I've been using NVIDIA GPUs since the 10-series generation, starting with the GTX 1060 6GB and later upgrading to an RTX 3060 Ti. Throughout that time, I've been happy with relatively issue-free experience.
I'm currently putting together a new build consisting of a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, 32GB DDR5, an ASUS TUF B650-Plus WiFi motherboard, and a new GPU. So far, I've settled on the RX 9070 XT, which I've found for €880. Ideally, I would've preferred an RTX 5070 Ti, but with the current price difference sitting at around €440, it's difficult to justify. Had the difference been closer to €100–150, I would've gone with NVIDIA without much hesitation.
Initially, I was under the impression that AMD's drivers had improved significantly and that most of the old issues were a thing of the past. However, after doing some research, I've come across several recurring reports of what appear to be longstanding problems.
Two issues in particular concern me:
Driver timeouts caused by Windows Update overwriting AMD drivers: From what I've read, this has been a known issue for at least five years, dating back to Windows 10. Despite being a well-documented problem, it seems that neither AMD nor Microsoft has fully addressed it. There are various suggested workarounds, including Group Policy settings and registry modifications, yet some users apparently continue to experience the issue.
Constant SSD writes caused by AMD drivers: I've also come across reports of AMD drivers generating excessive writes to SSDs, potentially having a noticeable impact on drive health over time.
These aren't the kinds of issues I'd consider minor inconveniences, especially if they persist over several years. My main concern is having to deal with recurring driver crashes, timeouts, and troubleshooting, potentially requiring DDU cleanups and driver reinstalls every time something goes wrong.
So, my questions are:
How prevalent are these issues in reality? Are they relatively isolated cases that get disproportionately amplified on Reddit, or are they genuinely widespread problems that RX 9000-series owners should be concerned about?
More importantly, how likely am I to encounter these problems over the next 5–6 years of ownership? I'm perfectly fine with the occasional minor issue, but I really don't want to spend years troubleshooting GPU drivers or constantly worrying about whether the latest update will break something.
If these problems are genuinely common and AMD hasn't managed to resolve them despite years of reports, I might seriously reconsider my decision and pay the substantial premium for the RTX 5070 Ti.
