Given up on ATI. sold and bought an NVidia

[marq]

I share a very similar experience. I just made the switch from ATI to NVIDIA in late 2008 as well. Before this the only NVIDIA card I've ever had is one that came with a Dell, but I had bought two ATIs myself. By late 2008, I had gone through two Ubuntu versions (Feisty and Hardy) where I've had to choose between open source drivers, stability and absolutely no 3D acceleration or the catalyst driver with 3D acceleration but instability and screen corruption. I even posted here trying to make some progress but to no avail.

So, while doing some other upgrades I picked up a Geforce 9800 GTX+ and I have to say, I'm happy. The binary blob is less than ideal but my best chance for 3D on the ATI side is the catalyst blob which carries the same disadvantages but more bugs.

Like the OP, I haven't closed the door on ATI. However, after tolerating the bad situation for about a year, I just needed something that worked reasonably well NOW. ATI has poorer open source drivers than Intel and poorer proprietary drivers than NVIDIA so it definitely has some work to do. I'll probably revisit ATI cards when significant progress has been made.

Oh, and I could never see the bios/boot screen using DVI out with my ATI Sapphire card so I had to have both VGA and DVI connected.
I had wrestled with this when I first bough the flatscreen and wasn;t sure where the fault was.
But since DVI out works fine during boot with the NVIDIA card, I now suspect the fault was with the ATI card.
So I guess I'm becoming an NVIDIA fan.
Overall good experience with it.

[Spitfire]

Damn it, I want 9.3 beta NOW! I think Qaridarium is a liar, there is no leaked 9.3 download in the web 9.2 yes, but no 9.3. And I think AMD should create an unofficial leak portal, so they don't have to care about bricked hardware or whatever else keeps them away from open betas.

[jonnycat26]

Damn it, I want 9.3 beta NOW! I think Qaridarium is a liar, there is no leaked 9.3 download in the web 9.2 yes, but no 9.3. And I think AMD should create an unofficial leak portal, so they don't have to care about bricked hardware or whatever else keeps them away from open betas.

I think talking about what is or isn't fixed in these leaked betas that nobody can touch just sets expectations that may not be fulfilled. It's a bad thing, and people should avoid it.

[Spitfire]

Did I talk "about what is or isn't fixed"? :O I just want to use them and nothing else, I don't feel like I have to tell everyone in the world what's up about the drivers. Maybe it helps to understand if you know that I use Alpha/Beta software wherever possible.

[jonnycat26]

Did I talk "about what is or isn't fixed"? :O

No, but there certainly are other people doing it, and it really just frustrates everyone else who doesn't have those drivers.

[Spitfire]

No, but there certainly are other people doing it,

Yeah, I was just wondering why you quoted me.

and it really just frustrates everyone else who doesn't have those drivers.

So true.

[octoberblu3]

Did I talk "about what is or isn't fixed"? :O I just want to use them and nothing else, I don't feel like I have to tell everyone in the world what's up about the drivers. Maybe it helps to understand if you know that I use Alpha/Beta software wherever possible.

Write your own driver and you will always have the latest and greatest version before anyone else.

Or, you can try to get on as an NDA'd beta tester.

Failing that, you will just have to wait for the official releases just like everyone else.

I can see running alpha and beta software if you are a developer, tester, or just desire the benefits of whatever features a newer version offers over the increased number of bugs and broken features, but I can't understand why someone would use pre-release software wherever possible unless said person is a bit masochistic.

[Spitfire]

Write your own driver and you will always have the latest and greatest version before anyone else.

Or, you can try to get on as an NDA'd beta tester.

Guess it's not as easy as registering on a webform, is it?

Failing that, you will just have to wait for the official releases just like everyone else.

I can see running alpha and beta software if you are a developer, tester, or just desire the benefits of whatever features a newer version offers over the increased number of bugs and broken features,

What if all three come together? A developer, that is testing previously broken things and benefiting from the latest effort done in the drivers? At the moment I train my skills in OpenGL and am testing the drivers every day with my daily usage. It would be great fun to benefit from the latest features. If the driver is completely broken I sill can switch to the previous beta/stable. If my hardware gets bricked I finally have a good reason to get a better card

but I can't understand why someone would use pre-release software wherever possible unless said person is a bit masochistic.

Better: "benefit from newest features wherever possible".

[bridgman]

C'mon folks, be nice. This is why I suggested cutting off the discussion a couple of pages back

[jonnycat26]

O Yes I'm a liar

At least you can admit it.

The second step is to stop.