AMD Will Continue Game Optimization Support For Older Radeon GPU's After All (tomshardware.com)
- Reference: 0179955260
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/11/03/2142220/amd-will-continue-game-optimization-support-for-older-radeon-gpus-after-all
- Source link: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpu-drivers/amd-clarifies-its-clarifications-on-controversial-rdna-1-and-2-driver-note-company-will-continue-game-optimization-support-after-all
> After a turbulent weekend of updates and clarifications, AMD has [1]published an entire web page to assuage user backlash and [2]reaffirm its commitment to continued support for its RDNA 1 and RDNA 2-based drives , following a spate of confusion surrounding its recent decision to put Radeon RX 5000 and 6000 series cards in "maintenance mode." This comes after AMD had to deny that the RX 7900 cards were losing USB-C power supply moving forward, even though the drive changelog said something quite different.
>
> Just last week, AMD released a new driver update for its graphics cards, and it went anything but smoothly. First, the wrong drivers were uploaded, and even after that was corrected, several glaring errors in the release notes required clarification. AMD was forced to correct claims about its RX 7900 cards, but at the time clarified that, indeed, RX 5000 and 6000 graphics cards were entering "Maintenance Mode," despite some RX 6000 cards being only around four years old. Now, though, AMD has either rolled back that decision or someone higher up the food chain has made a new call, as game optimizations are back on the menu for RDNA 1 and RDNA 2 GPUs.
"We've heard your feedback and want to clear up the confusion around the AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 25.10.2 driver release," AMD said in [3]a statement . "Your Radeon RX 5000 and RX 6000 series GPUs will continue to receive: Game support for new releases, Stability and game optimizations, and Security and bug fixes," AMD said.
[1] https://www.amd.com/en/blogs/2025/continued-support-for-every-radeon-gamer.html
[2] https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpu-drivers/amd-clarifies-its-clarifications-on-controversial-rdna-1-and-2-driver-note-company-will-continue-game-optimization-support-after-all
[3] https://www.amd.com/en/blogs/2025/continued-support-for-every-radeon-gamer.html
"confusion" (Score:2)
Dear AMD,
There wasn't any confusion. We heard what you said.
Now you're backtracking - so it seems like the only confusion was with amd.
And it's temporary (Score:2)
AMD will just do the same shit later, it's not like they won't still want to do it.
I will be the first to admit that Nvidia drivers are problematic on Linux. There are still problems with sleep, for example, and even the installer sucks rocks. (Having to set TMPDIR and specify --tmpdir is a bad sign, right?) But Nvidia has got something right — they give full support for very old hardware. This is something that ATI never had right, and neither does AMD. If you want customers to trust you enough to gi
Re: (Score:1)
> they give full support for very old hardware
This is a blatant lie. What the fuck is wrong with you lately? AMD and ATI before them have typically supported hardware for way longer than Nvidia ever has.
The RX 580 line was extremely well supported (Score:2)
And the 5000 series got decent support. It would have been about 6 years which is okayish for the 5000 series and the 500 series got around 8 years.
The problem is the 6700 series. AMD was still manufacturing chips for it and you could buy brand new gpus that weren't Old stock as of last year so pulling support would have been a giant fuck you.
I can deal with five or six years of support on a GPU. That's about how long most consoles last. So anything after that is gravy.
But when you are actively
Re: (Score:2)
On the flip side, you should be able to get a good deal on RX 6000 series cards considering that now we know that AMD has no real interest in supporting them long term.
Re: (Score:2)
First off, 5000 and 6000 series cards are EoL. They aren't sold "in normal stores" except as old product.
Secondly, AMD has likely diverted their software and driver teams to enterprise hardware support. So believe it. They spend far more time and money on high-margin datacentre products.
Re: I've never understood... (Score:1)
i guess with so much of high end graphics being fully programmable now with really low level api's; theres bound to be edge cases that -should- work to spec but yet somewhere something isnt handled right in the driver and it causes a graphics render problem or wasted performance in this specific situation with how new game F is doing something; or maybe some update breaks something in game Y or a new dlc for game Z adds some new system that has problems on some of the various gpu models- a studio cant test
Re: (Score:2)
It's the fastest way to get a game running on your hardware without major bugs. Yes the developers push out buggy, non-standards-compliant code. Driver hacks make it easy to compensate for problems even if game devs are ultimately responsible for said problems.