How reliable are AMD drivers in comparison to Nvidia?

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Frosties

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Dec 15, 2013
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So currently i have a VTX3D 7850 that came part of my pre build in 2012. Since then, i've had bluescreens NON STOP on two drivers: atikmdag.sys and ntoskrnl.exe. I've RMA'd the card once last year under warranty but my warranty is now out and need to look for an upgrade. Problem is, i don't know if i can trust AMD anymore. Whenever i google amd bsods, the web is filled with the atikmdag.sys issue on even high end cards. I just have the feeling that amd drivers are terrible and that i cant trust them.

I replaced my PSU after the new card started bugging again but it didnt fix any issues, i now run a corsair semi modular 750w. 8gbs ram and a gigabyte 78lmt usb3. If i was to go with Nvidia i would buy a 770 Direct CU II card over the amd equivalent 280x, but im not sure if i should trust amd again, anyone else had bad experiences with amd?
 
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From my personal experience, driver issues can vary between both brands. I've used an AMD Radeon GPU and some drivers resulted in worse fps performance than the previous versions. One driver version sent my GPU temps soaring through the roof. On my current Nvidia GeForce GPU, I've had no fps performance downgrades and every driver version I used on Windows 7 worked fine. I've had some bad drivers on Windows 8.1, though. I've had better luck with drivers on Windows 7 than Windows 8.1. I've read numerous complaints from Nvidia consumers about the latest drivers causing freezing issues on 400/500 series GPUs and bugs in SLI / Nvidia Surround. But, for single GPU builds, Nvidia seems to have better driver performance.
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wanderer11

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Jun 11, 2012
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I have 7870 CF and the only BSOD I've seen is from overclocking too far. The only issue I have ever had with AMD drivers is having to manually delete registry entries between driver installs. I have a laptop with an Nvidia gpu and have occasionally gotten a BSOD or "Nvidia display driver has stopped responding...". I think you just got unlucky with your 7850. You saying it's a prebuilt says it all. Always build it yourself. Also, I don't know what brand VTX3D is, but anything ASUS makes will be better.
 
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Joseph DeGarmo

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Mar 12, 2014
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From my personal experience, driver issues can vary between both brands. I've used an AMD Radeon GPU and some drivers resulted in worse fps performance than the previous versions. One driver version sent my GPU temps soaring through the roof. On my current Nvidia GeForce GPU, I've had no fps performance downgrades and every driver version I used on Windows 7 worked fine. I've had some bad drivers on Windows 8.1, though. I've had better luck with drivers on Windows 7 than Windows 8.1. I've read numerous complaints from Nvidia consumers about the latest drivers causing freezing issues on 400/500 series GPUs and bugs in SLI / Nvidia Surround. But, for single GPU builds, Nvidia seems to have better driver performance.
 
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ish416

ish416

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Jul 5, 2012
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I've had similar issues with both. I would say that Nvidia's drivers seem a bit tighter (less clunky) than AMD's. That said, neither have really gave me more than the occasional issue, mostly when heavily overclocking.
 
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specialresident22

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Nov 3, 2008
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ive had my gtx970 g1 for a couple months now so I can comment properly. In the time I have different amd cards about 5-6 cards in 10 years I only 2 times had to roll back drivers cause of some graphic glitch. My gpu never caused my pc to crash at all in that time. I did have some catalyst errors with control panel but its like one or two.. Coming to NVidia I expected a smoother ride, but every time I get a new driver my machine goes into crsh mode and a few times ive had to restart the machine. The only stable drivers I have used and are still using is the 44.75. I love my card when its working but I get direct x hanging issues with either the drivers before or drivers after, that's at stock settings and overclocking so I know the card is fin. The card is very stable with 44.75 but now I have a fear of updating the drivers lol. Don't get me wrong I love my giga970 g1 . Its fast and quiet and runs cold whats not to like but driver issues really shouldn't be happening this early on. From my point of view in this short time I have to say amd were a lot more reliable but then again I don't think they released many drivers.
 
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