Ati have been bad at least since I got the very first play@home and they only released drivers compatible with GLquake about two years after the game came out.

So, ATI drivers are bad, Nvidia drivers are bad...

These are both gaming cards. If you want stability, buy Matrox.


I realise this is faceatious, everyone here is a developer and thus need to use mainstream hardware for testing. My point is; we all know that Nvidia and ATI could do with starting from scratch with their drivers, with the mantra "keep it simple".

It's not going to happen. We live with it, we accept it, we expect it.

You didn't read the story, did you?

I always liked matrox but after the G400 they never went anywhere, didn't even try to compete. Shame because the old matrox millenium 64 was amazing in its day, drivers for 3dsmax as good as some of the $1000 pro cards of the time, and able to play GL quake.

I got a G200 and then a G400 both very good cards in their day. They gave up competing after that and so I moved onto the Geforce 2 and never really looked back.

I have to say that I have found nVidia more stable than ATI.

My GPU is an ATI RADEON 1800XT.
Although it is fast it is not stable as my old good nVidia...

Funnily enough I've never had any problems with any GFX card I bought whether ATI or NVIdia.

I had a 3dfx Voodoo3 that for EVERY single game I had to load a different driver

Never had a driver issue with GeForce cards or ATI cards, my HD2600 is perfect :)

I've had loads of nVidia and ATI cards and have found both to be fairly equal as far as driver support goes. I will usually buy whichever card yields the most bang for the buck.

LOL... Erm, why is everyone talking about drivers?? :/

Because they didn't actually read the article and think their nVidia problems are caused by flaky drivers, as opposed to nVidia simply shipping defective chips, and not telling anyone about it.

I would've read the article if that page didn't take a million years to load.

So exactly which models are affected? Im thinking of buying a new(-ish) one soon and would rather use nvidia than ati. It mentions the whole 8?00 series but what about the 9?00, 6?00 and 7?00 (which im hoping to buy off my mate who has gone for a new 9800)

<snip>
Well, the G92 chip is used in the 8800GT, 8800GTS, 8800GS, several mobile flavours of 8800, most of the 9800 suffixes, and a few 9600 variants just to confuse buyers. The G94 is basically only the 9600GT. Basically we are told all G92 and G94 variants are susceptible to the same problem - basically they are all defective. Any guesses as to how much this is going to cost?

From the look of it, all G8x variants other than the G80, and all G9x variants are defective, but we have only been able to get people to comment directly on the G84, G86, G92 and G94, and all variants thereof. Since Nvidia is not acknowledging the obvious G84 and G86 problems, don't look for much word on this new set either - if they can bury it, it will drop their costs.
</snip>

Yes i read that ;P

I was asking which 9?00s as my mate has one and might want to flog it before this becomes -too- public.
ie, NOW on ebay! :D

I guess i am alright buying his old 7800 for cheap :/ ...although if i tell him he may want to keep it! :O (DILEMMA !!).

They are listed in the above <snip>.

edit: ok. misread it :P It seems to contradict itself, one minute it uses "most of 98" and "a few of 96" and then says "all of 9x".

I hope NV survive this or we will left with ATI (sigh) and Intel (BLEUGGGHHH!)

It says "all G92 and G94 variants are susceptible" and "all G8x variants other than the G80, and all G9x variants are defective". That doesn't leave much room for speculation.

I guess is you had money to waste you could buy every card in the listed series for each chip and get specifics for yourself, but it would probably be best to avoid the series they suggest are problematic. Since they name the chips, you do know which series of cards to avoid.

I know quite a few people with 8800GT's since they came out, and no probs so far.

>I know quite a few people with 8800GT's since they came out, and no probs so
>far.

Are they running their PC's 24/7, or are they shutting them down regularly?

I was asking about graphics cards a week back and I am glad I didn't buy one, as the one I was looking at is on the list :/

I bought an ATI card because I do high end 3d work. I had a lot of problems with G-Force and 3d rendering apps.