Video card driver upgrade

[RAMPRAT]

Am using Power Color 7870 Gb Edition w/2Gb memory. Can upgrade driver with new Beta driver but not sure if this is safe. Beta driver is new from AMD. What do you think?

[OldAirmail]

I wouldn't if I were you. As much as I like AMD Radeon series, I've gotten a number of headaches resolving driver problems.

On the other hand, I've learned to do a Windows 7 "System Backup" before updating my drivers. With only one exception, about 2 years ago, it's always solved the problem.


Having said all of that, the AMD Radeon series have been the best video cards that I've ever owned.

My Radeon HD 6850 with 1GB of 256bit DDR5, coupled with my Samsung 830 series SSD seems to blow right past the problems that many other people have. I wouldn't trade mine in for any other brand.

But from reading around I'm beginning to think that the AMD Radeon series may work better on some mother boards than others.



To put a cap on it; your card is more than fast enough. A tiny bit more speed isn't going to be noticeable.

[Gregorio]

In the case of drivers, you always have to ask yourself why you want to update them and whether the rewards compensate the risks. In the case of the regular release drivers, it's advisable to update them unless you have reason to believe that it will break something you don't want broken. With beta drivers that's the opposite: you want to use them only if you have something not working and you have reason to believe that this beta version can solve it (and preferrably not break other software).

The key here is the concept of "beta" software. It's still not the final version. You can find more info on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle (if you don't know already), but the general idea is that it is still subject to bugs and crashes and is not a finished product.

Hence, unless you have the need for it, it's generally not advisable to use the beta version.

[RAMPRAT]

Thanks. Will stick with my standard upgrade driver.

[Fozzer]

Working on the assumption that "Newer" is not always "Better", unless something is seriously wrong with my Video Cards, I tend to leave my Video Card Drives as they are!
I generally find that the original Drivers on the CD that came with the card, to be the most reliable and trouble-free.

Paul....driving a hard bargain... ...!