They are still crappy compared to Nvidia. Look at the readme's of many recent games. ATI (and other non-nvidia) Cards have issues with flickering, corruption, etc. NVIDIA - worst case the readme says download latest drivers and problems are fixed. (SEE readme's for: NOLF2, BOND, NFSHP2). I'm sure we can come up with other examples.
Maybe NVIDIA has it in with the game companies, but, if that's a problem for you then you must have ATI (or S3 or whatever).
I hope ATI does continue with good driver support. When I Stop reading readme.txt's w/ issues with ATI Cards and not NVIDIA I'll consider purchasing one and may even recommend them to others. Until then, let the buyer beware, you may be waiting for a driver update to play that game you bought and you may be waiting a long time.
No One Lives forever 2:
ATI RADEON SERIES:
Mouse cursor flickers on screen during game after changing in-game
resolution. Make sure that the latest Radeon Catalyst drivers are installed.
Also going back into the menus and then back into the game will also correct
this issue.
Detail textures currently appear washed out and dull on all Radeon cards. A
future update from ATI should correct this. In the meantime, it is
recommended that you turn Detail Textures OFF in the Display options menu
under Performance.
ATI RADEON 7200:
Textures on very thin polys (such as power lines) may appear to be broken
into small pieces.
ATI RADEON 8500:
When the hardware cursor option is enabled, the mouse cursor
may appear black and white or appear corrupted. Also, the position of the
cursor may be slightly off after changing performance options. Try disabling
the hardware cursor from the "Options" Launcher to correct this issue.
Some detail brushes such as intelligence items may disappear when
viewed from a distance.
Lockups may occur in some cut scenes and during certain gameplay situations.
We are working with ATI to resolve this issue, the fix for which will
likely be updated drivers.
For NVIDIA:
NVIDIA GEFORCE CHIPSETS:
Running the game with outdated drivers may result in crashes during gameplay.
It is highly recommended that you first update to the latest detonator
drivers available before playing. Refer to Section V. for more information
on the latest drivers available.
Running the latest drivers, and no problems for me.