ATI Video Cards Are Crap!

[Chucker]

Hi,
A couple weeks ago my company got me a new PC. It's a Dell Precision
650 with Xenon processor running at 2.8GHz, 1.5 GB RAM, and a SCSI
hard drive. That's the good news.

The bad news is that it has a ATI FireGL X-128 video card. This video
card is the biggest piece of X!@$$!* crap!. Not only does it cause my
PC to lock-up several times a day when I'm using Inventor, it locks up
when I'm using Word or IE6. We're not talking the 'nice' lock-up
where you can hit Cntr-Alt-Delete to reboot, we're talking complete
lock-up, where you have to literally unplug the PC to reboot.

Yes, I've installed the latest drivers from ATI and made all the
recommended settings to run Inventor - but it was all for not. And
it's not just me, my co-worker got the same PC and he's experiencing
the same problems. The bottom line is ATI video cards are crap and I
don't know how ATI stays in business. Anyhow, I bought a nVidia
Quadro FX500 card today and it should be here in about a week.

Stay away from ATI unless you really want to be frustrated.

 

[Sean]

Perhaps is something other than the video card? Like the Dell system
itself? I've dealt with a LOT of dells, and they aren't that great.

 

[Cannonfodder]

Hi,
A couple weeks ago my company got me a new PC. It's a Dell Precision
650 with Xenon processor running at 2.8GHz, 1.5 GB RAM, and a SCSI
hard drive. That's the good news.

The bad news is that it has a ATI FireGL X-128 video card. This video
card is the biggest piece of X!@$$!* crap!. Not only does it cause my
PC to lock-up several times a day when I'm using Inventor, it locks up
when I'm using Word or IE6. We're not talking the 'nice' lock-up
where you can hit Cntr-Alt-Delete to reboot, we're talking complete
lock-up, where you have to literally unplug the PC to reboot.

Yes, I've installed the latest drivers from ATI and made all the
recommended settings to run Inventor - but it was all for not. And
it's not just me, my co-worker got the same PC and he's experiencing
the same problems. The bottom line is ATI video cards are crap and I
don't know how ATI stays in business. Anyhow, I bought a nVidia
Quadro FX500 card today and it should be here in about a week.

Stay away from ATI unless you really want to be frustrated.

What makes you think it's the video card?
The symptoms you describe could be memory or PSU related.
To say ALL ATI cards ore crap is a bit of a sweeping statement. I have a
Sapphire 9600XT which is rock solid even under stress.

'fodder



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[GT-Force]

Hi,
Probably, the card itself is just fine, to give credit to ATI's hardware
engineers. However, I have a strong feeling that the softwar drivers are the
biggest piece of X!@$$!* crap that you are talking about.
I know that ATI came a long way about drivers, especially after they started
the catalyst crew program, but looks like they're still no match for
nVidia's driver team.
I wonder what would it be like if these two companies merged, and ATI
designed the hardware and nVidia wrote the software for it. Hmmm, sounds
like a sweet dream including cards with a lot of ingenious features with
very high image quality that run just fine
Sorry for your frustration btw...
GT

 

[Augustus]

The bad news is that it has a ATI FireGL X-128 video card. This video

card is the biggest piece of X!@$$!* crap!. Not only does it cause my
PC to lock-up several times a day when I'm using Inventor, it locks up
when I'm using Word or IE6. Anyhow, I bought a nVidia
Quadro FX500 card today and it should be here in about a week.

Stay away from ATI unless you really want to be frustrated.

I'm keenly anticipating your post 10 days from now about how Nvidia cards
are crap when similar things happen. If you had googled this to any degree,
you would have found that there are issues with the Dell Precision 650
series and the high end reference video cards . One lab at Eastern Illinois
University has your system and to date they have replaced 3 motherboards, 2
power supplies, 2 CPU's, 2 sets of memory, and 4 video cards. The last video
card they stuck in a Quadro and the problems still continue. This is a Dell
issue.

 

[PontGTP]

Well let me tell you that my Dell GX260 running Win2000 with 1 gig or ram
and 80 gig HDD seems to run slower than my Dell GX100 at times

every now and then it freezes you cant move or close anything then all of a
sudden you can
dont know what it is but it's not related to the Vid card since I've tried
different ones

when you find out what the problem is let me know

 

[PontGTP]

at home i have an 2500 barton running an ATI 9700 pro never had a problem
and my other system is 1800 xp running ATI AIW8500DV and again never had a
problem

they both game very very well online and single player

 

[Blaedmon]

I started to read his original post and caught the word 'Dell', and
dismissed him as a bit of a dick, sorry. Dell should spell 'Dill'. Dont buy
them, for gods sakes. Everything within them is cheap but with the pricetag
of quality. Either build your own machine, or simply shut up. Btw, the only
thing I dislike about ATI thus far is the lack of digital vibrance Nvidia
has as standard. I miss DV

 

[GTX_SlotCar]

.......ATI video cards are crap and I
don't know how ATI stays in business.

If you are indicative of all the bright little stars your company hires, I
don't know how it stays in business.

So, won't Dell stand behind this? Isn't it covered under some kind of
warranty?
Or...
Maybe you could call ATI, give them your qualifications and offer to design
a good video card for them. I'm sure they'd love to have you on their
engineering team.

 

[BADRAPTOR]

Hi,
A couple weeks ago my company got me a new PC. It's a Dell Precision
650 with Xenon processor running at 2.8GHz, 1.5 GB RAM, and a SCSI
hard drive. That's the good news.

The bad news is that it has a ATI FireGL X-128 video card. This video
card is the biggest piece of X!@$$!* crap!. Not only does it cause my
PC to lock-up several times a day when I'm using Inventor, it locks up
when I'm using Word or IE6. We're not talking the 'nice' lock-up
where you can hit Cntr-Alt-Delete to reboot, we're talking complete
lock-up, where you have to literally unplug the PC to reboot.

Yes, I've installed the latest drivers from ATI and made all the
recommended settings to run Inventor - but it was all for not. And
it's not just me, my co-worker got the same PC and he's experiencing
the same problems. The bottom line is ATI video cards are crap and I
don't know how ATI stays in business. Anyhow, I bought a nVidia
Quadro FX500 card today and it should be here in about a week.

Stay away from ATI unless you really want to be frustrated.

my question is this why are you buying a vidio card for a company pc?
sounds like B.S. to me!!!!!!!!!!! TROLL!!!!

 

[GTD]

Hi,
A couple weeks ago my company got me a new PC. It's a Dell Precision
650 with Xenon processor running at 2.8GHz, 1.5 GB RAM, and a SCSI
hard drive. That's the good news.

Bwaaaahhhhh! Dude, you got a DELL!

The bad news is that it has a ATI FireGL X-128 video card. This video
card is the biggest piece of X!@$$!* crap!. Not only does it cause my
PC to lock-up several times a day when I'm using Inventor, it locks up
when I'm using Word or IE6. We're not talking the 'nice' lock-up
where you can hit Cntr-Alt-Delete to reboot, we're talking complete
lock-up, where you have to literally unplug the PC to reboot.

And you decided this was the video card's fault how?

Yes, I've installed the latest drivers from ATI and made all the
recommended settings to run Inventor - but it was all for not. And
it's not just me, my co-worker got the same PC and he's experiencing
the same problems. The bottom line is ATI video cards are crap and I
don't know how ATI stays in business. Anyhow, I bought a nVidia
Quadro FX500 card today and it should be here in about a week. See previous question.

Stay away from ATI unless you really want to be frustrated.

Actually, that's all I've owned for 5 or 6 years, and have yet to be
frustrated.


You should start drinking prune juice and KY jelly cocktails right now,
that will make things a lot smoother.
-Felatio Love

 

[First of One]

It's not the FireGL, but the assload of bloated extra software bundled into
the Dell.

 

[NightSky 421]

Stay away from ATI unless you really want to be frustrated.

While I can understand your frustration with the situation, I can't ever
recall having an ATI card that was a frustrating experience. For example,
I've owned my 9800 Pro for a solid year now and still love it.

 

[Runar]

The fact that you don't ask this group to help solve your problem, and
instead post after you come to this conclution, tell us that you don't
deserve our time. Do you in your wildest dreams think a company like ATI,
with their popularity and 1000's of good reviews, only sell crap? Do you
think every reviewer on the internet and in PC-magasines are dumb newbies?
You must do, since they are all wrong, and you are right.
This I can tell you, this is a Dell issue, nothing more nothing less. I'm
100% sure that if you removed your ATI card and installed it in a decent PC
(not a Dell), it would work like a charm.

 

[fish]

I believe the ATI driver team has equaled or surpassed nvidia at this point
in DirectX. I had many nvidia cards and at some point during the GF4 time,
they went to shit!

Its about the one thing keeping me from jumping back to nvidia for the next
go around, read much about these pixel shader 3's - they're great!

I believe this problem is related to OGL. The card you have and the software
you are using is specialized. Its likely that it was developed on nvidia
gear and since nvidia gear has always been best with OGL, you made a really
bad decision to chose an ATI card. If you spent even a very short amount of
time researching on the web for the appropriate piece of hardware you would
have known this before your purchase.

Your rants and raves are unfounded and ridiculous almost childish.

Consumer gaming and 2D desktop applications from Abobe and Macromedia work
best with ATI cards these days and for DTP, nvidia was never any good. I've
tried them all and let me tell you, thank god for ATI. They are the best
compromise between 3D and 2D quality and performance. Matrox is the pits and
nvidia is only fastest in OGL and has seriously compromised 2D in almsot all
cases.

3D Animation = nvidia
2D imaging = ATI
Video editing = Matrox or ATI
3D Gaming = ATI

Will you need help installing that new nvidia card? Its the big card in the
AGP slot, that the single, bigger slot near the center of the main board

 

[fish]

I believe the ATI driver team has equaled or surpassed nvidia at this point
in DirectX. I had many nvidia cards and at some point during the GF4 time,
they went to shit!

Its about the one thing keeping me from jumping back to nvidia for the next
go around, read much about these pixel shader 3's - they're great!

I believe this problem is related to OGL. The card you have and the software
you are using is specialized. Its likely that it was developed on nvidia
gear and since nvidia gear has always been best with OGL, you made a really
bad decision to chose an ATI card. If you spent even a very short amount of
time researching on the web for the appropriate piece of hardware you would
have known this before your purchase.

Your rants and raves are unfounded and ridiculous almost childish.

Consumer gaming and 2D desktop applications from Abobe and Macromedia work
best with ATI cards these days and for DTP, nvidia was never any good. I've
tried them all and let me tell you, thank god for ATI. They are the best
compromise between 3D and 2D quality and performance. Matrox is the pits and
nvidia is only fastest in OGL and has seriously compromised 2D in almsot all
cases.

3D Animation = nvidia
2D imaging = ATI
Video editing = Matrox or ATI
3D Gaming = ATI

Will you need help installing that new nvidia card? Its the big card in the
AGP slot, that the single, bigger slot near the center of the main board

 

[johns]

A couple weeks ago my company got me a new PC. It's a Dell Precision
650 with Xenon processor running at 2.8GHz, 1.5 GB RAM, and a SCSI
hard drive. That's the good news.

No it is not. That computer was obviously spec'd out by
some grossly out-of-date individual .. probably a wanna
be CS major .. or even a CS major. A scsi drive ? Oh
man. And they fell for that Xeon hype? That cpu is getting
so dated, I put it right with the scsi drive. I'm surprised
the bonehead didn't talk you into a $6500 dual Xeon
system where one of the cpus spends all its time doing
nothing. Every part you have in that system is several
years old. You need to go in there and update the
BIOS .. and probably the BIOS on most of your peripherals
..... like your cdr. That entire system pre-dates WinXP
and never knew directx or D3D. Even the "fire" video
was designed for OpenGL .. and probably the software
you are running is OpenGL based too. You've got a
poor job of integration there. There's no fix for that
collection of has-beens. Amazing "whomever" didn't
talk you into a Linux license too. I'll bet he tried.

johns

 

[GT-Force]

Although, it is not the point of discussion, a dual Xeon with Linux can be
God-sent, even if it is Dell, depending what you are doing. Keep that in
mind, just in case
GT

 

[borolad]

Hi,
A couple weeks ago my company got me a new PC. It's a Dell Precision
650 with Xenon processor running at 2.8GHz, 1.5 GB RAM, and a SCSI
hard drive. That's the good news.

The bad news is that it has a ATI FireGL X-128 video card. This video
card is the biggest piece of X!@$$!* crap!. Not only does it cause my
PC to lock-up several times a day when I'm using Inventor, it locks up
when I'm using Word or IE6. We're not talking the 'nice' lock-up
where you can hit Cntr-Alt-Delete to reboot, we're talking complete
lock-up, where you have to literally unplug the PC to reboot.

Yes, I've installed the latest drivers from ATI and made all the
recommended settings to run Inventor - but it was all for not. And
it's not just me, my co-worker got the same PC and he's experiencing
the same problems. The bottom line is ATI video cards are crap and I
don't know how ATI stays in business. Anyhow, I bought a nVidia
Quadro FX500 card today and it should be here in about a week.

Stay away from ATI unless you really want to be frustrated.

What / which video was in before the FireGL ?
PSU size & spec please ?
DirecX version please ?
O/S version in general & SP in the particular please ?
BIOS settings in general & AGP setting in the particular ?
AGP chipset driver for the MOBO ?

BoroLad
N.B. If it's a workstation then technical support is via email and
phone.

 

[J. Clarke]

No it is not.

Well, actually most of it is--the _bad_ news is that it's a Dell.

That computer was obviously spec'd out by
some grossly out-of-date individual .. probably a wanna
be CS major .. or even a CS major. A scsi drive ? Oh
man.

And they fell for that Xeon hype? That cpu is getting
so dated, I put it right with the scsi drive.

In what manner is a P4 with multiple processor support enabled "dated"?

I'm surprised
the bonehead didn't talk you into a $6500 dual Xeon
system where one of the cpus spends all its time doing
nothing.

Ever use a dual-processor system? They don't quite work like you think. As
for "talking him into it", generally speaking the person who gets "talked
into it" is the guy in accounting that cuts the checks, not the end-user.

Every part you have in that system is several
years old.

On the basis of the information given how do you conclude that this system
that was purchased new from Dell "a couple of weeks ago" is composed of
parts all of which are several years old?

You need to go in there and update the
BIOS .. and probably the BIOS on most of your peripherals
.... like your cdr. That entire system pre-dates WinXP

That's odd, Dell lists under tested operating systems for that model
"Microsoft Windows XP Professional". And Dell does not appear to have a
single one in stock right now that does not have Windows XP Pro installed.

and never knew directx or D3D.

Yeah, right, Microsoft makes a special version of XP for Dell that has
DirectX removed.

Even the "fire" video
was designed for OpenGL .. and probably the software
you are running is OpenGL based too. You've got a
poor job of integration there. There's no fix for that
collection of has-beens. Amazing "whomever" didn't
talk you into a Linux license too. I'll bet he tried.

Uh, next time do your homework. Meantime, you want some HP sauce for that
foot?