I've just been having an awful experience with AMD/ATI and felt like sharing with others who feel the same way(or if people know fixes for the problems i've been having feel free to suggest that, I can't find em to save my life it seems though...) So basically aside from the fact that all of their default hardware runs ridiculously hot, For example, if i don't manually up the fan speed on my HD 6870, it will easily break 70*C in games(and i can't even manually adjust the fan speed anymore cause i can't install CCC... but ill get to that). My CPU(a phenom II x4 @3.2ghz standard clock) runs at about 25-28*C which isn't too bad but comparing it to my friend who has an i7 which idles around 17-18*C makes me feel like they coulda done better... So recently I had made a post on here as well as a couple other forums(including an AMD forum) about how i was having issues in various games, I had somewhat dismissed it as a driver issue because I had tried 2 different driver version, both of the newest ones for my card. Turns out it WAS the issue, BOTH of those drivers caused the same issue. So I had to revert to an older driver, but hey guess what, apparently that driver no longer works with the Catalyst Control Center, tried installing a suite with it for that driver version (from the official amd site of older drivers) and after the install(yes i uninstalled properly) it tells me this display driver isn't compatible with CCC... well then why the fuck is the download packaged together?!?!? Also, ever since I got my HD 6870 I was looking forward to using the HDMI connection on my HD TV/Monitor. When I tried to do this however, the display would be all screwed up(in a very very minor way, obvious enough to see and irritate the eyes--I get a headache after like 5minutes of looking at the screen). And after a bit of research I found out that it was attempting to display a 16:9 aspect ratio on my TV which is of a 16:10 aspect ratio, so i figured hey, no problem ill just go in and manually adjust the resolution to a 16:10 one, the only 16:10 aspect ratio i could get it to was the native resolution which is 1440x900(because of how the manual resolution setting thing works), however because it was through hdmi it is rather small on the screen and theres black edges surrounding it on all side, so i was like, good thing they have a scaling option so i can make the image bigger, but oh hey.... that option gets disabled when the resolution is set to the native resolution... awesome. So i tried seeing if I could change the resolution just through windows, and i noticed it had some 16:10 ones on there, so i was like oh sweet ill just do it through there! but nope.... just ignores those resolutions basically, screen flickers for a second, but no change to the picture and if i check in CCC still tells me the same resolution it was at before... Anyway thats my rant, and I'm just really annoyed with AMD and will likely switch to nVidia/Intel for my next tower(unless they get there shit together)... Anyone else out there hating AMD?
Many other threads like this. Original arguments get a lot of hits on forums. You won't see much traffic come to a thread that's posted 10000000 times
thats fine, as I said, I was just frustrated and felt like making a post ranting about why I was frustrated with em. (also decided to do a search, and didn't find much of anything on the first 3 pages except for FalconFours rant that he had, that was semi related.)
Crypto, please keep your opinions of "duplicate threads" to yourself... no problem with someone sharing multiple points of view on a matter in a new topic. Starting a new thread promotes discussion, bumping a marginally-related topic does not And yeah, I know, I just started a similar "AMD annoyance" topic a few weeks ago (if that long), but it was related to AMD's S1/S1G1/S1G2 crap.
I have nothing against AMD at the moment, mainly because I have nothing to compare it to. The only problem I've ever had is some easily fixed compatibility issues with Dragon Age. I've only ever had one nice computer, and it's this one. Next rig I build I want to give Intel a chance. See if things work out better/smoother with it or not.
When it comes to video hardware, AMD's technology seems to trump Intel's and nVidia's but it is marginalized by the problematic drivers. I never install the CCC if I can avoid it, and try to install the barebones drivers. Intel still dominates the processor market, sorry AMD fanboys. The QPI is a step forward. I'll admit AMD has the win on price point but that's all.
This may change when their new processor architecture, bulldozer, comes out. 12 and 16 core server processors and 8 core desktop processors. Other than that I think you are spot on about everything AMD offers.
Well the only thing I really used CCC for was manually adjusting the fan speed on my GPU cause the fan speed pretty much never goes about like 28% or so on the auto adjust setting and it can get pretty hot so I would just manually turn up the fan speed to around like 40% or so to cool it off a bit, you know of any programs that I could use for that instead of CCC?
You do know that the i7 is MUCH newer than the Phenom II's right? The i7's are more efficient at what they do, so they'll run cooler... Maybe he has a better CPU cooler or yours is a bit dusty? As for your display being messed up while using HDMI, thats not AMD/ATI only... Alot of GpU's have problems while using HDMI. Can't wait for Bulldozer my first ever bud will have bulldozer, or sandy bridge if bulldozer is too expensive or it just sucks... And probably a GTX 560 Ti
Unfortunately I don't. I HATE loud computers. All my video cards are fanless. I use Minesweeper to adjust their fan speed. Sorry!
Phenom II's are great processors. Much better bang for your buck then Intel. I have the same one as you OC'd to 3.8 runs ~45 under full load with a $20 aftermarket cooler. Idling right now at 23. Idle temp really doesn't mean anything your temp is fine. Can't really compare the temps either being that i7's are 32nm and the PII's are 45nm. I don't know what the problem with your card is I've had five ati's and they all worked great. I'm loving my current 5770 shit works nice. As was said avoid catalyst if you can it sucks balls.
Honestly the main thing I'm frustrated with is their software, its been pissing me off like no other, also the other thing I'm not liking is (with everything stock speeds/hardware) my Phenom II can get up to 60*C under load, and my HD6870 will get into the mid 70's under load. Those are both a lot hotter than I would like it. For the GPU it depends on the game, but on BC2 it will get to like 74*C (unless i compensated by manually turning up the fan speed). The only reason I have yet to upgrade my heatsink fan on the CPU is because doing so automatically voids my warranty with amd. And as for the i7, im not 100% sure thats what he has i just know he has an intel, but I also know that he built his tower before mine(i built mine maybe 8 or 9 months ago-with a few upgrades since then), or if/what he upgraded since then. I was just really pissed off when I wrote it so I just kinda put i7 haha, could just as easily be an i5 or something. (and as for the dusty comment, I just replaced my PSU a few weeks ago and cleaned out all the dust as well as ended up replacing the thermal paste). But yeah, as I'm learning now the CCC is pretty shittastic, maybe I'll see if I games will work properly with just the newer drivers(without the CCC and all the extra crap they throw in their packages).
General rule currently is: AMD CPUs need a third party cooler. The stock cooler is just not good enough. Out of the box, they run on the margins of what is acceptable and isn't exactly quiet about it either. AMD/ATI GPUs are right now cheaper for similar performance nVidia GPUs. If you got fan/heat issues, it is not the GPU manufacturers fault, but the graphics-card manufacturers fault for skimping on cooling. Go with a proper name brand like MSI, Gainward or Asus. That said, nVidia got video-drivers that is miles ahead of any current ATI offering.
Hmm... in the research I did I thought XFX was also supposed to be a pretty good brand? But that may have just been because of their really long warranties, idk. And i've never heard of gainward. Any suggestions on a 3rd party cooler? i was looking at the corsair(i think it was corsair) h50 not too long ago, only thing i was kind of worried abuot(not too much, cause a friend said it wasn't really a huge difference) is that i read some installation article saying that the cooler needed to be attached to a fan that was blowing air in, and my back fan by the cpu blows air out(and no way of reversing it that i know of).
Yeah, I'd never even heard of Gainward... MSI, my best friend bought an MSI gaming laptop (GX630) a few years ago and it's been a headache since day 1... came with 4gb RAM but no 64-bit support at all, system won't come out of sleep with Windows 7 x64's drivers or anything I can find online, and the cooling system is so poor it overheats regularly. MSI refuses to support 64-bit Windows on it. I don't trust MSI anymore because of it. Asus is a good brand, my Asus laptop is my primary PC (this one *waves*), and works great. However, there are many more reputable brands than just those. EVGA is the top-tier nVidia company as far as I'm concerned. XFX is also great. Zotac is a decent brand too, a new one, but they make some quality shit that I've seen, great graphics cards and decent powered mini-systems. My brand new server/media center is a Zotac ZBOX, but it's slightly underpowered and has a bad case design that allows for zero airflow or cooling, it really bakes. Thinking of returning it and getting another ZBOX with a different CPU though
MSI has Twin FROZR II right?? I've heeard those are excellent cards, cost a bit more though... And yeah, stock AMD cpu coolers suck, you definetely need something better
Yeah, the main thing I'm worried about though is the fact that it voids my warranty, I'm thinking about just waiting till that ends then upgrading then. Idk though(also a little short on money, so thats enforcing that decision to postpone haha)
Wait, how are you thinking changing your cooler (which is something desktops are designed for anyway) voids your warranty? If anything it's taking precautionary measures...