It doesn't matter whether they are any good or not, they are the ONLY choice! Unless you want some homegrown, reverse-engineered by students who badly need haircuts and a shave, and see the light of day once every 2.5 days.
Software Drivers aren't like underpants, you don't choose the color and style that fits you best for a given day. The driver either works (is designed) for a piece of hardware or it doesn't.
For what it's worth in my humble opinion, ATI write horrible drivers and often have compatibility issues with graphically demanding games, but that is just my personal opinion. Unfortunately, if you have ATI graphics hardware then you don't have a choice.
As with any hardware though, unless you have a very specific reason not to, you should always be using the latest drivers for your hardware. This will help you get the absolute maximum performance out of your hardware.
EDIT: I should have added, if you're looking to boost performance buy more memory (RAM) if you can, just about everything will benefit from having more memory. Also, use common sense, shut down any unecessary programs while you're playing games so that the game doesn't have to compete for system resources (memory and processor time).
Software Drivers aren't like underpants, you don't choose the color and style that fits you best for a given day. The driver either works (is designed) for a piece of hardware or it doesn't.
For what it's worth in my humble opinion, ATI write horrible drivers and often have compatibility issues with graphically demanding games, but that is just my personal opinion. Unfortunately, if you have ATI graphics hardware then you don't have a choice.
As with any hardware though, unless you have a very specific reason not to, you should always be using the latest drivers for your hardware. This will help you get the absolute maximum performance out of your hardware.
EDIT: I should have added, if you're looking to boost performance buy more memory (RAM) if you can, just about everything will benefit from having more memory. Also, use common sense, shut down any unecessary programs while you're playing games so that the game doesn't have to compete for system resources (memory and processor time).