drivers for 4870 are crap

I've noticed some flickering light sources in a few games now and I haven't
tested many games because I only got the 4870 yesterday. It's really bad in
Gothic3 but I looked into it and that game gives lots of people similar
issues. In Il-2 1946 I see the sun reflecting on the water is bouncing
around a lot though and that is not normal. Also in Il-2 my gun flashes are
blue isntead of the correct yellow. I admit I am using tweaked DNA drivers
but doing some research on the web it seems these problems with 4870 and
4850 are common. Even Crysis shows some shimmering in some light sources
when you are close to them. Why don't the video card reviews ever mention
these types of issues? That would be more helpful to me than describing the
god**** box and contents of said box.

"Dauphin de Viennois" <spamtrap@on.here> wrote in message
news:Wiaek.66054$kx.57053@pd7urf3no...
> I've noticed some flickering light sources in a few games now and I
> haven't
> tested many games because I only got the 4870 yesterday. It's really
> bad in
> Gothic3 but I looked into it and that game gives lots of people
> similar
> issues. In Il-2 1946 I see the sun reflecting on the water is bouncing
> around a lot though and that is not normal. Also in Il-2 my gun
> flashes are
> blue isntead of the correct yellow. I admit I am using tweaked DNA
> drivers
> but doing some research on the web it seems these problems with 4870
> and
> 4850 are common. Even Crysis shows some shimmering in some light
> sources
> when you are close to them. Why don't the video card reviews ever
> mention
> these types of issues? That would be more helpful to me than
> describing the
> god**** box and contents of said box.

Did you try the ATI hotfix drivers for the 48xx series?

"KCB" <kcbairdREMOVE@THIScomcast.net> wrote in
news:neOdnVFAfL0WzOTVnZ2dnUVZ_uLinZ2d@comcast.com:

> Did you try the ATI hotfix drivers for the 48xx series?

DNA ATi 8.6B for Vista is what I am using. I think those have the hotfix in
them already. I did some reasearch on these issues and it seems hotfix has
the same issues anyway. Should have known better to stick with Nvidia.

"Dauphin de Viennois" <spamtrap@on.here> wrote in message
news:hMfek.96259$gc5.12403@pd7urf2no...
> "KCB" <kcbairdREMOVE@THIScomcast.net> wrote in
> news:neOdnVFAfL0WzOTVnZ2dnUVZ_uLinZ2d@comcast.com:
>
>> Did you try the ATI hotfix drivers for the 48xx series?
>
> DNA ATi 8.6B for Vista is what I am using. I think those have the hotfix
> in
> them already. I did some reasearch on these issues and it seems hotfix has
> the same issues anyway. Should have known better to stick with Nvidia.
>

Relax. The card has been out for less than a month. When NVIDIA's drivers
leave the door perfect from day one then it will be a different story. ATI's
Catalyst driver team is a world class organization. I know... I work with
them on a daily basis. The developer talent has and will continue to
innovate and deliver on quality code, and the management team is
unbelievably slim for a company as large as AMD, i.e., they execute
relatively quickly. (Compare the driver release schedule to that of NVIDIA's
and you'll see some start differences)

Whatever IQ issues exist today will definitely be fixed. I'm not sure if
they have a person scouring newsgroups for these sorts of reports though.
And, like you said, there hasn't been any mention of these issues in the top
reviewer sites. So, in case AMD is not already aware of these issues, it
would be in your best interests to report this to the AMD/ATI asap.

Tony

> ATI's Catalyst driver team is a world class organization. I know... I work
> with
> them on a daily basis. The developer talent has and will continue to
> innovate and deliver on quality code, and the management team is
> unbelievably slim for a company as large as AMD, i.e., they execute
> relatively quickly. (Compare the driver release schedule to that of
> NVIDIA's and you'll see some start differences)
>
> Whatever IQ issues exist today will definitely be fixed. I'm not sure if
> they have a person scouring newsgroups for these sorts of reports though.
> And, like you said, there hasn't been any mention of these issues in the
> top reviewer sites. So, in case AMD is not already aware of these issues,
> it would be in your best interests to report this to the AMD/ATI asap.
>
> Tony

The fact that ATI/AMD releases updated monthly drivers speaks nothing as to
the quality of the release and the maturity and stability of the drivers.
Your post then seems to infer from this premise that nVidia drivers are
therefore inferior to the ATI/AMD ones since they release WHQL drivers less
frequently. This logic escapes me. Both manufacturers have had and continue
to have ongoing driver issues. Consider the fact that it took from the 7.6's
until shortly before now to restore proper 3D function in a huge number of
currently manufactured AGP cards. 11 releases of Catalysts without a fix for
thousands of cards for a known issue doesn't speak highly of addressing
major issues.... from someone who claims to "work with them on a daily
basis" and have inside knowledge as to ATI/AMD's management team structure I
find your post hard to take seriously.

Dauphin de Viennois <spamtrap@on.here> wrote in
news:hMfek.96259$gc5.12403@pd7urf2no:

> DNA ATi 8.6B for Vista is what I am using. I think those have the
> hotfix in them already. I did some reasearch on these issues and it
> seems hotfix has the same issues anyway. Should have known better to
> stick with Nvidia.

OOps, I'm using DNA 8.7B (based on ATI beta driver). And now that I have
installed these drivers they cause some bug where I can't go bgack to the
ATI hotfix driver. Tried installing it twice and even though it goes
through the install fine I can't get access to CCC because it reports there
is something wrong with the installation. Go back to 8.7B and it is fine.

"Tony DiMarzio" <tony.dimarzio@gmail.com> wrote in
news:5budnRZCV9-smOfVnZ2dnUVZ_hadnZ2d@comcast.com:

> "Dauphin de Viennois" <spamtrap@on.here> wrote in message
> news:hMfek.96259$gc5.12403@pd7urf2no...
>> "KCB" <kcbairdREMOVE@THIScomcast.net> wrote in
>> news:neOdnVFAfL0WzOTVnZ2dnUVZ_uLinZ2d@comcast.com:
>>
>>> Did you try the ATI hotfix drivers for the 48xx series?
>>
>> DNA ATi 8.6B for Vista is what I am using. I think those have the
>> hotfix in
>> them already. I did some reasearch on these issues and it seems
>> hotfix has the same issues anyway. Should have known better to stick
>> with Nvidia.
>>
>
> Relax. The card has been out for less than a month. When NVIDIA's
> drivers leave the door perfect from day one then it will be a
> different story. ATI's Catalyst driver team is a world class
> organization. I know... I work with them on a daily basis. The
> developer talent has and will continue to innovate and deliver on
> quality code, and the management team is unbelievably slim for a
> company as large as AMD, i.e., they execute relatively quickly.
> (Compare the driver release schedule to that of NVIDIA's and you'll
> see some start differences)
>
> Whatever IQ issues exist today will definitely be fixed. I'm not sure
> if they have a person scouring newsgroups for these sorts of reports
> though. And, like you said, there hasn't been any mention of these
> issues in the top reviewer sites. So, in case AMD is not already aware
> of these issues, it would be in your best interests to report this to
> the AMD/ATI asap.
>
> Tony
>
>
>

8800GT drivers were perfect for me from day one of installing. I remember
that Omega had to fix an issue with FS2002 on 8500 because the official
ATI driver was NFG art the time. How come an amateur driver tweaker can
fix it but not pro ATI driver team? They did fix it on a later driver
release though. Probably thanks to Omega-Man.

Anyway, I just posted to this thread that it is 8.7B driver I am using
and now I can't install 8.6 hotfix. It's not my system either as I have
read this is a common issue with 8.7b driver. I read that to fix it nyou
have to update the driver via device manager but that is not working for
me on Vista64 and it just says I already have the latest driver.

"Augustus" <no_one@no_where.net> wrote in
news:hCpek.4041$1o6.3883@edtnps83:

> The fact that ATI/AMD releases updated monthly drivers speaks nothing
> as to the quality of the release and the maturity and stability of the
> drivers. Your post then seems to infer from this premise that nVidia
> drivers are therefore inferior to the ATI/AMD ones since they release
> WHQL drivers less frequently. This logic escapes me. Both
> manufacturers have had and continue to have ongoing driver issues.
> Consider the fact that it took from the 7.6's until shortly before now
> to restore proper 3D function in a huge number of currently
> manufactured AGP cards. 11 releases of Catalysts without a fix for
> thousands of cards for a known issue doesn't speak highly of
> addressing major issues.... from someone who claims to "work with them
> on a daily basis" and have inside knowledge as to ATI/AMD's management
> team structure I find your post hard to take seriously.

Yea, he's just an ATI fanboi so is biased. We don't need bias we need
objectivity and the fact is the curretn ATI driver for 4800 cards is crap.

"Tony DiMarzio" <tony.dimarzio@gmail.com> wrote in
news:5budnRZCV9-smOfVnZ2dnUVZ_hadnZ2d@comcast.com:

> Relax. The card has been out for less than a month.

Imagine if I bought a new TV and it didn't work properly and the
manufactuer told me to "relax" and it would work in a month or two properly
when they update the firmware. Would that be acceptable to you? Not me. Why
does the computer industry get away with **** that other industries would
get fried for?

"Augustus" <no_one@no_where.net> wrote in message
news:hCpek.4041$1o6.3883@edtnps83...
>
>> ATI's Catalyst driver team is a world class organization. I know... I
>> work with
>> them on a daily basis. The developer talent has and will continue to
>> innovate and deliver on quality code, and the management team is
>> unbelievably slim for a company as large as AMD, i.e., they execute
>> relatively quickly. (Compare the driver release schedule to that of
>> NVIDIA's and you'll see some start differences)
>>
>> Whatever IQ issues exist today will definitely be fixed. I'm not sure if
>> they have a person scouring newsgroups for these sorts of reports though.
>> And, like you said, there hasn't been any mention of these issues in the
>> top reviewer sites. So, in case AMD is not already aware of these issues,
>> it would be in your best interests to report this to the AMD/ATI asap.
>>
>> Tony
>
> The fact that ATI/AMD releases updated monthly drivers speaks nothing as
> to the quality of the release and the maturity and stability of the
> drivers.

Monthly driver releases, and therefore a minimum of 1 full QA pass per
month, speaks to the discipline and "maturity" of the development process,
which ultimately leads to a better driver.

> Your post then seems to infer from this premise that nVidia drivers are
> therefore inferior to the ATI/AMD ones since they release WHQL drivers
> less frequently. This logic escapes me.

I simply acknowledged (to support my statement that they execute relatively
quickly) an apparent difference in the driver development and release models
between the two organizations. You spinned that into me implying (not
"inferring") that NVIDIA drivers were necessarily worse - your logic, not
mine.

> Both manufacturers have had and continue to have ongoing driver issues.
> Consider the fact that it took from the 7.6's until shortly before now to
> restore proper 3D function in a huge number of currently manufactured AGP
> cards. 11 releases of Catalysts without a fix for thousands of cards for a
> known issue doesn't speak highly of addressing major issues.... from
> someone who claims to "work with them on a daily basis" and have inside
> knowledge as to ATI/AMD's management team structure I find your post hard
> to take seriously.

Unfortunately, regressions are common in complex hardware/software matrices.
It doesn't help that the hardware/software matrix grows as the new hardware
release rate exceeds the rate at which previous gen hardware is EOL'd.

Tony