Why I think ATI sucks

[RedShirt]

Well, I changed the title to "Why I think ATI sucks"

bdog231, as a college student that doesn't have a ton of money, I bought this card to watch TV on my computer, instead of going out and buying a much more expensive TV.

Anyways, I guess you'll just never think the way I do. You will always accept half-way working parts, and I won't. And for some reason, you think it takes balls to accept stuff that doesn't work. I think just the opposite, if you just put up with it, you have no balls. It takes balls to stand up and express your opinion on something you think it is wrong. It takes no balls just to sit around and put up with stuff.

 

[kingbob]

I've honestly never had a problem with ATi. Back in March I purchased a Radeon 8500 @ BB for $180 with a $40 dollar rebate, and yes, it did take 2 and half months, but the price preformance ratio is great. And their new Catalyst line of drivers KICK ASS, I will always buy from ATi. I don't really have anything against nvidia, it's just that I don't like to pay extra for something that isn't that much faster. And I know, my R8500 can't hold a candle to the ti4600's but at the time, when the ti500s dominated it was worth sacrificing a few fps...just my two cents

 

[BD231]

Originally posted by: RedShirt
Well, I changed the title to "Why I think ATI sucks"

bdog231, as a college student that doesn't have a ton of money, I bought this card to watch TV on my computer, instead of going out and buying a much more expensive TV.

Anyways, I guess you'll just never think the way I do. You will always accept half-way working parts, and I won't. And for some reason, you think it takes balls to accept stuff that doesn't work. I think just the opposite, if you just put up with it, you have no balls. It takes balls to stand up and express your opinion on something you think it is wrong. It takes no balls just to sit around and put up with stuff.

RedShirt you need to start thinking straight, I dont buy crap that dosen't work in the first place, and if something breaks and or dose not work in a new OS I get something that works. I dont sit around and do nothing about my situation by bitching on a forum, and I dont put up with half way working parts. People spouting crap about companies dose not take balls, there are plenty of dumbasses that post the same kind of bullsh*t you do all the time. Your post is indecisive and completely subjective.

 

[Tanked]

RedShirt, I'll have to agree with you on this one. I've never had good experience with ATi's drivers (it completely destroyed my Windows 98 install, had to refomat; although, I admit, I have been using NVIDIA for a while now) and I think almost all companies take far too long to honor rebates, if they do it at all.

Quote from bdog231
our TV card may not work for you in XP but it works just fine in 98 and Me so obviously ati is a bit preoccupied.

Therefore, its ok for ATI to neglect older products, just as long as they're occupied? The bottom line is that they aren't supporting older products, and the reason for negligance does not matter.

Also bdog231, lay off the personal comments. They have no place in this forum.

 

[DeRusto]

I don't know about anyone else but I still like ATi.

Hey, I got the stupid bold thing to work..it didnt work last time!!!

 

[paralazarguer]

since when is the TV wonder an "older product?" I know that it came out a while ago but they still make and sell them today which to me means that they should continue to support it. If they still make it, they have to continue driver support.

 

[BD231]

Originally posted by: Tanked
RedShirt, I'll have to agree with you on this one. I've never had good experience with ATi's drivers (it completely destroyed my Windows 98 install, had to refomat; although, I admit, I have been using NVIDIA for a while now) and I think almost all companies take far too long to honor rebates, if they do it at all.

Quote from bdog231
our TV card may not work for you in XP but it works just fine in 98 and Me so obviously ati is a bit preoccupied.

Therefore, its ok for ATI to neglect older products, just as long as they're occupied? The bottom line is that they aren't supporting older products, and the reason for negligance does not matter.

Also bdog231, lay off the personal comments. They have no place in this forum.

Your taking me wrong, I never said it was right, I said it happens. There are plenty of things that aren't "right" with many other companys, why is this situation any different?. I'm confused as to why he lets such a minor thing get to him when their are plenty of other viable options out there. I'm sure ATI is loosing money on their inability to put out a diver set for the card, and I'm sure they'll try and get their act together on the issue at one point or another. It's messed up, but bitching to a bunch of people on a forum wont get anything done. Why not take the energy being used to argue on this message board, pick up a cheap phone card, call up ATI tech support and start yelling. Sure you shouldn't have to do something like that, but there are plenty of other things life throws your way that you shouldn't have to take care. Take some affermative action RedShirt!!

"ATI's TV cards, drivers and tech support SUCK!!"(and I'm sure their are plenty who think different)

Now there is a proper title, the nothing but late MIR is just an added situation that ticked you off. learn your lesson, and dont buy ATI products, or stick it out and wait for the drivers.

 

[Bovinicus]

Yet another person that argues that since things don't work as they should with other products, it is OK that they don't work with ATI. This logic is really really flawed. Listen to yourself, your arguement could be turned around for when you buy a new car and your engine blows up 20 miles off the lot. You tow the car back to the dealer and the dealer says, "Oh, well there have been defects in our competitors cars, you are being a baby, it happens, just suck it up and pay us to fix your engine for you." This arguement is so flawed. It makes me laugh every time when people say it. Seriously think about what you are saying. You are saying that since other companies don't have great drivers for XP, it is OK for ATI not to have them. The way you should be thinking is all of these companies are utter crap. Can anyone tell me of a product that is still in production made from a company as big as ATI and still has no non-beta driver for windows XP, a year old OS, even older if you consider the RC software of XP, giving developers even more time to make drivers?

You see, the problem is that ATi cannot fix something that is broken. It is most likely a problem that lies in Windows XP and cannot be fixed by ATi drivers. This is what I am saying. Also, that may be a problem that is correctable, but you just don't have the knowledge to fix it. I know LOTS of knowledgable people who lack troubleshooting skills and simply cannot fix things that other with those skills can. So, sometimes the fault also lies in the hands of the USER *Cough* You *Cough*. This is not necessarily so, but considering I have heard no such problems from anyone else anywhere, and I know several people that use an ATi card for the same purpose as you in conjunction with Windows XP the possibility is definitely there.

Mr Carmack himself said the Radeon 8500 should run Doom III as fast, or if not faster, than a Geforce II TI 4200, but the drivers are not up to par with Nvidias. I actually started this thread shortly after I read his interview from gamespy which contained this information. I guess you are "obviously ignorant on the subject of what a 3D card SHOULD perform like."

Well considering that the 4200 outperforms it in every game I wouldn't put too much belief into that statement. No one should be speculating on the performance of cards on unfinished games, especially claims that are contradictory to every benchmark out there. Also, maybe the drivers don't eek out every inch of performance like NVIDIA, but they aren't that far off.

Again, I stress, I must be thinking wrong for wanting things to work as advertised. (Rebate should be recieved in 6-8 weeks, on ATI's website they say XP is "Supported" I don't call a beta driver after 1 year of the OS being out support, some may, but I do not, I call it unacceptable, they even say that the driver is "unsupported" on their website. Their non beta driver does not work correctly for me, which was just the 2k driver basically).

I'm just letting you know that NO other company, including NVIDIA, is any better at this. All companies that offer mail-in rebates are guilty of this same thing. It's not right, but NVIDIA does not do any better of a job in this practice.

In the end, I don't care that you favor NVIDIA. I have no problems with NVIDIA; I am no a zealot for either side. I have owned cards from both companies. NVIDIA is a good company. ATi is a good company. They make products that in terms of price, performance, and features are very competitive with each other. The lack of a toll free number is definitely bad, and the slow rebate scam sucks. Oh yeah, and sure you have some problem that is not even necessarily ATi's fault. None of these things are substantial enough for you to just blatantly insult a company with a thread that starts with you saying, "Why ATI Sucks."

 

[ArchAngel777]

I checked back here and wow... People still havn't changed.

I will, however, say that not everyone in this formum is a complete @$$... Just a little over 60% of you.



BTW, Rush does rock!... Amen to that... Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson all the way!

Fly By Night has to be my personal fav... Or maybe 2112... Moving Pictures? Pretty much all their work pre-dating Roll the Bones is good...

 

[paralazarguer]

What about beaver tails?

 

[RedShirt]

I'm just letting you know that NO other company, including NVIDIA, is any better at this. All companies that offer mail-in rebates are guilty of this same thing. It's not right, but NVIDIA does not do any better of a job in this practice.

I sent in a staples rebate and got my money in less than 2 weeks. I sent in my Western Digital Rebate and got it back in less than 8 weeks. I sent in a Maxtor rebate and got it in less than 6 weeks. I have never had a rebate take more than 3 months besides this one. So Bovinicus, your claim that NO other company is any better has been disproven. Oh, and I guess the person that made the Doom III engine doesn't know anything about videocards too...

I dont buy crap that dosen't work in the first place

Said by bdog231.
Duh, nor do I. If you remember I bought it when Win98 was the OS to use. But NOW years later, they don't support their product to its full potential, and it is STILL BEING MADE which angers me.

I have tried to contact ATI several times about this and have talked to Mr. ORR at Rage3d (an ATI driver programmer) and all they do is give a bunch of empty promises.

But, if I live by bdog231's philosophy, I simply shut up and don't say anything. Or doesn't he realize that people complaining about things is the correct thing to do. Maybe this thread will prevent someone from buying an ATI TV wonder, maybe someone from ATI will read this thread and wake up and decide to put more than one guy on the TV Wonder project, or maybe it will do nothing. If everyone just shut up and didn't say anything about what was wrong.... well, it wouldn't be good. Anyways, feel free to keep on bashing me, I rather enjoy it, I've been quoting you all day to my friends. We got our first cable bill here in my new apartment and their was a price mistake, quite a big one, and I said, "Well, other companies make price mistakes, I normally would call in and try to fix this, but since other companies have price mistakes from time to time, we might as well grow some balls and pay the extra amount of money."

And back to Bovinicus, there are SEVERAL people who have problems with the card. I also hate it when people think something works for them, it ought to work for everyone else, there are so many different things that can effect how it works. This is one of the main reason why making drivers is difficult, but after having a year to work on it, they ought to have a good working driver for Windows XP, and anyone that says that they shouldn't is a complete moron.

 

[clicknext]

Why my pants suck:

They're green.
They're dirty.
They have last night's dinner on them.

 

[RedShirt]

Originally posted by: Tanked
RedShirt, I'll have to agree with you on this one. I've never had good experience with ATi's drivers (it completely destroyed my Windows 98 install, had to refomat; although, I admit, I have been using NVIDIA for a while now) and I think almost all companies take far too long to honor rebates, if they do it at all.

Quote from bdog231
our TV card may not work for you in XP but it works just fine in 98 and Me so obviously ati is a bit preoccupied.

Therefore, its ok for ATI to neglect older products, just as long as they're occupied? The bottom line is that they aren't supporting older products, and the reason for negligance does not matter.

Also bdog231, lay off the personal comments. They have no place in this forum.

Thanks for the support.

And anyone who has been saying that the Radeon line is fine in drivers, this has not been the arguement. Granted, those drivers weren't even up to par until recently, ATI is focusing ALL their attention on that line and it is good. It is their other products that have terrible driver support.

 

[apriest]

Originally posted by: Bovinicus

Can anyone tell me of a product that is still in production made from a company as big as ATI and still has no non-beta driver for windows XP, a year old OS, even older if you consider the RC software of XP, giving developers even more time to make drivers?

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy!!! They haven't had a true WinXP driver forever. Only an upgrade to Win2K drivers, and if the Win2K drivers screwed up your system, as half my customer's found out, you were screwed. There was no clean install for you. They are about as bad as ATI on driver support. I think they finally resolved it last month.

 

[WarmAndSCSI]

Originally posted by: foocoding
Don't buy the card then.

Frankly, no one cares what you think.

I agree...

Just shutup or be prepared to be harassed by everybody

 

[paralazarguer]

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy!!! They haven't had a true WinXP driver forever. Only an upgrade to Win2K drivers, and if the Win2K drivers screwed up your system, as half my customer's found out, you were screwed. There was no clean install for you. They are about as bad as ATI on driver support. I think they finally resolved it last month.

WTF are you talking about? The audigy has had two sets of windows XP drivers and they're very stable.

 

[peang]

I don't know about other people, but until now i have really good experience with ATI. And I didn't know alot about hardware.

Even the rebate thing just work fine for me when i bought my card.

About TV wonder, I think you should lucky when you bought that card compare if you bought pinnacle system PCTV.
They didn't post update driver for their card. poor me.
You just stuck with win98 if you want to use the card properly.

 

[RedShirt]

If a product is still being made. Support should still exist.

And I have been creative labs free for quite some time now. I realized they sucked a long time ago, but their driver support is MUCH MUCH better than ATI's for their WHOLE product line.