ATI Drivers Suck
Monday 1st December, 2008 09:25 Comments: 4
A little while back, I bought an Asus graphics card for an old computer in an attempt to build a cheap HTPC. It works pretty well, but for some reason H.264 content stutters if I try and use SPDIF passthrough; if I use the HDMI output (using the yellow DVI-HDMI adaptor) then it all works fine in stereo out of the TV. I figured it was a CPU usage issue, as H.264 content kills the CPU with ffdshow, but just about copes okay with CoreAVC (yes, I have paid for it!). I decided to hook up my main computer to the TV, mostly to see what it's like to play World of Warcraft on a large TV screen. My main machine is fairly powerful and has never had any issues playing H.264 content with AC3 audio (or even re-encoding DTS to AC3 on the fly!). I have a similar graphics card in the main machine (Sapphire 3870) compared to the HTPC (Asus 3650), so I figured I could hook up the DVI-HDMI adaptor and play World of Warcraft's audio through the HDMI cable to the TV (note: this works fine on the HTPC, which appears to have an Asus customised version of old Catalyst drivers - even after hacking the newer Catalyst files I wasn't able to install newer Catalyst drivers). No sound. I do a bit of searching and it seems I need to replace Vista's default Microsoft driver with the proper ATI HDMI driver (from Realtek). Now it tells me that I don't have a cable plugged in. A bit more searching with Google suggests that it used to work in the old 8.2 Catalyst drivers, but ATI broke something in 8.3 and have never fixed it. Once the HTPC gets its big upgrade (new case, new motherboard, new CPU, new graphics card, new RAM), it probably won't be an issue anymore for me, but it'll still be an issue for others. I hope ATI sorts this out soon, it's a really useful feature to pass audio through the HDMI connector, and the card is capable of doing it.
I used to love that ATI seemed to be a bit cooler and cheaper, but I've got issues in Vista with anything other than RGB output (others display the top pixel at the bottom and left pixel on the right edge, and vice versa, when trying to play videos), and now I've spotted the HDMI problem. I have no real loyalty when it comes to graphics cards, I'm still keeping an eye on NVIDIA (I keep going back to them when they make a good card, and I dont think I've ever been disappointed).
I used to love that ATI seemed to be a bit cooler and cheaper, but I've got issues in Vista with anything other than RGB output (others display the top pixel at the bottom and left pixel on the right edge, and vice versa, when trying to play videos), and now I've spotted the HDMI problem. I have no real loyalty when it comes to graphics cards, I'm still keeping an eye on NVIDIA (I keep going back to them when they make a good card, and I dont think I've ever been disappointed).
Fab - Monday 1st December, 2008 15:38 \"I need to replace Vista's default Microsoft driver with the proper ATI HDMI driver (from Realtek).\" Isn't the Realtek part about the soundcard on the motherboard part rather than the ATI graphics card part? To be honest, I have found Vista sound support to be a significant pain in the neck. Whose fault it really is, I have no idea, but an awful lot of people with different sound cards have had issues with Vista. Certainly I found that Chris installed Vista to work with my front of the case audio ports only and getting them to work from the back instead caused mayhem. I eventually got them working from the back ports, but I was never able (or dared!) to use the front ports again. All is back to normal with XP, even on the exact same hardware with no changes at all.
ATI are guilty of doing some seriously poor crap with their drivers, but they might not be entirely to blame for this one.
ATI are guilty of doing some seriously poor crap with their drivers, but they might not be entirely to blame for this one.
No, the ATI card has a Realtek chip on it that handles the audio side of things: http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1031626048
I've not really had problems with Vista's sound support (aside from a Creative driver issue that I think they've finally fixed), but there will always be a few configuration/driver issues, especially when you do your own install with your own hardware (especially when you're using x64 with the annoying signed driver requirement).
If you use Google, you'll see there are loads of people that have the same issue, audio stops after 8.2, works again if they go back to 8.2. The same adaptor on the 3650 with older (customised) drivers seems to work fine, it doesn't work on the 3870 with the latest drivers - I may find the 8.2 drivers to prove that it's driver related, but I'm not sure I want to take the performance/stability hit of such old drivers just for the sake of HDMI audio that I'll rarely use on my main PC.
I've not really had problems with Vista's sound support (aside from a Creative driver issue that I think they've finally fixed), but there will always be a few configuration/driver issues, especially when you do your own install with your own hardware (especially when you're using x64 with the annoying signed driver requirement).
If you use Google, you'll see there are loads of people that have the same issue, audio stops after 8.2, works again if they go back to 8.2. The same adaptor on the 3650 with older (customised) drivers seems to work fine, it doesn't work on the 3870 with the latest drivers - I may find the 8.2 drivers to prove that it's driver related, but I'm not sure I want to take the performance/stability hit of such old drivers just for the sake of HDMI audio that I'll rarely use on my main PC.
Hmm, I installed Catalyst 8.2 and it still wasn't happy. I'm wondering if it's something I'm doing wrong (wrong DVI-HDMI adaptor) or if there's something dodgy about the card (why would Sapphire include the Realtek chip if they didn't wire it up to one/both of the DVI outputs?). I'll have to rummage around my boxes of bits and see if I can find another adaptor (as I can't remember if the yellow one is from the Sapphire or from another Radeon card, although the fact it works with the 3650 would suggest the adaptor isn't at fault).
Hopefully I'll get around to upgrading things so I can use the Creative's SPDIF output instead for surround sound audio with H.264 content on the HTPC, but I'm still annoyed that I haven't been able to sort it out on my main machine. I'm wondering if it's an x64 issue, as it works fine on the HTPC running Vista x86.
Hopefully I'll get around to upgrading things so I can use the Creative's SPDIF output instead for surround sound audio with H.264 content on the HTPC, but I'm still annoyed that I haven't been able to sort it out on my main machine. I'm wondering if it's an x64 issue, as it works fine on the HTPC running Vista x86.