ATI vs Nvidia : Driver Stability


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I don't see anything about it in the statusbar, all it says is "Playing". Perhaps it was a setting you changed?

It is with the latest version only that is states whether or not it is using DXVA (Released a some time ago). It should say "Playing [DXVA]"

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It is with the latest version only that is states whether or not it is using DXVA (Released a some time ago). It should say "Playing [DXVA]"

I just downloaded MPC-HC off their site, so it should be the latest version (or are you talking strictly about MPC not MPC-HC?).

I also changed some settings to use a different renderer (EVR Custom Pres. instead of VMR9) and GPU utilization is up to around 65% while playing the video, but its still smooth with no flicker.

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It is with the latest version only that is states whether or not it is using DXVA (Released a some time ago). It should say "Playing [DXVA]"

Ok, finally got it working, for whatever reason it was not using the built-in MS decoder. I had to go into the External Filters section and add Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder, then tell it to prefer that filter. Now it shows the "Playing [DXVA]" and it flickers and what not. Hardly any CPU usage though, like 3% with it.

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Ive had several ATI and Nvidia cards over the past

I had Geforce 2, Radeon 8500SE, Rad 9800, Nvidia 6800GS and 8800GT, radeon 9200 AIW

Overall, i gotta say early on, BOTH sucked, hard

Then, recently, starting witht he 6800GS->8800GT transition, both of those cards had quirks. The 8800 series has issues overall, and has problems with games like Heroes of Newerth. The 6800 had issues with video playback..the list goes on.

So i recently got a 4890, and i gotta say ive had ZERO issues, or driver crashes, or any issues.

Im not one for brand loyalty, but ATI's video drivers seem top notch. Ive never really had problems with any ati card in the past 3 years. Nvidia, not so much.

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I can tell you in the past ATI had CRAPPY drivers and I mean horrible. That's the main reason I went over from 3dfx when they died over to Nvidia, but now ATI has supposedly gotten their act together and the drivers are really stable.

I personally still use Nvidia, but ATI is hot right now, and has the fastest card on the market currently

+1

I remember the days of using a PCI card when AGP was the main player, the drivers for my Radeon at the time were terrible and that's being nice. I've recently thought about switching to nVidia, but only in a move of equal opportunity experience.

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I have an AMD desktop, with an integrated 3200HD and PCIx 4550. The desktop runs like a champ, my only complaint is that I can't use the DVI, VGA, and HDMI outputs of the 3200 at the same time... so no 5-monitor setup for me ;)

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for the past five years at least, there's not really much stability problem with ATI drivers.

there's arguably less stability problem with ATI than nVidia nowadays, especially with all those recent years' stability issues of nVidia chips in notebook computers.

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I prefer ATI any day. I have a 9800GT on one of my desktops, and it is absolute hell. The drivers are CRAP! The only driver it works with, and that too not perfectly, is the 178.24 driver. But even with this driver I have to use RivaTuner to underclock it. If I don't, the display randomly switches off, and only a hard reset works. Going to buy an ATI card in 2 or 3 weeks when I get back from vacation.

I had a x1950 a few years back, and did not face any issues whatsoever with any of their drivers for Windows XP and Windows Vista x64.

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Because of the Vista instability, I switched to ATI. I have not regretted that decision. Drivers seem pretty good.

Edited by Intelman
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That's really strange, I have been using ati and nvidia cards, but I have always been a fan of nvidia. Ati never felt stable for me, but obviously, for the last 4 years, I stopped buying ati cards, so I can't say much about their driver progress for that time.

I was an early vista adopter, starting from beta as I was a beta tester, and same goes for windows 7. On vista I had issues obviously, but windows 7 drivers even in beta were quite satisfactory. That might only be my case, I have been using, geforce 2 mx, geforce 4 mx, geforce fx 5600, geforce 6800gt, 7800 gtx (my first sli build, sli support at first was horrible), 8800gts sli, gtx 260 sli. And I can say I was generally pretty happy with them based on driver/card performance.

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Never had a problem with Nvidia drivers, and I've owned a TNT2, GeForce 2, GeForce2 Go, FX 5600, 7950GT, 8400 GS, 9600 GSO, and a GTS 250. :p I guess I'm one of the luckier ones. I did skip Win Vista however.

Edited by TokiToki
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ATi win this easily for me.

My experience with Nvidia drivers has been nothing but painful. While both companies have issues when new operating systems and major directx updates are released, ATi seem to be able to handle them much better. Nvidia just seem to go into meltdown with their drivers, particularly for mid-range cards.

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ATi win this easily for me.

My experience with Nvidia drivers has been nothing but painful. While both companies have issues when new operating systems and major directx updates are released, ATi seem to be able to handle them much better. Nvidia just seem to go into meltdown with their drivers, particularly for mid-range cards.

It has been exactly the other way around for me.

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both firms fails to deliver rock solid stabilit and quality

the problem is that Matrox in past used to deliver fantastic quality of drivers (stability wise)

but era of theirs card (prior Parhelia) is long time history

stability of Intel CPU and chipset drivers is unmatched yet it never copied to Intel GPU drivers (bad as AMD and NVIDIA)

quality of drivers goes hand in hand with layoffs in QA departments and outsourcing testing and coding everytime it's possible to lowest bidder

mass sales first, solving problems maybe later in future became widely adopted tactic

another very sad tactic is aiming only on biggest software / gaming titles and ignoring 'standards' needs ...

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