To me, a rumor is an unfounded statement-- i.e. a 2nd or 3rd hand piece of information with no supporting evidence. Try reading the forms at Rage3D or DriverHeaven. I am not alone in having a 1st person experience and reporting it as objectively as possible.
For me this is no rumor... I am not claiming Cat 3.8 killed my monitor, but my display was showing very bad symptoms consistent with the reports of others at the Rage3D.com forums.
With Cat 3.8, after my computer was on for over an hour, game textures would get severely corrupted. Even when I didn't play any games, the monitor would lose signal and go black even though windows was up (complete with mouse clicks and error dings). If I used my keyboard to get into sleep mode and then come back, it usually restored the desktop, but after that it wouldn't play games correctly. If I shut down and restarted, I could get games to play normally for a few minutes. If I shut down for a long time, I could start up and use the computer normally for up to an hour.
After restoring Cat 3.7, I ran my computer for 8 hours straight yesterday. NO ISSUES AT ALL! So far, I don't think there was any hardware damage. But, the symptoms I saw looked like the symptoms of an overclocked card overheating. I have never overclocked this card because I have been satisfied with its stability and performance at 275/275.
ATI says nothing they changed in the drivers could cause these problems, but their own PR bragged about how big an improvement these drivers would be. Unless I am confused, big improvements require big changes. It just so happens that one of those changes is an automatic overclocking feature for their new XT line. I cite this not to fuel speculation, just to refute their claim that no of the changes they made could possibly cause the problems people are experiencing.
Just because the majority of people don't have the problem doesn't mean it doesn't exist. As it stands now, even some people who previously posted they didn't have any problems are coming back with new posts about some kind of texture corruption or loss of monitor signal similar to what I have experienced.
People have informed ATI of their problems (myself included). If they want to continue to dodge the bullet by saying no one has called them so be it. I used the Catalyst feedback web form at their site rather than pay $1.25 per minute to call them, I am sure most others have done the same.
I am not here to fan flames. I am happy with my Radeon 8500. I certainly don't need a hundred other people telling me I am wrong for spreading rumors. I could have just reverted back to Cat 3.7 and never said anything to anyone. But I have encountered a problem which is very real. I believe the problem to be related to these drivers and feel it is my duty to warn others.
If you don't have any problems, fine. But please don't insult others that speak up because they do have a problem.
[Edit]
Not every Ford Pinto that was hit in the rear blew up, but it did happen enough times to force a recall. More recently, Ford and Firestone assured people that there was nothing wrong with their tires, just the media blowing a few coincidences out of proportion. I guess since Ford and Firestone denied the problem, it was just a rumor blown out of proportion by the media.
