No more DirectX 9 card support under 7

[Polarman]

Source: Fudzilla

We were surprised to see that customer oriented AMD has decided to leave its all DirectX 9 supporters hanging. According to AMD's support site, its DirectX 9 cards won’t be officially supported under Windows 7.

AMD says: "Note: AMD’s DirectX 9 ATI Radeon graphics accelerators are not officially supported under Windows 7. If the user chooses to, they can install the ATI Catalyst Windows Vista graphics driver under Windows 7. Please be aware that none of the new Windows 7 graphics driver (WDDM 1.1) features are supported (as the Windows Vista level graphics driver is limited to WDDM 1.0 level support). Using the ATI Catalyst Windows Vista driver under Windows 7 is not officially supported by AMD, and as such AMD will not provide any form of customer support for users running in this configuration."

The list is quite long and it includes ATI Radeon 9500 Series, ATI Radeon 9550 Series, ATI Radeon 9600 Series, ATI Radeon 9700 Series, ATI Radeon 9800 Series, ATI Radeon X300 Series, ATI Radeon X550 Series, ATI Radeon X600 Series, ATI Radeon X700 Series, ATI Radeon X800 Series, ATI Radeon X850 Series, ATI Radeon X1050 Series, ATI Radeon X1300 Series, ATI Radeon X1550 Series, ATI Radeon X1600 Series, ATI Radeon X1650 Series, ATI Radeon X1800 Series, ATI Radeon X1900 Series, ATI Radeon X1200 Series, ATI Radeon X1250 Series ATI Radeon X2100 Series and ATI Radeon Xpress Series.

Most chipset IGPs won’t officially support Windows 7 which is kind of an issue if you ask us. The owners of the cards listed above won't get any support for any operating systems anymore and if you have in mind that most of the games on the market are DirectX 9 and they are programmed for consoles, it kind of makes things look bad. Nvidia's new Windows 7 driver supports cards all the way to Geforce 6 that is DirectX 9.

You can read more and download catalyst 9.8 the last official one for these cards here.

Sounds bad.

[erocker]

It's not so bad. Hell, I've been running Cat 7.4's on my 9800pro forever now. All these cards will still work in 7 using 9.8's or below.

[FreedomEclipse]

My X850XT PE runs a mean L4D

[20mmrain]

I think it's a little premature for AMD to do this. Considering most low end gamers on the computer are still using mainly DX9 equipment. Also most games are still being produced to use DX9. I read a poll somewhere saying that the most common two Graphics cards still in use are the X1650, X1900 and the 8800 GTX. Now I understand that the 8800's are DX10 capable. But the other two cards aren't.
I think AMD would of been smarter to wait to see how Windows 7 takes off before they cancel support for updating DX9 cards.
But hey that survey could have been wrong and so might I be.

[erocker]

Originally Posted by 20mmrain

I think it's a little premature for AMD to do this. Considering most low end gamers on the computer are still using mainly DX9 equipment. Also most games are still being produced to use DX9. I read a poll somewhere saying that the most common two Graphics cards still in use are the X1650, X1900 and the 8800 GTX. Now I understand that the 8800's are DX10 capable. But the other two cards aren't.
I think AMD would of been smarter to wait to see how Windows 7 takes off before they cancel support for updating DX9 cards.
But hey that survey could have been wrong and so might I be.

It doesn't matter. You go to the AMD website. Enter your Operating System and graphics card, and it will choose the right driver for you. All of these cards work on Windows 7 and that isn't going to change anytime soon.

[ToTTenTranz]

Vista drivers work on 7, so there.

[newtekie1]

I was kind of disappointed when they announced dropping support for these cards after 9.7. Kind of surprised it took this long for people to catch on. ATi's first official Win7 driver is 9.8, and they announced the cards wouldn't be supported after 9.7, I'm surprised it took this long to put everything together.

Yes, the older drivers still work in Win7, but I don't like using older drivers. Especially when there always seems to be a new game that comes out that glitches with old drivers. I have a feeling that this will cause a problem once the next round of new game engines come out and don't work on the older drivers.

Especially when the new drivers will probably work just fine with the old cards, ATi just decided to drop support for them.

[20mmrain]

It doesn't matter. You go to the AMD website. Enter your Operating System and graphics card, and it will choose the right driver for you. All of these cards work on Windows 7 and that isn't going to change anytime soon.

I understand what your saying. But I still for see problems no matter what. Haven't companies learned from history..... Don't jump on the new technology band wagon.(aka perfect example Vista)

[Corrosion]

getting lazy ATI? my 5770 doesnt even have drivers on there website for ZP. had to go to asus to get them and theres only one.

[Solaris17]

why doesnt someone just add the device ID's to the new ATI drivers? nvidia guys have been doing it for quite some time. i used to make non TPU sponsored "TPU" drivers that had support for all cards and quattro fixes etc. i dont see why you cant do the same with ATI's suite.

[newtekie1]

Originally Posted by Solaris17

why doesnt someone just add the device ID's to the new ATI drivers? nvidia guys have been doing it for quite some time. i used to make non TPU sponsored "TPU" drivers that had support for all cards and quattro fixes etc. i dont see why you cant do the same with ATI's suite.

With nVidia, it was and still is as easy as editting a simple text file.

I don't know if it is as simple with ATi's drivers. It could be, or they could do a better job of hiding the list of cards supported, I don't know.

I remember doing this far too often with nVidia cards after the G80 cards were released, and they pretty much stopped releasing new drivers for any other cards for about 6 months. Adding the device IDs in the text/ini file made the new drivers work just fine with the older cards.

[Solaris17]

cats 9.10 device list merged from cat 7.2 lowest support radeon 9500 upto current..you might need to install the driver manually through device manager if setup doesnt work though it should i have no way to test...


XP X32
http://www.solarisutilitydvd.com/Dow...0solaris17.rar

XP X64
http://www.solarisutilitydvd.com/Dow...0Solaris17.rar

Vista/Win7 X32
http://www.solarisutilitydvd.com/Dow...0Solaris17.rar

Vista/Win7 X64
http://www.solarisutilitydvd.com/Dow...0Solaris17.rar

[Solaris17]

x 64 drivers fr XP will be up soon i need to DL them and then reupload

EDIT: DONE

[scope54]

Originally Posted by newtekie1

I was kind of disappointed when they announced dropping support for these cards after 9.7. Kind of surprised it took this long for people to catch on.

actually official DX9 card support ended with 9.3. I think the big 'uproar' about this is people dont understand that WDDM 1.0 drivers work just as well on 7 as they do with Vista. Here is Terry's (Catalystmaker) response (posted by HardOCP):

WDDM1.1 (Windows Display Driver Model) is the driver architecture required to run Windows7. To meet the Microsoft dictated requirements, GPU’s must be DirectX10 and later level hardware. So as stated on our website, Windows 7 users with DirectX 9 AMD graphics hardware can use the legacy Windows Vista WDDM 1.0 drivers (as it is not possible for DirectX 9 hardware to support the WDDM 1.1 driver requirements). On a separate note the move to "legacy driver" status happen when we moved our DirectX 9 based hardware to a legacy support structure back in March 2009, and we were quite public about this. We’ve been providing updates to this driver on a quarterly basis - in fact we will be posting a new legacy driver in the next few days.

Summary: Windows7 users on DirectX9 can and should use the legacy Catalyst driver which will be updated quarterly.

[Nick89]

Originally Posted by 20mmrain

I think it's a little premature for AMD to do this. Considering most low end gamers on the computer are still using mainly DX9 equipment. Also most games are still being produced to use DX9. I read a poll somewhere saying that the most common two Graphics cards still in use are the X1650, X1900 and the 8800 GTX. Now I understand that the 8800's are DX10 capable. But the other two cards aren't.
I think AMD would of been smarter to wait to see how Windows 7 takes off before they cancel support for updating DX9 cards.
But hey that survey could have been wrong and so might I be.

Why would you be running Windows 7 on ancient hardware in the first place ? AND trying to game on it?

[FreedomEclipse]

Originally Posted by Nick89

Why would you be running Windows 7 on ancient hardware in the first place ? AND trying to game on it?

Because as much as youd like to admit it to yourself - not everyone has moved on with technology & thats not reason enough to demonise/alienate the people who decided to hang on to their old systems.

If anything at all - they should be commended for hanging onto it. They bought it so they should be entitled to get their moneys worth out of it. secondly not everyone wants their old machine for games. thirdly not every game requires a super hi-spec dual or quad core machine with Quad GPU graphics.

& lastly - most people still running AGP (gaming) systems have probably upgraded it as much as they technologically could so the hardware isnt 'Ancient' but more 'dated/aged'

[3870x2]

Originally Posted by 20mmrain

I think it's a little premature for AMD to do this. Considering most low end gamers on the computer are still using mainly DX9 equipment. Also most games are still being produced to use DX9. I read a poll somewhere saying that the most common two Graphics cards still in use are the X1650, X1900 and the 8800 GTX. Now I understand that the 8800's are DX10 capable. But the other two cards aren't.
I think AMD would of been smarter to wait to see how Windows 7 takes off before they cancel support for updating DX9 cards.
But hey that survey could have been wrong and so might I be.

couldn't be more wrong. Im a high-end XP user, and am currently using DX10 (haven't heard? google it!). Not to mention that there isnt enough difference between DX10 and 9, 10 should have been 9x(whichever letter is next, i forget, was it d?) in which case, 10 should have been 9e.
I am very disappointed with dx10, ill skip to 11 when i do my new build beginning of next year.

Also, correct me if im wrong, but isnt this just limited to the cards you listed?¿?

[eidairaman1]

Originally Posted by newtekie1

With nVidia, it was and still is as easy as editting a simple text file.

I don't know if it is as simple with ATi's drivers. It could be, or they could do a better job of hiding the list of cards supported, I don't know.

I remember doing this far too often with nVidia cards after the G80 cards were released, and they pretty much stopped releasing new drivers for any other cards for about 6 months. Adding the device IDs in the text/ini file made the new drivers work just fine with the older cards.

.ini

[Solaris17]

Originally Posted by eidairaman1

.ini

correct however an ini is a simple text document.

[Mussels]

this makes *COMPLETE SENSE*


vistas drivers = WDDM 1.0 (DX9 for the OS)

7's drivers = WDDM 1.1 (DX10 for the OS/aero)


if they only make vista drivers for DX9 cards, it saves them a lot of effort... and since the vista drivers are compatible anyway, why not!

[newtekie1]

Originally Posted by Nick89

Why would you be running Windows 7 on ancient hardware in the first place ? AND trying to game on it?

I run Win7 on an X800XL. I know plenty of people that plan to put it on machines with x1950Pro's and X19000XT/X1950XT. The x1900 series is actually still pretty capable gaming wise. People that play modern games don't always have the most modern hardware.

Originally Posted by eidairaman1

.ini

Have you ever openned an ini file? If you have, you know what it is.

Originally Posted by Mussels

this makes *COMPLETE SENSE*


vistas drivers = WDDM 1.0 (DX9 for the OS)

7's drivers = WDDM 1.1 (DX10 for the OS/aero)


if they only make vista drivers for DX9 cards, it saves them a lot of effort... and since the vista drivers are compatible anyway, why not!

When you put the Win7 spin on it, it does make sense, but only for Win7. The complete drop of support for cards that are less then 3 years old, doesn't though. I think poeple should be more pissed about that then the fact that it means no support for Win7. That is just a by-product of the major issue.

[eidairaman1]

Newtechie, I had to Modify .ini files to make detection possible with a Vista Driver in Win 7 RC, this was during the 9.3 Legacy which had left out a piece of code- even tho on the Site they stated the Driver Supported the X1950 Pro AGP, They fixed that with the 9.3.1s, but I skipped them until the 9.8s came out which no modification was required. It's as simple as opening the File in the Notepad and dropping in certain parameters. When I did that I had complete Aero OS effects etc. If you try to use a XP driver, Aero gets disabled.

Originally Posted by newtekie1

I run Win7 on an X800XL. I know plenty of people that plan to put it on machines with x1950Pro's and X19000XT/X1950XT. The x1900 series is actually still pretty capable gaming wise. People that play modern games don't always have the most modern hardware.



Have you ever openned an ini file? If you have, you know what it is.



When you put the Win7 spin on it, it does make sense, but only for Win7. The complete drop of support for cards that are less then 3 years old, doesn't though. I think poeple should be more pissed about that then the fact that it means no support for Win7. That is just a by-product of the major issue.

[wiak]

blame microsoft not ati

[FreedomEclipse]

Originally Posted by wiak

blame microsoft not ati

& I wonder what would be your reason behind that idea? asside from the fact that Windows 7 new & more 'upgraded'

[erocker]

Originally Posted by wiak

blame microsoft not ati

Originally Posted by FreedomEclipse

& I wonder what would be your reason behind that idea? asside from the fact that Windows 7 new & more 'upgraded'

Blame who for what? Lol.