ATI CATALYST, I'm switching to Nvidia

[Doobie]

A bloated 42.3MB download for a piddly control center and driver for my ATI video card. It requires Microsoft NET, another bloated download. But, instead of telling you this, it just crashes when you boot or try to run the control center, if you don't have NET.

The control center does only two things that I see. It lets me change resolutions, but it's limited only to the current and lower resolutions (the video card, my monitor and my eyes all can handle higher resolutions). It also has a slider that allows me to change 3D graphics between "quality" and "performance."

I downloaded over 60 megs of compressed garbage just so I could have a slider (the only point of the control panel)? I haven't run benchmarks, but it's hard to see how my computer could run games faster with all the resource hogging of the control panel and NET.

It's enough to make me wish I had chosen Nvidia for my last video card.

[jeremymacmull]

u can get the latest catalyst 4.9 WITHOUT the control centre (which is what most are doing) as the control centre is still very much in a trial phase thats only the second version so far

u can also just unistall the control centre and have the rest of the stuff and drivers still installed working fine

besides ms net is needed for other things too and is a worthwhile download

JEREMY

[Doom9]

speaking of .net, I really don't understand why MS didn't bundle it with SP2. Sure it's on the CD, but imho it should've been part of the sp2 download so that everybody gets it. w2k3 has had the runtime since the very beginning.

I just got myself a new NVIDIA card.. not because of the control center, but because of Doom3 performance.

[wmansir]

What bugs me about Catalyst drivers is they don't offer a Driver+control panel ONLY bundle. That's what 90% of their users want. Instead you have to download and install them separately or get a bundle with stuff you can't use.

[lexor]

What bugs me is that NVidia will probably decide at one point to join ATI with .NET apps. Bad example is contageous. :devil:

at any rate I'm sitting here with my GF2 and not carrying (well I do, but I can't afford to :D )

[jeremymacmull]

they do offer a driver and control panel bundle u just have to look at the modem bit and u can download the bit seperately

JEREMY

[BOB]

From my own experience I don't particularly care about how big the drivers are (hell, i've got a 2mbit connection).

What I do care about is drivers providing consistent image quality and game stability.

I have had numerous problems with ATI drivers (Star Wars: KOTOR and Operation Flashpoint Resistance are the first that spring to mind), they vary from graphical glitches to major graphical problems that prevent you from playing the game.

I've never had problems with nvidia drivers which is why when I next buy a graphics card it'll be an nvidia card. (current card is a 256MB Radeon 9800 Pro, previous card was a 32MB Geforce 2 GTS)

[uroscar]

I also had big problems with ATI drivers. I swiched to nVidia and Geforce drivers are working perfect. But I must also say, that I noticed a small diference in quality and speed....ATI was a little bit faster.....IF THEY COULD JUST MAKE BETTER DRIVERS!!!!:confused:

bye

[theReal]

What I find good about the ATI Catalyst drivers is that it's one driver for a whole family of cards (had a Radeon 7500 until last week, switched to a 9600XT and I can still use the same drivers)

I haven't had any quality or compatibility problems yet, but I find using my TV-out is getting more complicated with every new driver version. First I could use 1024x768 and 800x600 in real fullscreen on the tv, then only 800x600, now I have to uncheck and re-check "overscan" every time I'm switching to TV-out. Usually newer drivers FIX problems instead of making new ones...
Whatever, I still think ATI is one of the best graphics solutions: good gaming performance plus good quality and perfect TV-out (quality wise).

I don't care if the drivers are 5MB or 20MB - I have a 1Mbit DSL line, as long as the drivers ain't more than 50MB it really doesn't matter

[Joe Fenton]

nVidia only uses one driver for all cards as well. That's pretty much par for the course these days. I had trouble with ATI drivers with my Radeon All-in-Wonder in XP Pro. In fact, the only drivers which would work without crashing more than 10 times a day were the "stock" ATI drivers that came with XP Pro SP1. I switched to nVidia and haven't had any trouble since.

I have also since installed Linux. nVidia does a good job of keeping the Linux drivers up to date. I'm waiting for the new nVidia cards to drive the price of the previous generation down so I can get the best of the previous generation cards for a song. :D

[Doom9]

in case the .net framework bothers you, you'll have to switch to matrox or s3 cards in the future as nvidia is also starting up .net development: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=18684

[Joe Fenton]

Originally posted by Doom9
in case the .net framework bothers you, you'll have to switch to matrox or s3 cards in the future as nvidia is also starting up .net development: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=18684

Or better yet, switch to Linux and you'll never have to deal with .Net again. :D

[Sirber]

That's a good proposition. I'll give it a try :D I'm not a .NET fan.

[Doom9]

ahh.. what about Mono? ;)
Not everything from MS is evil.. .NET is one of the good things, but obviously it never was intended for non Windows OS, even though that becomes more and more of a possibility.

[Joe Fenton]

Originally posted by Doom9
ahh.. what about Mono? ;)
Not everything from MS is evil.. .NET is one of the good things, but obviously it never was intended for non Windows OS, even though that becomes more and more of a possibility.

Well, the jury is still out on whether .Net is evil. ;)

MS still refuses to commit in writing to not suing people for using their patented C# and .Net. Mono is pretty risky from a legal standpoint.

Regardless, nothing in Linux REQUIRES Mono or .Net, so you don't have to deal with it if you don't want to.

[dragongodz]

from that article
YOU HAVE TO SWITCH you driver development to .NET if you want to prepare for Longhorn
so this is MS pushin .NET in your face(and driver writers) no matter if you want it or not. raises the question though, will all drivers not .NET suddenly not work with Longhorn ? if so i know there will be no rush for me to upgrade, bugger having to buy new hardware(printer etc) aswell.

actually last i read Longhorn isnt planned to be released until 2006 anyway so i dont know why nvidia or ati are doing the change now. maybe so they are bug free by the time Longhorn does come out ? :)