OK, I Screwed up by buying a Radeon video card

[DAPUNISHER]

If it's on a nF2 board it may require disabling 8x AGP support and fastwrites and enabling vid ram caching in the bios while being certain fastwrites is off in the CP under the SMARTGART tab. I've had 3D trouble with 3 different ATI cards on a couple nF2 boards even with old games like Rogue Spear and that resolved the problems on all of them.

 

[erikistired]

how is it ati's fault that when going from nvidia to ati you need a 3rd party program to clean all the nvidia stuff off your pc? sounds like nvidia's installer/uninstaller to me.

 

[Jumpem]

I went from a Ti4600 to a 9800 Pro. I ended up reformatting and reinstalling XP but I didn't really care since it had been a couple years and needed it anyway.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: fisher
how is it ati's fault that when going from nvidia to ati you need a 3rd party program to clean all the nvidia stuff off your pc? sounds like nvidia's installer/uninstaller to me.

Ditto...... Took the words out of my mouth..

 

[oldfart]

Originally posted by: thorin

completely agree with stranger707, if they can't get their sh!t together they should expect to have products returned and business lost. There is absolutely no reason that ATi cards and drivers should require 'extrorindary" efforts during an "upgrade".

They dont. Here is how I did my upgrade from a Ti4600 to a 9700P

1) Add/remove programs. Un-install nVidia drivers.
2) Remove nV card
3) install new ATi card
4) Install ATi drivers.
5) Play games.

This is the same method I have used to install MANY different cards from many different vendors. NEVER have I ever had to do an OS install or use any special method of driver removal. This works for ATi-> nVidia, or nVidia-> ATi. I cant fathom why people have so much difficulty installing a video card.

And again, I have a bud who play BF1942 DC every day on his 9700P rig. I play (much) less frequently, Neither of us have any issues with the game.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Shamrock
ya know, it's pathetic when you have to recommend REFORMATTING to get a video card to run. I've NEVER done that. If Driver cleaner doesnt do the trick, something is wrong

Reformatting is a LAST resort and it is recommended when you suspect "your" system is screwed up (anyway) and the time to track down a driver conflict or other "issue" is more-or-less-equal to the time for a reformat/reinstall.

That said - reformatting was much more useful with Win95-ME O/Ses . . . Win2K and XP are much more stable (and repairable).

I would MUCH rather reformat to give the Hardware the 'benefit of the doubt' - that there just MIGHT be something wrong with my system - rather than give up, get p.o.'d and just sell the radeons and then badmouth the product. . . . but then stranger707 ADMITS: <<I have been a staunch Nvidia fan for years>> . . .

I seriously doubt ANY ati product had a chance.

 

[BFG10K]

I have experienced the same problems with Call of Duty on my 9700 Pro

What can I say, I've never had problems with COD on my 9700 Pro.

 

[Tab]

Originally posted by: BFG10K

I have experienced the same problems with Call of Duty on my 9700 Pro

What can I say, I've never had problems with COD on my 9700 Pro.

Same with 9600XT.

 

[mooojojojo]

I don't game much, but my experiences with the 2 card companies are the following:

TV-Out
My buddy couldn't get his MX440 card to display a proper TV-Out picture no matter what he tried. Different drivers, all the versions of TV-Tool he could lay his hands on, nothing helped. The TV-Out was jumpy, noisy, blurry and plain unviewable. My Radeon 9000 Pro on the other hand, has no issues at all at displaying on the same TV set. At first I shut down my computer to hook the TV up, but recently I noticed that I don't need to do that, just hook, click the button in the drivers' Display tab, and watch. Switching the primary (video capable) and secondary display is also a breeze. And it's pretty crisp and vivid too.

Windows Capabilities
On the same friend's PC with the MX440, when I try to drag a window of Media Player, playing a movie, the picture disappears and I drag a black rectangle instead. When I release the mouse button it takes it a good 2-3 seconds to show the movie picture again. Same thing happens when he shuffles the timeline. Not so on my Radeon. I drag movie windows, and you can see the movie still playing even as you drag it. And no blackouts when I release the button, or when I shuffle the timeline.

Game Compatibility
One thing the MX440 does better is run GTA3 and GTA4 (this one to a lesser degree, it's pretty much the same on the Radeon). GTA3 was choppy on my computer, even though I think the 9000 Pro is a more powerful card. All other games are about the same or slightly better.

Now I know his MX440 is a low-end card, but so is the Radeon 9000 Pro. And in my eyes the Radeon is a much better all-round card, meaning that if someone would ask me what card to buy I'll recommend ATi before NVidia.

 

[tastyeel2121]

I personally am a fan of ATI (never tried Nividia but ive got one on its way) and ive never had a problem with any of them. Ive owed a Rage in my laptop and a 9600XT in my uber computer. Both kicked much ass. So its either a bad card (not likely) or user error (ie you)

PS im sure both ATI and Nividia are great but ive never had a reason to switch yet so ATI cant be doing all that bad of a job.

 

[Gerbil333]

Originally posted by: stranger707
So I wonder why the ATI crowd can recommend these video cards. They obviously cannot perform, they obviously cannot meet the minimum specifications that they claim to achieve.

Why would you recommend such a product???????

Did you ever consider that perhaps it's not the product or drivers, but rather the installation? I've had 0 problems since I went from a GF4 Ti 4600 to this 9800 Pro 128mb in December. I've played lots of games: NFSU, GTA3 and Vice City, Tribes 2, Far Cry (demo), and UT2k4 (demo). Even after hundreds of hours of gaming, it still has a perfect record!

However, I formatted my computer when I bought the 9800 Pro. I had expected driver conflicts, so I decided to go ahead and do it right the first time. It worked

I've been using the Cat. 3.10's btw.

 

[Pilsnerpete]

Wow, this thread is long, but informative.

I too think you shouldn't have to use any type of Driver Cleaner--the uninstaller should completely uninstall everything it installed and set everything back the way it was b4 you installed the nVidia card. How hard would that be to code in? But does nVidia WANT you to take out the geforce *whatever* and slap a Radeon in there? So they don't make it easy.

So what are you all using for ATi drivers? I want this tromp in uncharted territory to be as painless as possible.
Just the ones who didn't complain need reply.

 

[PliotronX]

Originally posted by: Pilsnerpete
Wow, this thread is long, but informative.

I too think you shouldn't have to use any type of Driver Cleaner--the uninstaller should completely uninstall everything it installed and set everything back the way it was b4 you installed the nVidia card. How hard would that be to code in? But does nVidia WANT you to take out the geforce *whatever* and slap a Radeon in there? So they don't make it easy.

So what are you all using for ATi drivers? I want this tromp in uncharted territory to be as painless as possible.
Just the ones who didn't complain need reply.

Yeah, it makes sense. Nvidia is very touchy with their drivers, they began encrypting them when the spotlight was on their "optimizations."

That aside, I use the latest drivers for my 9700p, at the moment that's the Cat's 4.3. I also like the Omega drivers, they install with the best settings, no tweaking required and they can install onto notebooks with mobile Radeons.

 

[JBT]

This is not a board to say ATI video cards suck. I persnonally love mine. If I find a bug i just revert back to the last driver. Works fine for me. I have only had to do that once all other drivers work completely fine. Just make sure you always uninstall from add /remove and then run driver cleaner in safe mode.

I had an Nvida card before my 9500 Pro it was a nice card for its time but had plenty of its own driver problems.

 

[Gerbil333]

Originally posted by: apoppin
Reformatting is a LAST resort and it is recommended when you suspect "your" system is screwed up (anyway) and the time to track down a driver conflict or other "issue" is more-or-less-equal to the time for a reformat/reinstall.

That said - reformatting was much more useful with Win95-ME O/Ses . . . Win2K and XP are much more stable (and repairable).

Reformatting and reinstalling XP Pro on my systems takes about 45 minutes, and then a few hours to reinstall my drivers/programs/games/transfer backed up data (it's quick over the network though). To me, that's much easier than hoping I don't have any problems. nVidia, ATI, VIA, and Creative drivers have a tendancy to mess up. I never expect drivers to behave properly when installing different brands of video cards, sound cards, or motherboards (even with identical chipsets). In my opinion, formatting prevents trouble when changing devices from those brands ^^^.

 

[pdn]

Everyone has their problems with video cards even Nvidia and ATI also. I've had my problems with ATI and Nvidia also!
http://nvidia.com/object/IO_20011119_6292.html

 

[sharq]

Me thinks OP stopped reading.

As for the reformatting suggestion, I was one of those who suggested it, it is meant as a _last_ resort. When I used to use Windows as my primary OS I would resintall it every semester, at the beginning of the semester. Why? Simply because windows can become very cluttered, especially the registry, and no matter what uninstall/cleaner software you use, you can't recover that performance you had the first month (or 2) after the fresh install. Plus, how long does it take to reinstall? I remember win98 used to take me 3hrs to the dot to format and reinstall the OS and all software on a P2-266. Win2k used to take 2.5hrs (format, install of OS and apps) on a 1ghz Athlon machine. It doesn't take that long, and the license allows you to do so on the same pc.
As for reinstalling for drivers, I havn't changed video/sound/lan cards in years, but it is something I always say is a last resort. I empasize the words "last resort." If I spent $230 on a video card, I would try everything I knew under the sun, including a reinstall, then come on this site and ask questions, and then if I still had no solution, I would return/exchange the card. The reinstall factor also has to do with the bugs in the OS, and not the hardware of the card.

 

[PCTweaker5]

Originally posted by: Gerbil333

Originally posted by: apoppin
Reformatting is a LAST resort and it is recommended when you suspect "your" system is screwed up (anyway) and the time to track down a driver conflict or other "issue" is more-or-less-equal to the time for a reformat/reinstall.

That said - reformatting was much more useful with Win95-ME O/Ses . . . Win2K and XP are much more stable (and repairable).

Reformatting and reinstalling XP Pro on my systems takes about 45 minutes, and then a few hours to reinstall my drivers/programs/games/transfer backed up data (it's quick over the network though). To me, that's much easier than hoping I don't have any problems. nVidia, ATI, VIA, and Creative drivers have a tendancy to mess up. I never expect drivers to behave properly when installing different brands of video cards, sound cards, or motherboards (even with identical chipsets). In my opinion, formatting prevents trouble when changing devices from those brands ^^^.

I personally like to reinstall windows everytime that I get new hardware like a video card or even RAM just so I know it working at its fullest. I dont mind doing it but even after doing it I had my share of ATI problems even with different driver versions and yes I did uninstall them correctly and not with a driver cleaner which I shouldnt have to use period. When I got my 5950 Ultra I uninstalled the ATI drivers correctly and I still got the same problem with my 5950 Ultra so I formatted and everything went well so ATI does leave crap behind.

 

[dirtrat]

I see these recommendations ALL-THE-TIME and they don't always work! The fact is no matter how much IMPROVED the new ATI drivers are compared to what they used to be, they are nowhere near as good as the Nvidia drivers. Much less problematic and they don't have the compatibility issues. I know this from first hand experience also, I owned a 9800 Pro and 9600 Pro and got tired of all the conflicts with my games. I sold both my ATI cards and bought 2 BFG 5900's. BTW reformating helped a little bit for me but STILL had lots of problems. I thought driver cleaner was worthless! Funny how my Nvida card didn't care about the left over ATI drivers. Anyway stranger707 I feel your pain. I gave ATI a chance and they let me down. Never buying an ATI product again.

Originally posted by: nick1985
driver cleaner = your friend
reformatiing = your friend
bios update = your friend
not being a moron = your friend

BTW, LOL @ buying a 5700Ultra. what a friggin waste of money. a stick of gum and a button more and you had a 5900NU

i personally have used multiple cards from each brand, never a single problem..i dont know whats so hard about properly removing old drivers...

:beer: better luck next time

 

[PCTweaker5]

Im quite surprised that not many ATI fanboys are posting in this thread. Probably because they know their drivers DO suck and they dont want to argue with that. Now if somebody was blaming the hardware then this place would be bombarded with fanboys and "childish" remarks from Rollo, VIAN, and all those other "mature" people. Its nice to read forums like this without having to hear those fanboys whining.

 

[PliotronX]

Originally posted by: PCTweaker5
I am pretty sure this post will start flames but Im quite surprised that not many ATI fanboys are posting in this thread. Probably because they know their drivers DO suck and they dont want to argue with that. Now if somebody was blaming the hardware then this place would be bombarded with fanboys and "childish" remarks from Rollo, VIAN, and all those other "mature" people. Its nice to read forums like this without having to hear those fanboys whining.

If you're sure your content is flamebait, why post it? Isn't that against the forum rules?

 

[PCTweaker5]

There. lol

 

[flexy]

I personally like to reinstall windows everytime that I get new hardware like a video card or even RAM [...]

jezzzusss

Not that there's a need for it...there is NOT. I can see that for a new mobo and cpu, and even THERE i am considering other options....

 

[PCTweaker5]

Its kind of like an addiction for performance but I am trying to cut back and slowly succeeding. I just hate having problems and try to keep the system as stable and fast as possible.

 

[flexy]

Originally posted by: PCTweaker5
Im quite surprised that not many ATI fanboys are posting in this thread. Probably because they know their drivers DO suck and they dont want to argue with that. Now if somebody was blaming the hardware then this place would be bombarded with fanboys and "childish" remarks from Rollo, VIAN, and all those other "mature" people. Its nice to read forums like this without having to hear those fanboys whining.

what's a 'childish' remark ?

Some ATI fanboy saying "it must be your system config, because for others the cards/drivers run fine !"
OR
Nvidia boy saying "ATI cards are garbage and their drivers suck" because they have problems with their PCs crashing.

So - what here is the CHILDISH remark ?

And...btw. on the same level is your comment "ATI fanboys know that their drivers DO suck and dont want to argue"

Left kindergarten early today to go online and post ?