Do NOT buy ATI / Radeon products!
 

I can not believe the conversation i had with those idiots over my radeon 8500

Their drivers keep messing up with the game Mafia, i have the most recent drivers, and i am telling them windows is even saying it is the radeon 8500.

Then they ask me how long ago i purchased the product, i said 4 - 5 months ago, they said you need to call their 1-900 # and pay $1.95 a minute for support to fix this issue! Even though it is their damn drivers fault!

I said let me speak to a manager, they said no, we can't help you. So i said well i am up shit creek with out a paddle over your dumb ass card and i must pay $1.95 to fix your drivers problems? and she said "yeah"

then i said what the hell is this, are you scamming people to buy your products, then when you have problems, your fucked and paying $1.95 for support to fix your products

i paid $500 originaly for this card, when it first came out. and this is the kind of support you get?

i called up 2 times, spoke to 2 differentpeople, didn't even raise my voice or curse, and they both hung up on me!

what the hell

never buying radeon again :(

We have run ATI cards since they came out. And the only time we every ran into a problem we found the answer right on their help section online. Don't know about the radeon part but you might try there.

yeah
well

i was one of the first people to report a bug ina brand new game that came out a few months back, and they told me it was my computer

then 2 days later they say its their fault and have a patch for it

like i said, they issued a patch for 9700 which "had" the same problem as i am having with the 8500.

errrrrrrrrrr

I thought you were going to say they did testing on Monkeys or something ;-)

for all i know they are a bunch of monkeys!

Have you tried installing DirectX8.2b ?

I've used an ATI all in wonder for video shit, had it for over a year and never had a problem...this is more than I can say for just about every other video card that I've owned.

I had an ATI 3D Rage way back in the day and it was a piece of shit. Conflicts, non compatibility, the works. I never bought their stuff after that.

DirectX8.2b i don't believe i have installed

i am running 8.1

i think you are thinking directx 8.1b

thats not for XP

I was thinking about getting an ATI card, got an MSI 64meg instead, good idea, my friend has the same specs as I do, cept a 32meg ati card, and GTA3 and mafia lagggggggggggggggggggg to death...
1gz duron, 256 pc133 (and he has ddr) 40ggi 7200, and my board is an ECS... shitty one, and xp, and it fucking flies

I'm not a big gamer myself, but I could never understand why someone would spend upwards of $2k for a really hot PC to run games, when a $250 xbox kicks the hell out of the graphics that a PC can offer ??


Tim
:Graucho

A 32 meg card is a piece of crap, it's as simple as that. I have a 64 meg Radeon 7500 for my laptop and I have no problems running those games.


Also to the guy who needs tech support. Try the Plutonium drivers at:

http://www.driverheaven.net/drivers/

These are the "unofficial" ATI drivers made by a 3rd party and they in general offer better performance.

Also if you want, just call the 900 # and then issue a chargeback. It's so easy to get a refund on a 900 # it's not even funny, and I guess if they're jerking your chain like that you should consider it.

In the case of a game developer the answer's pretty obvious.

Saying 'could never' with that statement implies you haven't been shopping computers longer than x-boxes have been around.

i went and picked up the radeon 9700 just now :(

i am a sucker for these things

hopefully this will be better then the 8500

Well since we aren't a bunch of game developer's around here I didn't think that was the case. And as for my experience with dealing with computers, it probably put's me doing so around the same time you were smearing the shit from your diapers all over your face :1orglaugh I was mearly pointing out that I could not understand why, in todays market that someone would want to spend so much money when the same capability could be had for around $250.


Tim
:Graucho

i use almost the exact same card for the exact same game.. no problems whatsoever.

Hey Pete, do you know Scott Moss? I heard he worked for Scott Phillips.. I tried to poach him to a mainstream company about 2 years ago but now I heard he worked for him recently and I realise now why he turned me down :)

Hmm... Sounds like you learned what it means to be a "Beta Tester" on the open retail market. :) Sorry to hear that man. I would suggest in the future, not buying hardware when it first comes out. Give it at least a few months and read reviews about it, before trying it out. And after you buy it, keep your receipt so that within 30 days, you can take it back for exchange or refund.

That's just my :2 cents: though.

I agree that ATI products have sub-par drivers. But, I also believe that their products rock.

I have a radeon 8500, and have never had issues with it. Before buying one, find out from someone else who has it with the same system as you have (same OS, etc.), and if they dont have any problems, you will probably be very pleased with the product.

It's too bad a product can suck only because of shitty support from the company...

Well I have now my first ATI card (9700 Pro) and I have NOT run into any problems, and Mafia is running very good, no errors..

We have here at work Xbox and in my opinion (my) pc has much better graphics than xbox.

example graphich in THPS3 in xbox is not so good, then if I play it with my pc in something like 1600x1200 details maxed up it will look 100x better than in xbox..

It should be this way:

PC kicks the hell out of the graphics that a xbox can offer

I have ati radeon 7500 (64mb ddr), and the only problem I've had with it was with GTA3. I have a dual system (C:win98 and D:win2k), and the game for some reason lagged on 98.. I installed the newest drivers for win2k and the game flies.
TVout is also great.

What is this, some kind of super X-Box? The X-Box can't "kick the hell out of the graphics a PC can offer".

SpaceAce

That's another thing: unless you are playing on a High Definition Television, the resolution alone guarantees a console could never compete.

SpaceAce

after a day of testing the radeon 9700 pro it does quite well, and i am very satisfied.

it does not lag at all, and i am running everything to the max, pushing my computer it's hardest, and no lag at all. insane.

the rendering of the characters and scenes in the game are amazing, radeon has won with this card. much better then the 8500 i was using a day ago.

quite a pricey card but well worth it.

bhutocracy, i don't know of him sorry :(