Nvidia misses OpenGL 4.0 promises

[rounddodger]

NV drivers are generally very stable with the odd exception such as the overheating issue.

I was on 180.48 for eons as everything worked and there were no issues in recent games. In fact i only upgraded once the 19x.xx kicked in and i guess I'll give these new ones a try as its been about 5 months now.

Other things I like-

OpenGL just performs better vs ati.

If you're into demoscene stuff then NV is the way to go, seems to be the brand of choice to code for.

Again a niche thing but if you like retro games (emulation), some stuff just behaves better with a NV card. (To be fair this is more down to poor coding on the emulator itself rather)

 

[Orangey]

Its not like ATI's rolling updates have any real benefits... sure the odd thing gets fixed, but your generally left waiting 2-3+ months anyhow for fixes on the real issues i.e. grey screen of death, flickering issues, etc.

20% performance boost, crossfire profiles, etc etc... no real benefit??

Most people had no problems with flickering & GSOD and most of those that did reported it fixed with a simple update, just a very vocal minority seemed to be intent on keeping the problem alive by whining about it instead of diagnosing the rest of their system.

 

[rolypolyman]

20% performance boost, crossfire profiles, etc etc... no real benefit??

Most people had no problems with flickering & GSOD and most of those that did reported it fixed with a simple update, just a very vocal minority seemed to be intent on keeping the problem alive by whining about it instead of diagnosing the rest of their system.

Well said sir I couldn't agree more. The number of posts about 'broken' drivers when they are working fine for others makes it rather obvious its 'user' error.

 

[Mr Paul]

Yeah, people are always so quick to blame ATI drivers, and when they realise it's something else they suddenly shut up.

 

[JRS]

Yeah, people are always so quick to blame ATI drivers, and when they realise it's something else they suddenly shut up.

Well, I'd love to know how to sort out their Linux drivers for my 5770. The card works perfectly well in Windows, but utterly sucks in Mint 8. And I'd also love to know how it could be user error that they barely work on my machine given that it's kind of hard to muck up typing "sudo sh ati-driver-installer-10-3-x86.x86_64.run" into the terminal window

 

[Orangey]

In that case the user error is buying an ATI for use in Linux.

It's well-known that Linux doesn't get on with their hardware.

 

[Rroff]

The benefit is that there will fixes in a months time that at least some will benefit from instead of no fixes for anyone until NV release a driver at an unknown time & is one of the reasons why i will not go NV so there is plenty of reason.

People slate nVidia for this... but when was the last time nVidia users were left waiting for support? I mean they have updated support for Starcraft II and the game isn't out yet, they had a forced AA fix for Mass Effect 2 up within hours of ATI and they don't have a frequent driver update schedule. As mentioned above they even bother to help support the demo scene, linux, latest drivers even have fixes for fairly minor bugs in media player classic that nVidia could have just done an ATI and blamed on the software developer (see BBC HD support on ATI).

20% performance boost, crossfire profiles, etc etc... no real benefit??

That has no relevance on the benefits of a specific update frequency.

 

[JRS]

In that case the user error is buying an ATI for use in Linux.

It's well-known that Linux doesn't get on with their hardware.

Well excuse me for hoping that ATi, who according to some on this forum seemingly can do everything just shy of curing cancer, might have been able to get a decent Linux driver out by now. Starting to turn into a forlorn hope now, mind. Which is a shame, as I'd hate to have to stick my old nVidia card in every time I want to boot into Mint....

 

[D.P.]

20% performance boost, crossfire profiles, etc etc... no real benefit??

.

That to me indicates the ATI drivers have serious issue if you have to continuously update to get crossfire profiles etc.

Ideally, you install a driver once and that is it. Maybe 1 or 2 updates a year if you are technically minded.

 

[Orangey]

That has no relevance on the benefits of a specific update frequency.

Uh it does when people get massive gains every 2 weeks in various games? Not to mention the features they add like bezel management and such. IMHO that beats a handful of official updates a year. Although you could argue they've only been so busy lately because of Fermi.

 

[D.P.]

Well excuse me for hoping that ATi, who according to some on this forum seemingly can do everything just shy of curing cancer, might have been able to get a decent Linux driver out by now. Starting to turn into a forlorn hope now, mind. Which is a shame, as I'd hate to have to stick my old nVidia card in every time I want to boot into Mint....

I have been cursing at ATI linux support for well over a decade. There are 2 things you can guarantee in the universe; 1) At some point you will die, 2) ATI will never support linux to a level that is usable.


Sadly, the only real solution for ATi and linux is to install a nVdia card.
1In fact, 1) might not hold true.

 

[D.P.]

Uh it does when people get massive gains every 2 weeks in various games? Not to mention the features they add like bezel management and such. IMHO that beats a handful of official updates a year. Although you could argue they've only been so busy lately because of Fermi.

If there are such massive performance gains then that suggests the old drivers are badly written, or game specific optimizations are heavily required.

 

[Rroff]

They don't get massive gains every 2 weeks in various games tho... once bezel management is in and working thats it that doesn't have relevance on the benefits of a frequent update.

 

[Orangey]

According to ATI's FAQ, the Linux CCC is open-source. So you can fix it yourself!

 

[JRS]

There are 2 things you can guarantee in the universe; 1) At some point you will die

Speak for yourself, I plan to live forever.

2) ATI will never support linux to a level that is usable.

Guess it looks that way. Shame, I really was hoping to not have to buy a Fermi card.

 

[Orangey]

Guess it looks that way. Shame, I really was hoping to not have to buy a Fermi card.

If you're patient you can wait for the mid-range GTS460 etc in June+.

Should be faster than the 5770. Or at least equal.