Lethal Bug: TGE Crashes with latest ATI Drivers

#1 Update:

If you do not use "find a driver" and instead go here, you can download the uncertified Catalyst 3.0 drivers (DX9 required)--which don't lock up like the 2.5 do.

I haven't thoroughly tested them out yet, but was extremely happy to be able to play TZ again. :-)

~Eric

#2 Another reason WHQL testing blows... it's funny that Microsoft's attempts at preventing crashes involves using old drivers that are supposedly more stable yet actually are considerably less stable.

#3 Actually, the latest drivers are catalyst 3.0, build 6891 last I checked. I also had problems. Specifically, it would lock up on OpenGL mode in any Torque games. It apparently is a known issue, though. There's a huge thread on Rage3D.com about it. ATI's current recommendation is to downgrade for now; I'm using build 6200.

This about does it in for me with ATI, I think. It's a decent card, but drivers are having their ups and downs, and NVIDIA has all the neat toys. Annoyingly enough, Catalyst 3 seems to finally fix the frame rate and TS model corruption problems I've been having, but of course then it locks my computer up.

#4 6891E is what I downloaded.

I'll go play in TZ a bit more. Does it take awhile for the problem to show?

--Eric

#5 Ok... Total frustration sets in. It did lock up. Once upon entering a level, and once after playing in a different level for a few minutes.

Do you have a link to an older driver?
I wonder if anyone's had any trouble playing Tribes2?

--Eric

#6 I have a choice between an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro and a Leadtek nVidia ti4600. I got really bored of encountering driver problems with the ATI card so I switched back to the ti4600.

I think it is a shame that such a great piece of hardware is let down by poor drivers. I can swap nVidia cards around different PC's without a problem, stable, fast and transferable. The ATI cards are like playing russian roulet, sometimes they work fine and all is great and other times it's like a 15 year old wrote the driver in his bedroom.

ATI are *much* better than they used to be but the situation is still not acceptable. With the budget behind the hardware development you'd think that developing and testing a driver would be easy.

My Radeon 9700 Pro is now sitting collecting dust whereas the 'inferior' ti4600 is working admirably without a hitch.

- Melv.

#7 After my difficulties with my 8500 I am anxiously awaiting the GeForce FX.

#8 Same here Pat!

- Melv.

#9 I doubt I'll get an FX, i think I'll skip a generation and get the next one out.

Phil.

#10 That's weird... I've loved my 8500s @ home, mac and pc, and I'm looking forward to switching my main machine over to my 9700.

As for driver issues, I remember our office upgrading to the 40 series NV driver, only to promptly downgrade to earlier drivers because of all the problems and issues.

Unfortunately, modern graphic card driver development IS rocket-science! ;)

d

#11 I ended up going back to the 2.4 drivers, and turning on the textured fog.

Kinda disappointing, but I won't rule out any video card until I actually have money in hand to buy one. ;-)

~Eric

#12 I like ATI cards, but it does seem like we've had constant problems with thier drivers going way back.

#13 Two engineers at ATI used to work for me. They are excellent people.

I used to have a Radeon, but took it back and went out and bought a GeForce to replace it for the same reasons as described by other people.

It's a crying shame.

#14 Seems like the Tribes team came up with an implementation, and never spent any time with ATI trying to figure out why it didn't work on their boards. Silly. I'll see if later this month I can't use my personal resources to look into this, since nobody else seems to be bothering at all.

BTW, I'm running Catalyst 3 on a number of machines at home and at work, and the other stuff I'm running has no problems with ATI boards.

d

#15 I wonder if it'd be worth our time and effort to see if ATI would be willing to lend help on this?

I don't know if it would be in their best interest to help or not. Might not be a demographically large enough base for them? Unless Tribes2 was included, perhaps?

--Eric Forhan, MRT

#16 I have a R9700 at home and a R9700 at work. The one at work, using a KT266 motherboard, works fine no matter what the program. The one at home, using a KT400 motherboard (set at DDR333), locks up once in a blue moon; more often on games with heavier graphics needs.

It seemed to get better when I installed the latest VIA Hyperion drivers, but then it came back again. Bah! However, I'm not sure it's entirely ATIs fault here, eventhough the bluescreen minidump consistently claims THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER in the ATI driver module.