Where is ATI heading?

[Wag]

After owning a Radeon 8500 these past few months and struggling (and not succeeding) to get it to work the way I'd like, I have to wonder, just where is ATI heading? I read the discussion forums on Rage3D and I get the impression that many people took a chance on ATI with the 8500 and now ATI is going to lose all their entire "bleeding edge" retail customers. Without this bleeding edge market ATI will only have the OEM outlets. I can easily see the OEMs turning away from ATI if the "tech-heads" start turning away in droves.

They should have a huge team devoted to getting the software end right. They promised consistant driver updates and none have appeared. What is keeping ATI from putting out good drivers?

 

[Abem3]

Ok, wtf are you talking about? Just becuase there isn't a driver release every 3 days does not mean they are not working on it. We just got the latest betas a little over a week ago and I can't complain one bit. I am not having any issues with this card in any game or application. I am extremely happy with this card and will buy ATI again...

They look to be screwing us 8500 owners with the R300, but he you can't stop progress...

I'm not playing too much lately but RCTW, CS, MOHAA, Serious Sam 2, AvP2, and of course 3dmark2k1 ... no tweaks or anything.. just fast and beautiful...

YMMV

Abe

 

[SpeedTester]

<< Ok, wtf are you talking about? Just becuase there isn't a driver release every 3 days does not mean they are not working on it >>



Dude there hasnt been a new Microsoft certified driver since Nov 13th, This is NOT NORMAL for any
major hardware manufacturer. Although I have no major issues with my Radeon 8500 and beta drivers
it still bugs me that they havent issued a final set of drivers yet. 2 months is plenty of time.

 

[Wag]

Nobody's asking for a driver "every 3 days". Every month or so would be nice (or even 2 months), they actually promised to get their act together and release a set every few weeks.

That fact that everything is working fine for you is great. You are the exception. DVD and multiple monitor support under XP just don't work right. It seems as if the marketing dept. and the software devolpment are not in communication. The exact same features that are being hyped as selling points don't work.

This is not a rant against ATI. I (and many others) had high hopes in the 8500, especially since they are offering a unique product in it. I purchased the card because it was a full powered card, with dual-monitor output and supposedly stellar DVD output to drive my home theater. If the Geforce MX4 comes out with an equivalent card I will have no choice but to jump ship...Unless ATI can get drivers right by then.

 

[tcrosson]

<<Where is ATI heading?>>


In circles.


Good hardware with drivers that don't due their products justice.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

I heard the latest 8500 drivers were quite good.

Something tells me, however, that Microsoft probably prefers to certify NV drivers faster since they have a joint venture together *hint* XBox *hint*.

-Ice

 

[MorpheusPhreak]

I agree microsoft has a vested interest in NVIDIA. I also agree that I have higher scores non-oc/ed than most GF3 Ti500 users do. And Abem 3 6011 is not an ATI release. It is a hack of previous drivers. why do i say that you ask? Take a look at this

Pic showing the differences

If you will note the scores in light orange are from the latest betas from ATI the 3286. The dark orange are from the supposed 6011 drivers. Trust me they are not an ATI release.

 

[darktyco]

My 8500 looked and worked great right out of the box with the 3286's. And from the amount of feedback I've seen on Rage3D and elsewhere, people like Abem3 and I are norm for 8500 owners.

 

[oLLie]

I'm interested in the next Digital Video (a.k.a. AIW) offering from ATi. The 8500dv seems to have a lot of good things going for it, but I was wondering when (if) ATi was going to release a card that would allow higher resolution (digital) tv viewing / capture. Something like the 8500DV + the Hauppauge WinTV-HD board. Has anyone heard anything?

 

[AA0]

I've never had a problem with the card, I will buy another ATI again... when I need a new card.

 

[BFG10K]

ATi is trying to topple nVidia as the king of consumer 3D graphics via the R300 and they're also making marked improvements in their driver support and professional 3D app support.

The R300 will be an interesting card to say the least.

 

[spanky]

<< ATi is trying to topple nVidia as the king of consumer 3D graphics via the R300 and they're also making marked improvements in their driver support and professional 3D app support.

The R300 will be an interesting card to say the least. >>




really? i can't even afford the r200 yet and they already making me drool over the r300? dammit!

 

[rbV5]

<< Where is ATI heading? >>



It appears they are working at putting budget to highend products across the board,

Graphic Workstations get models from the budget 8700 to the powerful GL4 from the FireGl line (even mobile workstations get Mobility FireGl 7800!)

Gamers get Budget 7x series cards up to the 8500

Video enthusiast get Capture cards from the DV Wonder firewire up to the AIW 8500dv (including the new AIW 7500!)

Mobile users get Rage Mobility up to the Mobility FireGl 7800, and now PDA's get the IMAGEON 100 coprocessor accelerator.

Where are they heading? Who knows, but they're heading the right direction IMHO, nobody can touch that product line, and despite what some claim, my own experience shows ATI drivers to be quite good actually, The drivers for the original Radeon cards are mature and all the features work and work well. Most users cards work right out of the box.

 

[BD231]

ATI isent going anywhere, they'll just keep trying and maybe one day they'll get it right and pull ahead of N-Vidia like AMD did to Intel. Either way, they *WILL NOT* end up selling out like VooDoo did.

 

[nRollo]

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[merlocka]

ATI isent going anywhere, they'll just keep trying and maybe one day they'll get it right and pull ahead of N-Vidia like AMD did to Intel. Either way, they *WILL NOT* end up selling out like VooDoo did.

LOL. 3fdx didn't sell out, they ran out... of money.

ATI has lost some marketshare mid 2001, but I believe they are regaining share now. They have a compelling lineup of solutions.

 

[spanky]

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oh god i hope not. if that happens, u know how much we'd have to pay for a decent video card? oh the horror...

 

[wildwildwes]

I don't know if this is true or not since I haven't seen anything in print, but I heard that ATI got a contract to do the graphics for the next game boy. I think ATI is heading in the right direction. I don't expect they'll kick nvidia's butt any time soon, but I think they're on the way up.

 

[Daovonnaex]

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oh god i hope not. if that happens, u know how much we'd have to pay for a decent video card? oh the horror... >>

Don't worry, Bitboys will save you! Then again, I fully expect Matrox to release another 3D card.

 

[Finality]

<< LOL. 3fdx didn't sell out, they ran out... of money. >>



More like burned the money. If I remember they lost 0.25 Billion in that one quater.

 

[DragonFire]

Im not going to put ATI down since Iv never owned one of there cards but someone said microsoft perfred Nvidia, well its not just microsoft but programmers as well......Then again ATI tv ad in the mud hitting the guy in the face could be just a little misleading to people that dont know better.....kinda like with intel and there silly ads....

 

[Killrose]

I'm happy with all the Ati cards I've had. And Nvidia cards. Ati seems to have most of their problems with trying to run with XP, I run Win98, and have'nt run into any problems ever.

They are certainly having problems with their dumbasz PR people lately. And some of the decision's comming from the top are'nt too realisticly bright either.

 

[vlieps]

Dude there hasnt been a new Microsoft certified driver since Nov 13th,

As a matter of fact none of the companies is very willing to certify their drivers at Microsoft. Guess why? Because it costs a lot of money just to get the stamp "MS certified" for the company and gives practically nothing for the consumer.
So why bother? Why to let Microsoft test those drivers and pay for it when ATI themselfes can test them anyway, probably even much better.

I am just thinking about my Voodoo5 drivers, the last betas were the best. None of the MS certified ones comes even close.

That's why there are no "certified" drivers...

 

[bunnyfubbles]

If anything, ATI is surprising me. And if they go anywhere, it is looking like they will go up. Or will they? The R300 looks to give ATI a large advantage over nVidia, because when the R300 is to be released, its competition will come from the NV25, a GPU that is basically a really beefed up NV20. The R300 will not be merely a beefed up R200 (the R250, will, however...) and that is where ATI looks to have an advantage. If the Radeon 8500 running on its R200 GPU didn't drive the steak through the heart of the GF3 like many thought it would, then the R300 looks to be ATI's next good bet, only it would be aimed at taking out the NV25 (GF4) instead. Beating nVidia out with the most powerful GPU in the 6 month product refresh would be huge for ATI, and it looks like that could very well happen with the R300. nVidia may not have anything really big until the NV30, which won't be coming anytime soon.

nVidia still has a huge trump card up their sleeve, and it is far from Ace, but hurts much worse; the NV17 or GeForce 4 MX if you will. nVidia?s big seller wasn?t close to being one of their more powerful GPUs, it was the GeForce 2 MX, and MX boards are still selling well due to low price points. If nVidia can offer the GeForce 4 MX at price points on par with the GeForce 2 MX upon its initial debut, then it may not matter who can offer the fastest/most powerful GPU, especially when the next king may not win by much at all. We are seeing some budget board from ATI, but none I would think, are as dominant as the GF2 MX was/is. Also, I am not seeing much from ATI as far as plans for future budget boards go

ATI has been improving greatly, slowly but greatly, and I can?t see them fading from the picture anytime soon. (drivers still need to improve in order to compete with nVidia?s driver service) However, I also don?t see nVidia losing its position anytime soon.

 

[oLLie]

I'm interested in the next Digital Video (a.k.a. AIW) offering from ati. The 8500dv seems to have a lot of good things going for it, but I was wondering when (if) ati was going to release a card that would allow higher resolution (digital) tv viewing / capture. Something like the 8500DV + the Hauppauge WinTV-HD board. Has anyone heard anything?