ATI/AMD drivers have never been as good as Nvidia's, yeah. I don't think the problems are often show-stopping (on Windows at least) though. Nvidia's definitely *better* but they're also more expensive so if you want the most FPS on a tight budget then AMD's the way to go I think.
I'd be intrigued to see a few. The drivers argument has been around for nearly 15 years, yet for me I've had no real problems with playing any games with either an Nvidia card or an AMD/ATI card. Skyrim also ran fine when I installed it just after release day (so long before any driver issues could be patched).
The only experiences I've had so far is that I've never had an AMD/ATI card die on me due to shitty engineering, whereas I've lost a £260 GeForce 8800 due to that (which is kind-of annoying).
Still, my current card is now a couple of years old and maybe others are having problems with newer games. Just nothing I've personally come across so far it must be said.
I think I have a 7850. I definitely had stuttering in Skyrim and I think I posted something about it on here back in the day. I think a patch or new driver helped things but I don't remember it going away completely. Not sure if that was an AMD thing or not.
Can't sat I've noticed any stuttering in anything else, though I don't really play many games. Last one was Deus Ex and that played smoothly.
bastard by name