@Branthog: Can we really put all the blame for Rage on AMD alone though, especially after similar issues with Brink (same publishing house, similar engines, etc.)? I can't not blame the developers as well, since they're equally responsible (if not more so) to make sure their games play nice with current or soon-to-be-released drivers at the time of the game's launch.

Whatever the case, I recently upgraded from an 8800GT to a 6850, and about the only game that seemed to have issues of late was Saint's Row 3, which seems to have been taken care of in the 12.1 preview drivers. I'm pretty pleased with my purchase so far. Cheap card, really good performance, and for the most part the drivers seem to be doing well.

This card just made me excited to see what Nvidia is going to do.

@SlasherMan said:

@Branthog: Can we really put all the blame for Rage on AMD alone though, especially after similar issues with Brink (same publishing house, similar engines, etc.)? I can't not blame the developers as well, since they're equally responsible (if not more so) to make sure their games play nice with current or soon-to-be-released drivers at the time of the game's launch.

Whatever the case, I recently upgraded from an 8800GT to a 6850, and about the only game that seemed to have issues of late was Saint's Row 3, which seems to have been taken care of in the 12.1 preview drivers. I'm pretty pleased with my purchase so far. Cheap card, really good performance, and for the most part the drivers seem to be doing well.

Sometimes it seems to be a clear issue with the developer and sometimes it's ATI. I know that part of the issue with Rage is that ATI has always just had kind of poor OpenGL support, but that's probably not the full story. What it really comes down to is that even in PC gaming, you shouldn't have to open a new game and find out that the first thing you need to do is wait 48hrs for the card manufacturer to write and release a beta patch to fix issues in one specific game, then uninstall your drivers, download and install the new beta drivers . . oh - and do it all over again if you decide you want to play another recently released game that also has custom driver patches. When it comes down to it, blame is irrelevant. Either ATI is writing shitty drivers or game developers are providing shitty support of the card. For the end user, it's the same experience -- and in the last year and a half, I've had my fill of "You're probably busy enjoying XYZ game this weekend . . . unless you have an ATI card in which case you're dealing with all sorts of frustrating issues and eyeballing Twitter for updates on the next Catalyst drivers".

Maybe that's what NVIDIA has become, too. I don't know other than from observation of general reporting and discussions on the internet. I just know that until the 5970, I never experienced so many issues on so many games requiring so many patches and workarounds. Not on the 8800 and not on any other card I've owned since . . . well, since we started sticking "3D acceleration cards" into our machines.

Things are eventually fixed and rolled-up into full release drivers, of course. These things are only really a problem if you plan to play major game releases in the first month. I also don't dissuade people from buying ATI. They really do make solid cards that do some gorgeous stuff. I've just personally reached my frustration point and decided that the next $750 I spend on a card is going to be on an NVIDIA.

@SirPsychoSexy said:

My 560Ti plays all the new games at high settings just fine, spending large amounts of money on technology that will be outdated in 2 years, seems a little ridiculous

Well, in my case, I don't keep a gaming rig for more than a year or two. It just depends on what kind of experience you're looking to get and what your tolerance level is. I'm willing to spend $700 on a card that will deliver top-notch performance for a year or two and then replace it. If I'm going to game on the PC, I'm going to get the finest fucking experience I can reasonably obtain. Sticking two or three of those cards into a box is beyond my point of reason, though. Of course, if I had money to throw around, perhaps I'd feel different. The same way I am fine spending $700 on a video card for a machine that I will give away in a year or two, but a decade or so ago when I was much younger and had a much different financial existence, I would have bought the card at the $200 price point just before the big price jump up to the next card and I'd have been very happy with it.

@Branthog: My problem with them is that 48 hours often times isn't the speed of their response. You shouldn't have to wait days, weeks, and in some cases months to be able to play your games the way they were intended to be played. You also shouldn't have to deal with the aforementioned situation so consistently over time. It hasn't just been one notable game that has had problems, but several high profile releases. Now some would argue that I do try to actively dissuade people from buying ATi, and I wouldn't disagree, however I would say that I'm warning them of what to expect so that they might be able to avoid the nightmare myself and others have been enduring. You're right that ATi (they will always be ATi to me) puts together an impressive card on paper, but it doesn't matter if that card is capable of space travel if it doesn't have the drivers to make it work properly. It's like buying a Bugatti Veyron that is capable of speeds in excess of 205 mph, however it consistently has engine problems that relegates you longingly looking at it wishing it worked properly.

TL;DR: Buyer beware. Do your research.

We are the 99% Occupy Zurv!

Stop spending that much on computers and donate to charity instead :(

It's tempting though.. I look at SSDs so often.

So you made a thread to grow your e-penis? Grow up.

@edge426: I hope so.. that is the plan for them to last. But @ 2560x1600 just bump'n AA up one level rapes cards. I also think this is the year for 4k monitors (not the cost.. tho my guess is they will up costly). 4096x3112 or 3656x2664. Then i'll cure the mobo gods that only gave me 3 PCI-E slots (tho my mobo/cpu is kinda old.. maybe by then i'll upgrade that.)

EDIT: WOOT! cards in!

i really hope these scale better than ati crossfires of the past.

ugh.. now to undo all the waterblocks and redo the water cooling. (and update my bio) :) looks like there will be benchmarking tonight! (which, because i won't be water cooling will still put me low vs overclocking/hardware sites.. pooo)

woo...

http://www.eizo.com/global/products/duravision/fdh3601/index.html

blah.. 30k :P

Do you hate PhysX?

@RollingZeppelin said:

I get by fine on one gtx 470, you're telling me 3 480's aren't doing it for ya? that's ridiculous. What a silly thing to spend your money on. I should report you to the silly police.

I know right, I mean most new games are ports from console games, so they barely even slightly tax a single current graphics card.

Further to the point, I'm playing Skyrim on Ultra settings with graphics dramatically modded and haven't had a single problem so far.

This guy seems like he needs to reset his priorities and unless he earns a tonne of cash so that they can afford significantly more expenditure, then his wife should divorce him ha ha.

I'm on ONE un-overclocked GTX260 and I have yet to have trouble running ANYTHING on high or greater (eh, I haven't tried Crysis, but Skyrim and Saints Row both run fine).

Wake me up when DirectX13 gets here.

*sigh* even with the 3 way crossfire i can't fun batman AC with max settings (minus physx).. in the benchmark avg fps is 47... @ 2560x1600

AA @ MSAA x8 and extreme

but dropped before 57 fps with 2 cards in crossfile on the HTPC. over kill my ass. If i had another PCI-E slot i'd put a 4th card in :P

(i don't care about avg or max fps.. just that it never drops to low... )

Have you ever considered donating some of that expendable income to charity?

That is major overkill for pretty much anything out right now... but heck... bigger is better.

Can I have one of your gtx480s?

@Zurv said:

*sigh* even with the 3 way crossfire i can't fun batman AC with max settings (minus physx).. in the benchmark avg fps is 47... @ 2560x1600

AA @ MSAA x8 and extreme

but dropped before 57 fps with 2 cards in crossfile on the HTPC. over kill my ass. If i had another PCI-E slot i'd put a 4th card in :P

(i don't care about avg or max fps.. just that it never drops to low... )

Probably running on DX11? DirectX11 implementation in Batman isn't good. Even if you have 6x super uber crossfire it still wouldn't run great. So this is more a game/driver issue.