ATI: Windows Vista graphics drivers to be more stable

Ben Bar-Haim, ATI's software division vice president, claims graphics drivers developed for Windows Vista will be far more stable than those developed for Windows XP. He explains customers will be able to identify graphics cards supporting Vista by way of a "Windows Vista ready" logo on the box.

While the software development process for a "Vista ready" graphics chip consists of many stages, the executive described the development of the LDDM-compliant driver as the most challenging and complex task: "About two years ago," Bar-Haim explained, "we started working on Vista. Right now we have between 50 and 100 engineers working on projects related to the operating system. To ensure stability alone, it takes hundreds of man-months to get to optimized drivers." Bahr-Haim added that ATI runs about 2,000 different computer systems testing the stability of its drivers. "I think we had a pretty good driver in the Beta 1 in Windows Vista and you will see an even better one in Beta 2," he added.

ATI also says Windows Vista should be just as fast as Windows XP, despite the higher system requirements. The current beta is about 80% of Windows XP's speed, Beta 1 should be around 90% and the final version should be just as fast as Windows XP. Read more at Tom's Hardware.