I just bought a X1900XTX, and am kinda wishing i bought a 7900gtx instead.... only because of one reason...

Microsoft .NET Framework....

I can't believe that ATI made this the new defautl for download drivers.... THis is my first ATI card, and I went to go download the latest drivers, so I will be prepared when my video card arrives tomorrow.... well I was not expecting to have to download microsoft .net framework...

Can someone here please tell me this does not suck.... i have been reading about it on google, and it only looks like bad news.... someone want to shed some more light on this issue for me?

My X1900XTX is my second ATI card, and I resisted installing .NET on my computer for my Radeon 9700 Pro for about a year because of the nasty stuff I'd heard, but after installing .NET I really can't say anything bad about it. It didn't break anything that I'm aware of and there are security updates for .NET.

i have always updated my drivers as they have come out and ain't ever had a problem. if someone does know the supposed problems i also would like to know what problems i'm supposed to be having.

You only need the .NET Framework if you install the Catalyst Control Center. And yes, its a piece of shit. When you're installing the driver choose a custom installation and only select to install the driver itself. No problems then.

The .NET Framework itself isn't the problem though.

ehm not wanting to point out the obvious but calling something a pos then not supplying reason's is a bit stupid. no one is going to believe you. can you be more specific. i have had no problems so that kinda refutes your argument.

yes, do tell us... what makes it a POS?

I also have updated drivers religiously for a few years now (9700pro was my last ati card) and never hit ONE issue.

.net is not the devil (however much uncle billy looks like satan ) and it does not break anything.

You are right however that you do not need it for the drivers... only the control center, but I would reccomend installing it for the options you get with it.

Why are you worried about the .Net framework? It's just a couple of .dlls that support the UI for the ATI control center.

Are you just as paranoid about downloading updates for your software or downloading Flash or Acrobat or Java?

As for the ATI control center, it doesn't seem to have very much functionality, and therefore seems like it might be a waste of resources to have running. I have noticed that I occasionally get some strange behaviors when coming out of powersave. When my laptop comes out of hibernate I have about a 50-50 chance of getting an exception in the ATI sw. Not that it matters. On my desktop, I will occasionally have multiple little Catalyst icons in the systray after coming out of powersave, but mouseover makes them dissappear.

I've never seen a useful feature in the control panel so I don't know if it's worth installing.

Exactly. There is nothing wrong with .NET. However, the CCC is the biggest piece of bloatware I've seen in a long time, especially when you take into account what little it actually does. I would use the Omega drivers which still use the old ATI control panel.

true the old style control panel was good enough and i don't know the reaso they changed it other than to allow you to change things in real time. i think it functional and least the help pages are useful. just press F1 on the page and it comes up the help page for it. not like some things where you have to search through a heap of pages to find what you want.

It has many known issues. One example I've seen is the CLI.exe file failing that is the catalyst control center. Another I've had is trying to run dual monitors and having them constantly flickering with refresh issues. Uninstall the Catalyst Control Center and waalaa! it works. It is not a stable product nor needed so anytime I'm in a situation using an ATI card I never install it because of the many problems I've had with it across several different machines.

hmm... strange indeed. never had that issue. could it be something else conflicting w/ ccc? have you tried disabling/shutting down other apps to see if it stops?

as for features: I like the built in oc tool, and use the effects tweaks for diff situations but admitedly that does not need .net and could have been implemented w/o it.

There is a lag on startup for ccc since the .net thing, but that is from .net and not the ccc directly. When started up it does take a touch more resources, but when just in the taskbar it takes no more... not a big deal to me

but thats not the point. you are discouraging others from using a product which many people like me don't have a problem. i hardly see how it is the CCC's problem that you have problems. do you know of any issues that are universal and cannot be put down to someone comp like the problems you described.

yes, that could easily be from conflicting apps or overall os instability on your system. I have none of those issues, and have not since the first ccc w/ .net

have you tried to trace down where the issue is? like if a particular app is freaking out ccc? if it is something like that (which i suspect) then that app may be the problem and not cli...

I had an app for my energizer batt-backup that did that for a while, it also freaked out other apps and i killed it. That is why i say that it is not ccc or .net but the other app.

LOL! Yeah sure, that's why the move from 1.1 to the BETA 2.0 fixed all my problems, right?

Saying .NEt is not a problem is like saying Windows is not the reason you're getting BSODs or CTDs. It's a combination of both.

But like I said for me .NET 2.0 has solved my major problems, all except the lag that is associated with loading .NET with the driver package, and it's much faster than 1.1, and doesn't have the multiple instances of CLI like 1.1.

BTW, that delay also happens with the nV .NET drivers as well, and considering that Vista will require .NET drivers for all, it's just a way of easing you into your bleak future. And like oyu mention, it is an option, and with ATiTrayTools you don't have to miss out on the new features either (except some early AVIVO stuff).

That usually happens because of a poor/corrupt .NET installation, reinstalling .NET followed by the drivers usually fixes that. Once again, is a corrupt .NEt ATi's fault?

Have not seen that issue or heard it widely mentioned. But when doing multi-monitor you come to expect some tweaking to get it to work right, whether it's, ATi, nV or far better solutions like Matrox and UltraMon's software.

IMO, no less stable than any other product/driver package. What it is however is a resource hog, and that's got alot to do with .NET too.