What about the issues with Radeon 5800?

[maxpain12]

You have a whole plethora of reviews all over the internet, however I must point out that there is very little exposure by major sites like Toms about the Catalyst drivers as of late. I make special mention of the issues effecting users of the ATI Radeon 5800 series. These issues are not limited a one board partner but can be seen across the whole spectrum. Just look at the user reviews of major online stores like Ne_w E_g and you will find an alarming trend. I think Toms should focus on this issue in more detail as buying a R5800 series exposes the buyer to statistically higher failure rate than one would expect in the realm of graphic accelerators. This begs the question 'is there an inherent hardware issue that manifests in some boards of the 5800 series'? What ever the problem ATI has been negligent releasing these boards without proper testing. Why should a significant number of users have to go through the stress of malfunctioning hardware while some have no problems and write rave reviews on how great these cards are only to have them fail on more folks who buy them. And you wonder why Nvidia's still is in the game with expensive & older tech hardware.

 

[Mousemonkey]

What? Articles like this :- http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/9549-55-confirms-grey-screen-issue-promises that date back to January?

 

[maxpain12]

And how many months ago was that? No but we gotta pretend it was a one off thing and recommend hardware/software that we know has inherent issues in relation to the silicon/drivers. And ATI should be proud to release products in the pre production stage. How else could explain the struggle they been having to contain the issue, short of a RMA.

 

[asteldian]

I can't tell you how often Nvidia drivers crapped up my Nvidia cards and required me to roll back drivers.

I have had an issue with ATI too - catalyst 10.3 would not install, was irritating as I don't know why, but 10.4 and 10.5 worked fine.

Define 'statistically higher failure' - do you have any idea how many 5800 cards have sold? They have been out a long time and are still the best value for money whilst being ready for Direct X 11. It is no surprise these cards sell like hot cakes.

How do you compare faults with these cards with others? Where do you start? If there are ten times as many complaints about these cards compared to others, then it is because ten times as many people have bought these cards. Most people don't bother reviewing things they like, I am always surprised how many bother to review on newegg (happy they do, but surprised) when the news is good. But even then, for everyone that is happy, hundreds of others were also happy but did not bother reviewing, meanwhile practically every person who has a problem will review to give a bad mark.

I am not saying tere are not problems, there always is regardless of brand of any hard ware, but i don't think it is any more so than is typical