CM When are we going to see 64bit XP drivers?

Glad someone sees it my way. Some people get delusions of grandeur very often. They call it "the guy with a website" syndrome.

 

Also remember that the 64-bit XP beta was only released a few days ago! Additionally, it is possible that the current Catalyst 64-bit beta drivers are not yet ready for release.

 

I hope ATI changes it mind, will be a reason for people with a A64 to buy the nv40 instead of the R420.

 

Of course solid products is the key. But if there's no one to tell avarage joe it's a solid product he wouldn't notice.

I don't think Baron (or at least I didn't) meant to imply the "enthusiast community".

But still if you think back at the 9700 Pro it was a pretty slow procecss in forums, lunch rooms, computer shops etc. making people consider and buying ATi. The "GeForce" brand name still reigned supreme and it took a lot of convincing, showing reviews in peoples faces etc. for them to realize that in fact ATi did have an excellent product.
Perhaps it was only like that in Sweden, if so just let me know and I'll crawl back under the rock from which I came.

 

How many times have you entered a retail store to see a guy skip over 9600 Pros for $150 and watch him instead buy a 256 meg 5200 for $150? There's a reason for that--some guy's buddy's brother's roommate said that he had a GeForce card and they were the best, so people follow this without knowing any better.

9700 Pro cost $400 or more (can't remember) when it was released, but it STILL sold like hotcakes in the high-end enthusiast community because it was the best thing out there. The people who buy the expensive cards then recommend them to their friends, who then buy the 9500 Pros, and then those people recommend them again, etc. al. With the 9700 Pro, the enthusiast community (e.g., the folks who buy the top of the line cards and know something about them) did something that no review could do, and that was to confirm that ATI's reputation for poor drivers wasn't true with the R3xx. THAT'S what I mean by enthusiast community--ATI would not have seen the market share increase that they did if they hadn't played to the people who buy the $400 cards like they did, with Cat Maker appearing on forums and all.

It's NEVER just about making a solid product--if Series 5 or (God forbid) XG45 was actually better than the other cards out there at the time, don't you think that they would have to do more than just make a good card in order to get noticed and get past brand loyalties?

(still, I wonder how long it will be before they rue the day they decided to send Catalyst Maker out to forums...)

oh, and PS--gkar, can I assume you mean R300/R350/R360? or are you implying R100 was a solid product, because I take issue there (well, more with the drivers. man, worst drivers EVER.).

 

It would have been nice if with WinXP 64 Microsoft could have improved WGL. But hey, do they actually care.

 

Catalyst Maker explicitly stated on Rage3D that there would be no further beta XP-64 ATi drivers released until the OS shipped. So, unless that attitude changes, I guess we won't see anything.

 

My guess is that this will happen when M$ finalizes the xp64 code base enough to ship it. I wouldn't put much stock in any drivers an IHV releases prior to that time, as they are likely to require changes to serve the final xp64 code. It puts me in mind of WinXP/2K "release candidates" from M$, and I recall that among certain of them, various 3d drivers would break even between RC's (which wasn't generally expected, as I recall.) "It's not wise to count on Mother Microsoft before the final version ships"...