Who makes the best graphics drivers?

W1zzard · Aug 23, 2012

Everybody has a different understanding of what "best" means.

For your criteria, who makes the best drivers? Let us know why.

Nordic · Aug 23, 2012

Oh oh.... (Gets popcorn)

I use Amd right now. I havn't had any more problems with them than I did with nvidea. I don't like Amd's control center and much prefer nvideas. On that alone I choose nvidea because stability is similar in my experiences. Intel's drivers have never given me any problems though, ever. I only have had 8 months with intel though.

erixx · Aug 23, 2012

The more I approach retirement age, the less I like to spend time on constant tweaking. I will take nVidia based on the ca. 20 green vs. 2 red cards I have owned.

Mathragh · Aug 23, 2012

My first thought was Nvidia, but only because I usually build AMD powered PC's for people, and probably 1 in 2 people running AMD drivers has run in some kind of problems related to drivers, while I dont know many people with Nvidia cards with problems(but also not many people with Nvidia cards in the first place).

The most annoying problems while using AMD included:
Catalyst not wanting to run untill I completely wiped the drivers, and then manually deleted the registry keys.
Flash randomly crashing the PC(or in the case of the 7950 giving a grey flickering screen which requires a reboot) because of the weird clock profile that flash uses which lowers GPU memory clocks after the GPU memory got OC-ed.

I cannot vouch for the quality of Nvidia drivers though, but in the short time I used the Nvidia drivers they bluescreened my PC in LoL when a champion performed a specific move(very weird, Lux with light binding in this case), and randomly when I tried to watch a movie or use flash while using a 3d application(most annoying aswell).

In the end i'm not so sure, they both do not work perfectly. I wish there was a poll option "They all suck"

, but I guess that would defeat the purpose of the poll.

_ALB_R3D X · Aug 23, 2012

Been using a crossfire setup for more than one year and had lots of issues!
First I blamed my ex CPU (X6 1090t )for not being so powerful to fulfill the needs of the GPU's...but then I used tweaking and things completely changed...
ATM I upgraded ro 12.8 thinkin they must be the best but I'm havin this wierd thing happen where the second GPU would keep higher clocks on idle (450mhz/1250mhz) until I run BF3 or some game...!

Deleted member 3 · Aug 23, 2012

I vote Microsoft, standard vga driver always works. Other than that I'd say NV has the better control panel. Can't say I notice any difference between AMD/NV otherwise. Intel is just poop.

1nf3rn0x · Aug 23, 2012

I'd have to say Nvidia, only had two ATi cards a 4650 and a 4890, both were a pain in the ass, especially with drivers. Would always crash on bad company 2 when it just came out and wanted to play multilayer so badly

HammerON · Aug 23, 2012

I say Nvidia. Used ATI/AMD from 2004 to 2008 and have used Nividia since. Main reason was lack of Crossfire support and updates for new games when released. Nvidia seems to be ahead of AMD when new games are released, even if you are using multiple GPU's.

entropy13 · Aug 23, 2012

Definitely Intel. I mean, they rarely releases new drivers because updates and fixes aren't needed anymore! That's why they're the best!

:laugh:

hb904460 · Aug 23, 2012

Back in the day, Omega drivers were the best.

NC37 · Aug 23, 2012

Depends...at one time I had to switch to ATI due to incompatibilities with NV drivers. But when I eventually switched back, things worked fine.

But if rating based on bloatiness of the driver control panel...NV wins. ATI has never been able to get CCC to feel like it wasn't poo through a funnel.

Whoever voted Intel needs to be smacked...hard...and multiple times...

Crap Daddy · Aug 23, 2012

I think there should be another poll for statistics, how many NV and AMD users are on this forum. Might be interesting to find out. Back on topic, never had problems with NV drivers and I think the best drivers are those that you forget that you have them, they just work. I'm still on 285.62 since I own a 570 and just got Sniper Elite V2 which is a recently launched game. Fired up the benchmark and on the same settings W1zz used for 1680/1050 I got the same FPS as a 660Ti. Usually I change drivers only when one new game requires that it is mandatory.

arnoo1 · Aug 23, 2012

Nvidia, never had any problems, yeah there was once a grappy driver for the 9800gtx but i saw the news about it ibefore installed it, i am still on a gtx275 and works great

Law-II · Aug 23, 2012

Hi

I am a little embarrassed to say that I own two HD 5970's and that I fell for the QuadFireX hype when it first started the rounds; however was stung by the lack of support from AMD/ATI with the developers of the games. They may be trying to change the tide now with regard to supporting games but are facing an uphill challenge from their ATI legacy.

I have to run a single HD5970 these days as I get better frame rates. needless to say one of the HD5970's is gathering dust on a shelf.

CrossfireX, questionable support for games at best, if you are lucky you *may get support when a game is released and it *may be optimised; however most of the time the Catalyst Driver Team are "looking in to it".

Morphological filtering, is a joke and provides little to know improvment to IQ in games and slow's FPS

Catalyst Drivers - Vertical refresh (Vsync) dose not work in all applications; I have to use a third party app to lock the frame rate at 60Hz.

Catalyst Driver Team appear to have crippled dual GPU/VPU cards from their line up within the drivers from version 12.1 WHQL; I have reported this for the last eight months in a row - http://www.amdsurveys.com/se.ashx?s=5A1E27D20B2F3EBF. (I have to use 12.1a Preview drivers)

Needless to say I for one will not be investing in any of their future single or dual tech

atb (all the best)

Law-II

jigar2speed · Aug 23, 2012

This poll basically indicates how many fanboys of Nvidia, AMD and Intel are there on Techpowerup

jigar2speed · Aug 23, 2012

Crap Daddy said:
I think there should be another poll for statistics, how many NV and AMD users are on this forum. Might be interesting to find out. Back on topic, never had problems with NV drivers and I think the best drivers are those that you forget that you have them, they just work. I'm still on 285.62 since I own a 570 and just got Sniper Elite V2 which is a recently launched game. Fired up the benchmark and on the same settings W1zz used for 1680/1050 I got the same FPS as a 660Ti. Usually I change drivers only when one new game requires that it is mandatory.

Exactly, still on AMD's 12.3 and have yet not faced any issues.

95Viper · Aug 23, 2012

I'd have to say about even for all.

However, ATi nudges out NVidia, IMO, because... I have had a tiny amount more trouble with NVidia drivers (installing and/or upgrading), than ATi.

No comment on Intel and others, as the only time I have had to use them is on a netbook or years ago.

buggalugs · Aug 23, 2012

I think they all make good drivers, most "driver issues" are caused by badly installed systems, or some other conflict.

Nvidias drivers are a little more robust than AMDs, Nvidia's drivers are better able to handle a poorly installed/poorly tuned system.

Intel would win in the reliability area, but it doesnt really count because they dont have the features of AMD/Nvidia cards.

mypg0306 · Aug 23, 2012

Use AMD before and switched to Nvidia now. Found that NV is more reliable in terms of performance & user friendly control panel. Just had an issue with driver before (forgot which version) which once I shut down my PC, the case fans were still running. Update the latest driver solved the problem.

Frick · Aug 23, 2012

Dunno. Have had little trouble with drivers overall.

PLAfiller · Aug 23, 2012

I think there should be multiple choice. Since I have no complaints from Intel and nVidia for example. Only one choice is not enough

. Later on you will correct the statistical results when analyzing the collected data with IBM SPSS/Excel

.

the54thvoid · Aug 23, 2012

Meh, I've not voted. I've had zero problems on single card AMD drivers and any crossfire on older set up of dual 5850's were related to poor crossfire support from game. I had similar issues with a GTX 295 with low gpu usage.

I can't vote on ethical grounds.

I think a nice discussion would be who makes the most reliable custom cards (for either camp).

camoxiong · Aug 23, 2012

I have experienced both, the on-board nvidia 7600i series, the r6670 and a gtx 560ti.

edit:

plus a AMD a8 3870k with a 6670 in crossfire.

EarthDog · Aug 23, 2012

Nvidia.

Though I havent had any real issues with them in the past, from the amount of forum posts complaining about AMD's vs the amount that complain about Nvidia, AMD is trailing.

Never touched intel drivers.

EDIT:

poor crossfire support from game.

Hmm, I thought it was drivers that gave the ability to run Crossfire/SLI...I mean you dont change the game code to use SLI/Crossfire, you change/update the GPU driver, not patch the game.

cadaveca · Aug 23, 2012

EarthDog said:
not patch the game.

You would be surprised how un-true that is then.

Games need to be threaded poperly to run across multiple VGAs, and still keep everything in sync. If not, there'd be no need to different rendering modes. Those modes exist because the way the code runs prevents something from working right.

How Post-processing is done is the big thing, as I understand it, but I guess an actaul programmer that writes engines would know best. Where's Carmack when you need him?

Processor	Ryzen 7 5700X
Memory	48 GB
Video Card(s)	RTX 4080
Storage	2x HDD RAID 1, 3x M.2 NVMe
Display(s)	30" 2560x1600 + 19" 1280x1024
Software	Windows 10 64-bit

Processor	7800x3d
Motherboard	Gigabyte B650 Auros Elite AX
Cooling	Custom Water
Memory	GSKILL 2x16gb 6000mhz Cas 30 with custom timings
Video Card(s)	MSI RX 6750 XT MECH 2X 12G OC
Storage	Adata SX8200 1tb with Windows, Samsung 990 Pro 2tb with games
Display(s)	HP Omen 27q QHD 165hz
Case	ThermalTake P3
Power Supply	SuperFlower Leadex Titanium
Software	Windows 11 64 Bit
Benchmark Scores	CB23: 1811 / 19424 CB24: 1136 / 7687

System Name	PC \|\|Zephyrus G14 2023
Processor	Ryzen 9 5900x \|\| R9 7940HS @ 55W
Motherboard	MAG B550M MORTAR WIFI \|\| default
Cooling	1x Corsair XR5 360mm Rad\|\|
Memory	2x16GB HyperX 3600 @ 3800 \|\| 32GB DDR5 @ 4800MTs
Video Card(s)	MSI RTX 2080Ti Sea Hawk EK X \|\| RTX 4060 OC
Storage	Samsung 9801TB x2 + Striped Tiered Storage Space (2x 128Gb SSD + 2x 1TB HDD) \|\| 1TB NVME
Display(s)	Iiyama PL2770QS + Samsung U28E590, \|\| 14' 2560x1600 165Hz IPS
Case	SilverStone Alta G1M \|\|
Audio Device(s)	Asus Xonar DX
Power Supply	Cooler Master V850 SFX \|\| 240W
Mouse	ROG Pugio II
Software	Win 11 64bit \|\| Win 11 64bit

System Name	Red and Green,mean machine!
Processor	AMD RYZEN 7 5800X3D
Motherboard	Gigabyte B550 Aorus Pro
Cooling	Arctic eSports Duo
Memory	16GB DDR4 Corsair 3600Mhz
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte RTX3080 Waterforce
Storage	Couple ssd , nvme etc
Display(s)	AORUS FI25F 240hz
Case	Cooler Master HAF X
Audio Device(s)	OnBoard
Power Supply	Thermaltake Toughpower 750W
Software	Win 11 64bit

System Name	Omen
Processor	i7-4710HQ
Cooling	Dual fan/heatpipe
Memory	16GB
Video Card(s)	4GB GTX 860M
Storage	256GB PCIE SSD/256GB PNY UHS-1 SD Card
Display(s)	15.6' 1080P
Case	Aluminium
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Brick
Software	Win 10

Who makes the best graphics drivers?

Who makes the best graphics drivers?

AMD

NVIDIA

Intel

W1zzard

Administrator

Nordic

erixx

Mathragh

_ALB_R3D X

Deleted member 3

1nf3rn0x

HammerON

The Watchful Moderator

entropy13

hb904460

NC37

Crap Daddy

arnoo1

Law-II

jigar2speed

jigar2speed

95Viper

Super Moderator

buggalugs

mypg0306

Frick

Fishfaced Nincompoop

PLAfiller

the54thvoid

Super Intoxicated Moderator

camoxiong

EarthDog

cadaveca

My name is Dave

System Name	Aki
Processor	AMD 7800X3D
Motherboard	ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-A
Cooling	MSI MAG CoreLiquid E360
Memory	Patriot Viper Elite 5 32GB 6200
Video Card(s)	PNY RTX 4090 XLR8
Storage	Samsung 960 Pro 512 GB + WD Black SN850 1TB
Display(s)	Dell 32" Curved Gaming Monitor (S3220DGF)
Case	Corsair 5000D Airflow
Audio Device(s)	On-board
Power Supply	EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G5
Mouse	Roccat Kone Pure
Keyboard	ASUS ROG Strix Scope II Wireless
Software	Win 11 Pro
Benchmark Scores	Always changing~

Processor	AMD Ryzen 5 7600
Motherboard	Gigabyte B650 Aorus Elite AX
Cooling	Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE
Memory	Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-5600 16GBx2
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte Gaming OC AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT 16GB
Storage	TEAMGROUP T-Force Z440 2TB, SPower A60 2TB, SPower A55 2TB, Seagate 4TBx2
Display(s)	AOC 24G2 + Xitrix WFP-2415
Case	Montech Air X
Audio Device(s)	Realtek onboard
Power Supply	Be Quiet! Pure Power 11 FM 750W 80+ Gold
Mouse	Logitech G Pro X Superlight Wireless
Keyboard	Royal Kludge RK-S98 Tri-Mode RGB Mechanical Keyboard
Software	Windows 10

Processor	AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT
Motherboard	MSI B550m Pro-VDH
Cooling	Thermalright True Spirit 120
Memory	2x8GB Corsair Vengeance 3600mhz
Video Card(s)	APU
Storage	256gb SK Hynix
Display(s)	Lenovo D24-10
Case	Silverstone PS07B
Power Supply	Antec NeoEco 620W
Mouse	Logitech mx502
Software	Windows 11pro

System Name	Lailalo
Processor	Ryzen 9 5900X Boosts to 4.95Ghz
Motherboard	Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus (WIFI
Cooling	Noctua
Memory	32GB DDR4 3200 Corsair Vengeance
Video Card(s)	XFX 7900XT 20GB
Storage	Samsung 970 Pro Plus 1TB, Crucial 1TB MX500 SSD, Segate 3TB
Display(s)	LG Ultrawide 29in @ 2560x1080
Case	Coolermaster Storm Sniper
Power Supply	XPG 1000W
Mouse	G602
Keyboard	G510s
Software	Windows 10 Pro / Windows 10 Home

System Name	Old Fart / Young Dude
Processor	2500K / 6600K
Motherboard	ASRock P67Extreme4 / Gigabyte GA-Z170-HD3 DDR3
Cooling	CM Hyper TX3 / CM Hyper 212 EVO
Memory	16 GB Kingston HyperX / 16 GB G.Skill Ripjaws X
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte GTX 1050 Ti / INNO3D RTX 2060
Storage	SSD, some WD and lots of Samsungs
Display(s)	BenQ GW2470 / LG UHD 43" TV
Case	Cooler Master CM690 II Advanced / Thermaltake Core v31
Audio Device(s)	Asus Xonar D1/Denon PMA500AE/Wharfedale D 10.1/ FiiO D03K/ JBL LSR 305
Power Supply	Corsair TX650 / Corsair TX650M
Mouse	Steelseries Rival 100 / Rival 110
Keyboard	Sidewinder/ Steelseries Apex 150
Software	Windows 10 / Windows 10 Pro

System Name	gaming system
Processor	2600k @ 4.2 ghz
Motherboard	MSI Z77 MPower
Cooling	Thermalright ultra extreme 120 rev.C w/noctua NF-S12B push/pull
Memory	16gb corsair vengeance 2400 c11 @1.5 v/
Video Card(s)	GB gtx670 WF3x sli @1080/1372/6660(core/boost/mem)
Storage	2x samsung 850evo 250gb raid 0 ,2tb wdblack, 3TB wd purple
Display(s)	Samsung Syncmaster P2770FH, asus VH242t/19" lg 1440x900
Case	fractal design r4
Audio Device(s)	onboard
Power Supply	Corsair HX1050
Mouse	Razer abyssus
Keyboard	corsair k70
Software	Windows 10 pro x64

System Name	H2o Box
Processor	Intel(R) Xeon e5-2690 v2 Stock 3.300 GHz stock
Motherboard	MSI X79A-G43 Plus (MS-7760) v3
Cooling	CPU EK & Phobya G-Changer 360 V2.0 RAD H2o VGA "AlphaCool M18" Hybrid [pump replaced 18/8/21]
Memory	G.Skill TridentX 16Gb 11-12-12-32 2T @ 1866Mhz [locked]
Video Card(s)	Zotac GTX 1080ti AMP EXTREME
Storage	HyperX Fury 120GB & Savage 480GB SSD, Seagate 250GB,250GB 7200rpm Kingston 64GB SSD
Display(s)	Asus TUF Gaming VG32VQR 2560*1440 165Hz VA Panel
Case	Corsair O-800D
Audio Device(s)	Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro
Power Supply	Be Quiet! [Dark Power Pro 11] 1200W CM replaced [7-4-2017]
Mouse	Zelotes T-90
Keyboard	K66 Mechanical US Layout
Software	Win 10 Pro 64Bit v 20H2 / OS [build 19043.1237] WFEP 120.2212.3530.0

Processor	i5 4670K - @ 4.8GHZ core
Motherboard	MSI Z87 G43
Cooling	Thermalright Ultra-120 *(Modded to fit on this motherboard)
Memory	16GB 2400MHZ
Video Card(s)	HD7970 GHZ edition Sapphire
Storage	Samsung 120GB 850 EVO & 4X 2TB HDD (Seagate)
Display(s)	42" Panasonice LED TV @120Hz
Case	Corsair 200R
Audio Device(s)	Xfi Xtreme Music with Hyper X Core
Power Supply	Cooler Master 700 Watts

Processor	Intel i7 4790K
Motherboard	Asus Z97 Deluxe
Cooling	Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120
Memory	Corsair Dominator 1866Mhz 4X4GB
Video Card(s)	Asus R290X
Storage	Samsung 850 Pro SSD 256GB/Samsung 840 Evo SSD 1TB
Display(s)	Samsung S23A950D
Case	Corsair 850D
Audio Device(s)	Onboard Realtek
Power Supply	Corsair AX850
Mouse	Logitech G502
Keyboard	Logitech G710+
Software	Windows 10 x64

System Name	IntelSLI Z370 KEW's Rig
Processor	Intel Core i7 8770K @ 4.9GHz 1.290V
Motherboard	Gigabyte Aorus Z370 Gaming 7
Cooling	Thermaltake Floe Riing RGB 360 TT Premium Edition
Memory	G.Skill TridenZ RGB 32GB 3000Mhz DDR4
Video Card(s)	Zotac GTX1080Ti AMP Edition 11 GB GDDR5X in SLI
Storage	Samsung Evo 256 GB SSD + G.Skill Phoenix III 120GB SDD + 9TB HDD
Display(s)	3x Asus PG278Q in Surround Mode
Case	Thermaltake View 71 TG RGB
Audio Device(s)	Built-in Audio Sound BlasterX 720°
Power Supply	Cooler Master V1200W 80 Platinum
Software	Windows 10 Pro 64bit

System Name	PLAHI
Processor	I5-10400
Motherboard	MSI MPG Z490 GAMING PLUS
Cooling	120 AIO IWONGOU
Memory	1x32GB Kingston BEAST DDR4 @ 3200Mhz
Video Card(s)	PNY QUADRO RTX A2000
Storage	Intel 670P 512GB
Display(s)	Philips 288E2A 28" 4K + 22" LG 1080p
Case	Silverstone Raven 03 (RV03)
Audio Device(s)	Creative Soundblaster Z
Power Supply	Fractal Design IntegraM 650W
Mouse	Logitech Triathlon
Keyboard	REDRAGON MITRA
Software	Windows 11 Home x 64

System Name	LS Vtec B18B1 Bolt Ons
Processor	AMD Phenom ii 1045t x6 @ 3.5Ghz OC
Motherboard	ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0 AM3+
Cooling	CM Hyper 212 EVO Push Pull
Memory	CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) Black 1600Mhz
Video Card(s)	Sapphire 7950 Dual-X
Storage	Samsung EVO 250gb SSD/Samsung 500gb 7200 rpm/WD Cavirar Green 1TB
Display(s)	Acer H236HLbid IPS
Case	NZXT Gamma (Powder Coated Champion White)
Audio Device(s)	Creative Lab SB0460
Power Supply	NZXT HALE82 V2 550W
Software	Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit SP1
Benchmark Scores	Vtec

System Name	Black MC in Tokyo
Processor	Ryzen 5 7600
Motherboard	MSI X670E Gaming Plus Wifi
Cooling	Be Quiet! Pure Rock 2
Memory	2 x 16GB Corsair Vengeance @ 6000Mhz
Video Card(s)	XFX 6950XT Speedster MERC 319
Storage	Kingston KC3000 1TB \| WD Black SN750 2TB \|WD Blue 1TB x 2 \| Toshiba P300 2TB \| Seagate Expansion 8TB
Display(s)	Samsung U32J590U 4K + BenQ GL2450HT 1080p
Case	Fractal Design Define R4
Audio Device(s)	Plantronics 5220, Nektar SE61 keyboard
Power Supply	Corsair RM850x v3
Mouse	Logitech G602
Keyboard	Dell SK3205
Software	Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores	Rimworld 4K ready!

Processor	Ryzen 7800X3D
Motherboard	MSI MAG Mortar B650 (wifi)
Cooling	be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4
Memory	32GB Kingston Fury
Video Card(s)	Gainward RTX4070ti
Storage	Seagate FireCuda 530 M.2 1TB / Samsumg 960 Pro M.2 512Gb
Display(s)	LG 32" 165Hz 1440p GSYNC
Case	Asus Prime AP201
Audio Device(s)	On Board
Power Supply	be quiet! Pure POwer M12 850w Gold (ATX3.0)
Software	W10