How stable is a system with an AMD graphics card in it? - Hardware & Software

I bought a new computer ages ago, and my motherboard supports crossfire. I'm going to buy the 5870, along with a new power supply. My friend who owns a 5830 or 5850 says his computer is really unstable and crashes all the time. I wondering if it's just his computer doing that and not just the card's fault etc. I also plan on getting into crossfire, and I don't want to waste my money if my system is going to be faulty.

that's just his computer. ATI drivers are actually better than Nvidia drivers on Windows.

If you have the proper drivers and enough wattage from your power supply, you should be fine. $5 says your friend is computer illiterate.

I was thinking it might be his computer, he had a friend build it for him and god knows how well he did it.

Your friend probably isn't doing something right. AMD cards run fine, I'm running one on my system right now, and over the years crossfire has been used more and more, so it's much better than it was at launch.

[QUOTE=chewgo;26975476]Your friend probably isn't doing something right. [b]ATI[/b] cards run fine, I'm running one on my system right now, and over the years crossfire has been used more and more, so it's much better than it was at launch.[/QUOTE] They killed the ATI brand. It's AMD now, only.

Hmm, he probably doesn't have enough power, he is playing on a 24" monitor on full resolution which would stress his card out more and he runs all of his games on high detail. How is that dumb? I basically quoted what he said to me one time.

[QUOTE=GoDong-DK;26975593]They killed the ATI brand. It's AMD now, only.[/QUOTE] It will always be ATI in my eyes.

[QUOTE=wingless;26975746]It will always be ATI in my eyes.[/QUOTE] ATi just sounds so much better.

[QUOTE=DrumStick;26976125]ATi just sounds so much better.[/QUOTE] Not sure, AMD has a nice ring to it.

I dunno, I personally think ATi has got a better ring to it.

AMD cards are just as reliable as Nvidia cards, exact same build quality because the same companies make them.[Zotac,Palit,Bfg all make Both]But The catalyst drivers on LINUX are annoying.

[QUOTE=FlubberNugget;26976579]AMD cards are just as reliable as Nvidia cards, exact same build quality because the same companies make them.[Zotac,Palit,Bfg all make Both]But The catalyst drivers on LINUX are annoying.[/QUOTE] Isn't it AMD/Nvidia that makes the GPU on the card... ?

[QUOTE=thf;26976608]Isn't it AMD/Nvidia that makes the GPU on the card... ?[/QUOTE] Im talking about the WHOLE card not the gpu

Well I guess most of the complicated stuff (and the stuff that is most likely to break) lies in the GPU.

[QUOTE=thf;26976711]Well I guess most of the complicated stuff (and the stuff that is most likely to break) lies in the GPU.[/QUOTE] The gpu is only part of the reliability, there is heatsinks, fans etc. to consider

Sure, I was just talking about the card part there :v:

They design the card architecture, then the same factories produce the cards, because the more the factories are contracted to do, the cheaper the cards are to produce. Build quality is same, only concern is architecture, which is fine. For both. Only major issues are with new products when QC hasn't been properly done (including new games).

Its probably just your friend's PC. We have our fair share of ATI/AMD and Nvidia cards with varying ages and chipsets, and none of our systems crash because of GPU problems. As far as I'm concerned, AMD and Nvidia both make great GPU's. Much better than intel anyway. He either has a GPU that is shitting out, or something is wrong with his PC overall.

[QUOTE=Rashy;26976242]Not sure, AMD has a nice ring to it.[/QUOTE] I prefer DAMMiT

[QUOTE=Rashy;26976242]Not sure, AMD has a nice ring to it.[/QUOTE] ATi Radeon sounds way better than AMD Radeon.

I have just had the greatest fuck around ever with ATi drivers, Catalyst would not install, the installer crashed no matter what version I tried. I had to use windows to locate a driver and I'm now using ATi Tray Tools instead of the Catalyst control center. Bareing in mind I have just upgraded from a long line of Nvidia cards I can safely say that no Nvidia driver that I have ever used has made me piss around that much just to get the bloody thing working. In addition I have had to put my processor back to its stock clock speed JUST so windows would start with the Radeon card inserted.

[QUOTE=Fatal-Error;26980245]I have just had the greatest fuck around ever with ATi drivers, Catalyst would not install, the installer crashed no matter what version I tried. I had to use windows to locate a driver and I'm now using ATi Tray Tools instead of the Catalyst control center. Bareing in mind I have just upgraded from a long line of Nvidia cards I can safely say that no Nvidia driver that I have ever used has made me piss around that much just to get the bloody thing working. In addition I have had to put my processor back to its stock clock speed JUST so windows would start with the Radeon card inserted.[/QUOTE]That sounds like too much work to get a video card installed. The most work I've ever had to do to get ATI drivers installed was installing IE6 and DirectX 9 before it could pass the video card checkpoint in the installer.

AMD cards are just as stable as Nvidia cards.

I have an AMD system, HD5770 and Phenom II X2 555BE The card has been marvelous, the only reason the CPU has been playing tricks on me is I core unlocked it to a quad-core and overclocked it to 3.48GHz. It didn't like that, and throws a BSOD once a month at me.

I have a 5770 and it's smashing No problems at all, the only bluescreen I've had in the months I've had it was due to a sneaky virus Also in the first week or so, the drivers crashed a few times, but it only minimized the game and I was right back in

Anyhow, after my completely unneeded mess around installing the card, I am happy as it obliterates my GTX 260 running GTA IV.

Thanks guys, I shall save up to purchase either a 5850 or 5870

5870 and your friend is a dumb fuck