Pre-HD 5000 Will be Removed from Catalyst Mainline, But Onto a New Support Model: AMD

[btarunr]

AMD confirmed to TechPowerUp its plans of removing pre-HD 5000 series Radeon GPUs from the Catalyst mainline update model (where WHQL-certified driver updates are released on a monthly basis), but that doesn't necessarily mean a discontinuation of support for those products. AMD told us that it is merely relocating pre-HD 5000 GPUs (under the Radeon HD 2000, HD 3000, and HD 4000 series), to a new update model that will have new WHQL-certified drivers being released on a quarterly basis.

This model is carved out of the mainline, because the driver team is encountering a diminishing number of problems that can be addressed, with the older chips, and can pool them up over a quarter and release updates for them. The driver team can then focus on Radeon HD 5000 (and later) product lines. AMD also talked about the current lack of driver support for pre-HD 5000 GPUs on Windows 8 consumer preview. It said that the driver that Microsoft ships with Windows 8 will support for pre-HD 5000 GPUs, and of course in the future AMD will have WHQL-certified Windows 8 drivers for these chips, part of its new update model. A variant of the driver version 8.97, released in May, will be the first pre-HD 5000 driver in this new update model.



A transcript of AMD's statement follows.

AMD will be moving the AMD Radeon HD 2000, AMD Radeon HD 3000, and AMD Radeon HD 4000 Series of products to a new driver support model. We will continue to support the mentioned products in our Catalyst releases, but we’re moving their updates to a quarterly basis, whereas our AMD Radeon HD 5000 and later products will continue to see monthly updates. The Quarterly Catalyst releases will focus on resolving application specific issues and critical updates. The reason for the shift in support policy is largely due to the fact that the AMD Radeon HD 2000, AMD Radeon HD 3000, and AMD Radeon HD 4000 Series have been optimized to their maximum potential from a performance and feature perspective. The 8.97 based driver, released in May 2012 will be the first driver for the AMD Radeon HD 2000, AMD Radeon HD 3000, and AMD Radeon HD 4000 Series under the new support model; it is an extremely stable and robust driver branch for these products and will be the baseline for our quarterly update.

Our main development and testing efforts will now be focused on the AMD Radeon HD 5000 and later products. This is the best use of our resources as the AMD Radeon HD 5000, AMD Radeon HD 6000, AMD Radeon HD 7000, and future products have the greatest potential for further performance and feature enhancements.

Also with regards to Windows 8 support for the AMD Radeon HD 2000, 3000, 4000 Series of products; the In-the-box AMD Graphics driver that ships with Windows 8 will include support for the AMD Radeon HD 2000, 3000, and 4000 Series, and it will support the WDDM 1.1 driver level features. The AMD Catalyst driver for Windows 8 will only include support for WDDM 1.2 support products (AMD Radeon HD 5000 and later).

[hardcore_gamer]

I'm going back to this thread to read some funny comments.

[darkangel0504]

Gj amd :d

[NC37]

So translation...our older boards work better than our new ones. I wonder if the name "ATI" had anything to do with that .

[Andy77]

Originally Posted by NC37

So translation...our older boards work better than our new ones. I wonder if the name "ATI" had anything to do with that .

No... that name is dead. It's purely a long debugging time frame with millions of test subjects at hand.

Oh... the drama queens and why they've stopped buying AMD.

[eidairaman1]

Originally Posted by Andy77

No... that name is dead. It's purely a long debugging time frame with millions of test subjects at hand.

Oh... the drama queens and why they've stopped buying AMD.

This doesnt bother me at all, i kind of expect obsoletion, I wouldnt expect companies to support 8088 etc

[HTC]

Originally Posted by eidairaman1

This doesnt bother me at all, i kind of expect obsoletion, I wouldnt expect companies to support 8088 etc

8087 is still supported by SuperPI: a great, fantastic and up to date bench tool

[eidairaman1]

Originally Posted by HTC

8087 is still supported by SuperPI: a great, fantastic and up to date bench tool

thats a math co-processor, and this is super-pi, bet it runs like shit too

[xenocide]

Originally Posted by eidairaman1

thats a math co-processor, and this is super-pi, bet it runs like shit too

SuperPi 32m = 147 days.

[DarkOCean]

Good news for older cards users but amd releases new drivers to often anyway.

[Prima.Vera]

there is no such thing as "to often" . Especially when talking about drivers....

[DarkOCean]

Originally Posted by Prima.Vera

there is no such thing as "to often" . Especially when talking about drivers....

if there are things to fix then yes .

[Isenstaedt]

Originally Posted by NC37

So translation...our older boards work better than our new ones. I wonder if the name "ATI" had anything to do with that .

The HD 5000 series are also ATi.

[Widjaja]

Well this is much better news.

I rarely installed every monthly update which came out anyway, as the results can be worse.
Either way I think this is a good idea to make the driver package smaller.

[HTC]

Originally Posted by Widjaja

Well this is much better news.

I rarely installed every monthly update which came out anyway, as the results can be worse.
Either way I think this is a good idea to make the driver package smaller.

Agree.

It's better all around: the pre-HD 5000 will get a smaller installer file and so will the current catalyst installer.

[Jizzler]

Nice. Sounds like a good plan by AMD (...which means... what are they really up to??)

Anyhoo, hopefully it doesn't affect people who have mixed generation cards too much. Several years ago when they did this before I had two cards installed on either side of the "split". I still got them working, but it wasn't as easy.

[HTC]

Originally Posted by Jizzler

Nice. Sounds like a good plan by AMD (...which means... what are they really up to??)

Anyhoo, hopefully it doesn't affect people who have mixed generation cards too much. Several years ago when they did this before I had two cards installed on either side of the "split". I still got them working, but it wasn't as easy.

Hadn't thought of that.

[eidairaman1]

Originally Posted by HTC

Agree.

It's better all around: the pre-HD 5000 will get a smaller installer file and so will the current catalyst installer.

Just like the Pre HD series cards. which Supported Radeon 7000 all the way to the Radeon x1950 Pro (PCI E and AGP models)

[Gjohnst4]

Good news.

[eidairaman1]

Originally Posted by Gjohnst4

Good news.

unfortunately most dont recognize that. This is the second time AMD has switched cards to the model and it did reduce the driver package footprint.

[newtekie1]

As long as they get a Win8 driver, I'm happy. I just hope this doesn't end up like the X1000 and below cards where AMD switches them to a "Quarterly" release schedule a few months before the release of Win7, then never released a Win7 driver for any of the cards...

[eidairaman1]

Originally Posted by newtekie1

As long as they get a Win8 driver, I'm happy. I just hope this doesn't end up like the X1000 and below cards where AMD switches them to a "Quarterly" release schedule a few months before the release of Win7, then never released a Win7 driver for any of the cards...

The Vista Driver Works fine in 7, I had to modify it to work on my laptop using Mobility Modifier. Nvidia never released Vindows Vista or Windows 7 Drivers for NF1-NF4 Users

http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2041

http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answe...9WeFJRenRXaw==

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NForce3



this is the driver for X1K and lower boards for Both Windows Vista and Windows 7
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownloa...3&lang=English

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownloa...3&lang=English

[newtekie1]

Originally Posted by eidairaman1

The Vista Driver Works fine in 7

Not entirely it doesn't. It gets by for most people, but I had to ditch an X1300XT in one of my rigs because of the lack of an official Win7 driver that supported WDDM1.1, which meant I couldn't mix and match the X1300XT with an nVidia card to run the multiple monitors, so I had to put in a 6600GT I had laying around.

And I was just a annoyed with the drop of the nForce2/3/4 support from nVidia. I had some Socket 462 and 939 rigs I wanted to put Win7 on.

[H82LUZ73]

Originally Posted by NC37

So translation...our older boards work better than our new ones. I wonder if the name "ATI" had anything to do with that .

Nope the 4800 was the first AMD gpu....Glad my old Win8 box with 4870 crossfire will get support and love ...3 times a year is better then none,And this is what ATI did when they dropped AGP cards.


(First AMD GPU=,But AMD kept ATI name on chips until 6970) typing in the dark with no key light sucks...

[eidairaman1]

Originally Posted by newtekie1

Not entirely it doesn't. It gets by for most people, but I had to ditch an X1300XT in one of my rigs because of the lack of an official Win7 driver that supported WDDM1.1, which meant I couldn't mix and match the X1300XT with an nVidia card to run the multiple monitors, so I had to put in a 6600GT I had laying around.

And I was just a annoyed with the drop of the nForce2/3/4 support from nVidia. I had some Socket 462 and 939 rigs I wanted to put Win7 on.

Gotta realize for the vid cards, NV dont want u to run anything but NV. Only Lucid brought about the idea of mixing different chips.

N it worked for my Laptop and My Sig Rig, despite the sig rig not having a Optimized AGP GART (Uses the 440 BX gart driver just to get it running)

My laptop i wasnt sure if there was a 865 PE Chipset Driver for Win Vista/7 that wasnt built into windows (Drivers in Windows Suck Donkey Dick anyway)