The headline title isn't right, they are NOT part of the main branch any longer.

However, AMD will continue to issue periodic updates and backported user mode components to this separate branch based on the older 25.10 code base for the time being. This is why the last release is tagged "combined" and has double the size of the regular installation, because there are effectively two drivers in the package.

25.20 refers to "25.10.2 for RDNA 3 and 4"
All future releases that support RDNA 1 and 2 in some manner will be a 25.10-based driver
Polaris and Vega continue to receive critical fixes with a driver based on 23.19, as they have for the past few years

RDNA1 I can understand due to it being a new arch back then in 2019 and not having many GPUs based off it (e.g. no flagship/halo GPU), but RDNA2 should be the one getting game optimization. The Ryzen Z2 A (in the Xbox Ally non-X) is Van Gogh and current, so it uses an 8 CU RDNA2 iGPU.

Good. Now this may force more people to linux from windows. But somehow I think people will just in the end go further to nvidia.

CheeseballRDNA1 I can understand due to it being a new arch back then in 2019 and not having many GPUs based off it (e.g. no flagship/halo GPU), but RDNA2 should be the one getting game optimization. The Ryzen Z2 A (in the Xbox Ally non-X) is Van Gogh and current, so it uses an 8 CU RDNA2 iGPU.

amd sold vega igp's way after mainline driver ended.
They had southern island gpu's in laptops introduced and 1 month later no more drivers.

This is what amd does, end driver support the moment they have something new, and also intentionally block support features for older gpu's like they think it's a incentive for an existing amd buyer to get something new from them.
All I see is them marketing for nvidia gpu's.

No matter what you do it's better on nvidia:
DLSS quality is better (marginally vs fsr4)
Dlss wide game support, and if there isn't it's a dll replacement, amd needs optiscaler install per game n stuff.
Rayreconstruction.
Rt performance
Reflex
Cuda & compute stack.
Long driver support
Encoder support
Encoder hardware (rdna4 is pretty good but very let down by sw, still not as good hardware)
Application support.
On time game ready drivers

yet those 50$ for a 4 year purchase really pays off for amd people trick themself into, it doesn't matter what you do on a gpu now it's just better value on nvidia.

Honestly, this is terrible support considering how Turing support is still going to be a thing for the foreseeable future, and it has even received DLSS4 support when that feature launched, while FSR4 support is up in the air for RDNA 3. And even more so now for RDNA 2, since they are now sent off to Vega/Polaris drivers... so odds are that if FSR4 int8 comes with Redstone in a couple months, RDNA 2 won't get official support.

Meanwhile Nvidia still supports Maxwell and Pascal with their latest drivers. They are planning to drop support on it in their 590 drivers, but it hasn't happened yet, so they still get all the latest optimizations. Clearly, the finewine company is Nvidia... very long driver support, even very old cards can get some of the the latest features even if it's not all of them such as Turing not supporting DLSS 4 MFG and having the feature set that those cards still run the newest games.

Radeon VII and 5700 XT can't run RT-only games, a Turing card can.

Meanwhile AMD has abandoned RDNA 2 when they have products released this year or past years that use it. Such as Granite Ridge iGPU or Z2 Go (used in ROG Xbox Ally). This is so incredibly bad.

persondbHonestly, this is terrible support considering how Turing support is still going to be a thing for the foreseeable future, and it has even received DLSS4 support when that feature launched, while FSR4 support is up in the air for RDNA 3. And even more so now for RDNA 2, since they are now sent off to Vega/Polaris drivers... so odds are that if FSR4 int8 comes with Redstone in a couple months, RDNA 2 won't get official support.

Meanwhile Nvidia still supports Maxwell and Pascal with their latest drivers. They are planning to drop support on it in their 590 drivers, but it hasn't happened yet, so they still get all the latest optimizations. Clearly, the finewine company is Nvidia... very long driver support, even very old cards can get some of the the latest features even if it's not all of them such as Turing not supporting DLSS 4 MFG and having the feature set that those cards still run the newest games.

Radeon VII and 5700 XT can't run RT-only games, a Turing card can.

Meanwhile AMD has abandoned RDNA 2 when they have products released this year or past years that use it. Such as Granite Ridge iGPU or Z2 Go (used in ROG Xbox Ally). This is so incredibly bad.

The biggest issue is optics. rDNA2 still technically works fine, and they will get bugfixes, so its not like the HD6000s where they were left unusable.

For a company that is still fighting perceptions of driver quality from 10 years ago, this is going to leave a nasty black eye. Especially when their competitor is supporting cards 2x as long and counting. The cutoff for nvidia really seems to be 9-10 years old, whereas AMD is now at 5. Not a good look.

Just like when the 7000 series released, people are going to look at the 6800xt struggling to beat a 4070 in 6 months and create a whole new meme around "AbandonMD" or something similar that will follow AMD for another decade. It's not like they're poor now either, they can afford to extend driver support a few more years...

I guess even more consumers/gamers now will avoid AMD graphics cards forwards. Why even think about buying their graphics cards?

PapusanI guess even more consumers/gamers now will avoid AMD graphics cards forwards. Why even think about buying their graphics cards?

I'm looking forward to RDNA 5

Been using Radeon since the first Radeon DDR 64 :)

PapusanI guess even more consumers/gamers now will avoid AMD graphics cards forwards. Why even think about buying their graphics cards?

Damn look at those comments. A huge PR own goal by AMD there.

TheinsanegamerNThe biggest issue is optics. rDNA2 still technically works fine, and they will get bugfixes, so its not like the HD6000s where they were left unusable.

For a company that is still fighting perceptions of driver quality from 10 years ago, this is going to leave a nasty black eye. Especially when their competitor is supporting cards 2x as long and counting. The cutoff for nvidia really seems to be 9-10 years old, whereas AMD is now at 5. Not a good look.

Just like when the 7000 series released, people are going to look at the 6800xt struggling to beat a 4070 in 6 months and create a whole new meme around "AbandonMD" or something similar that will follow AMD for another decade. It's not like they're poor now either, they can afford to extend driver support a few more years...

Performance wise, RDNA 2 still does great tbh. But the issue is that when the game optimized drivers are gone, it will perform way worse than it should. I have seen some people compare it to how GCN 3 underperformed in Halo Infnity due to lack of game optimized drivers for it.

There is quite a bit of work in those companies in doing optimized shaders replacement in the drivers for popular games and by taking that from still good and very relevant RDNA 2 cards, that is basically killing those earlier than they would be in my opinion. A 6800 XT is pretty close to performance to a 7800 XT anyway, even more so in non-RT titles.

persondbPerformance wise, RDNA 2 still does great tbh. But the issue is that when the game optimized drivers are gone, it will perform way worse than it should. I have seen some people compare it to how GCN 3 underperformed in Halo Infnity due to lack of game optimized drivers for it.

There is quite a bit of work in those companies in doing optimized shaders replacement in the drivers for popular games and by taking that from still good and very relevant RDNA 2 cards, that is basically killing those earlier than they would be in my opinion. A 6800 XT is pretty close to performance to a 7800 XT anyway, even more so in non-RT titles.

Oh its not gonna be great. I remember my 6800xt getting slower, and slower, losing more games to the 3080. Then it started losing to the 3070. Then AMD FINALLY pulled their head from their arse and started doing optimization again. But then again, AMD also did the socket AM4 rugpull until they got shouted at and forced to backtrack too. And unlike intel, when they had a monopoly on DIY sales they jacked up prices. Now we're going to see a smattering of AMD 9 and 7 series cards among all of nvidia's offerings and people will wonder what AMD was doing 5 years ago.

They are not our friends. AMD is even greedier than nVidia.

AMD Finewine eh, not even once :roll:.

Looks like my nephew's 8GB 3070 is more future-proof than 16GB 6800/6800XT/6900XT

TheinsanegamerNThe biggest issue is optics. rDNA2 still technically works fine, and they will get bugfixes, so its not like the HD6000s where they were left unusable.

For a company that is still fighting perceptions of driver quality from 10 years ago, this is going to leave a nasty black eye. Especially when their competitor is supporting cards 2x as long and counting. The cutoff for nvidia really seems to be 9-10 years old, whereas AMD is now at 5. Not a good look.

Just like when the 7000 series released, people are going to look at the 6800xt struggling to beat a 4070 in 6 months and create a whole new meme around "AbandonMD" or something similar that will follow AMD for another decade. It's not like they're poor now either, they can afford to extend driver support a few more years...

I'm going to be truthful with you, I am not upset at AMD's decision. But I am also privy to certain details that the general public is not, so that's a very important consideration as to why I am not raising my pitchforks when I would usually be the first to moan about this. I'm not sure I'm allowed to talk about it, so I won't, but just trust me when I say that there actually is a valid technical reason for this decision.

All and all, it sucks for those who opted to buy a RX 6000 over an RTX 20 or 30 series GPU some time ago, and doubly so for late adopters, but I suppose that they knew they wouldn't get the same level of software support and longevity as they would have with the Nvidia card. Pretty much every review and forum mentioned that to some extent, of course, with pushback, but that was to be expected. No use being surprised.

TheinsanegamerNSure, on linux i will be mostly fine, windows its going to become evident with time.

It will definitely make me think more on my next GPU, do I want to buy from a company that only supports their products from 4 years, or the one that supports them for 8+ years?

I've been switching to Linux, as Windows has gotten past the point of even trying to deal with all of the AI and bloatware. Although I'd really like AMD to get the Adrenalin panel on Linux, other tools exist but having the option for a unified control panel would be nice.

And this would be assuming 7000 and 9000 series would be cut short, which is a reasonable assumption from this. I can understand RDNA1 to some extent, but cutting 6000 series out of game optimization is a seriously bad mistake.

TheinsanegamerNOh its not gonna be great. I remember my 6800xt getting slower, and slower, losing more games to the 3080. Then it started losing to the 3070. Then AMD FINALLY pulled their head from their arse and started doing optimization again. But then again, AMD also did the socket AM4 rugpull until they got shouted at and forced to backtrack too. And unlike intel, when they had a monopoly on DIY sales they jacked up prices. Now we're going to see a smattering of AMD 9 and 7 series cards among all of nvidia's offerings and people will wonder what AMD was doing 5 years ago.

They are not our friends. AMD is even greedier than nVidia.

AM4 rugpull? Are you referring to the pci-e 4.0 support? But AMD never had a monopoly on DIY sales, and they definitely don't have room to act like Intel when Intel still has a majority in marketshare.
AMD's radeon division is poor, they're being kept alive through console sales and barely competing in AI hardware. I assume they're kept separate from the CPU division, and a lack of resources isn't greed, I keep seeing people saying they're dedicating resources towards UDNA, and people keep yelling for AMD to magically have feature parity to Nvidia's proprietary features. Although if AMD has to stop driver optimization after 4 years then it seems like the radeon side of AMD isn't doing very well at all.

Dr. DroI'm going to be truthful with you, I am not upset at AMD's decision. But I am also privy to certain details that the general public is not, so that's a very important consideration as to why I am not raising my pitchforks when I would usually be the first to moan about this. I'm not sure I'm allowed to talk about it, so I won't, but just trust me when I say that there actually is a valid technical reason for this decision.

All and all, it sucks for those who opted to buy a RX 6000 over an RTX 20 or 30 series GPU some time ago, and doubly so for late adopters, but I suppose that they knew they wouldn't get the same level of software support and longevity as they would have with the Nvidia card. Pretty much every review and forum mentioned that to some extent, of course, with pushback, but that was to be expected. No use being surprised.

Sorry but "I know a secret and I can't tell you" can be written by anyone. AMD managed to support all these cards last month so what is this " valid technical reason"? AMD incompetence?

Nvidia can support their cards for 10 years. The Linux community is still optimizing for Polaris. There is no reason to believe AMD suddenly has a technical reason they can't support their own hardware(that they are still selling).

Hecate91I've been switching to Linux, as Windows has gotten past the point of even trying to deal with all of the AI and bloatware. Although I'd really like AMD to get the Adrenalin panel on Linux, other tools exist but having the option for a unified control panel would be nice.

And this would be assuming 7000 and 9000 series would be cut short, which is a reasonable assumption from this. I can understand RDNA1 to some extent, but cutting 6000 series out of game optimization is a seriously bad mistake.

AM4 rugpull? Are you referring to the pci-e 4.0 support? But AMD never had a monopoly on DIY sales, and they definitely don't have room to act like Intel when Intel still has a majority in marketshare.
AMD's radeon division is poor, they're being kept alive through console sales and barely competing in AI hardware. I assume they're kept separate from the CPU division, and a lack of resources isn't greed, I keep seeing people saying they're dedicating resources towards UDNA, and people keep yelling for AMD to magically have feature parity to Nvidia's proprietary features. Although if AMD has to stop driver optimization after 4 years then it seems like the radeon side of AMD isn't doing very well at all.

AMD was going to lock newer CPUs to newer chipsets remember? 3000 series wouldn't run on 300 chipsets? AMD was fully prepared, after promising long term support, to limit you to just two CPUs per chipset, just like Intel. They tried to rugpull and had to backtrack quick after the community tore into them.

AMD invested over $5 billion into R and D. It is not a resource issue. AMD isn't the poor little underdog fighting bankruptcy.

TheinsanegamerNThere is no reason to believe AMD suddenly has a technical reason they can't support their own hardware(that they are still selling).

Intel did the same thing and the sentiment was simply oh well those were too old anyway, even though Intel still sells products using those GPU's with discontinued drivers.

TheinsanegamerNAMD was going to lock newer CPUs to newer chipsets remember? 3000 series wouldn't run on 300 chipsets? AMD was fully prepared, after promising long term support, to limit you to just two CPUs per chipset, just like Intel. They tried to rugpull and had to backtrack quick after the community tore into them.

AMD invested over $5 billion into R and D. It is not a resource issue. AMD isn't the poor little underdog fighting bankruptcy.

I really don't recall that, pci-e support really must've blown up in comparison to 300 series chipset support. AMD may have had a reason to, until backlash and re investigating if 300 series chipsets could run 3000 series Ryzen to full potential. Meanwhile Intel gets off with one gen and a refresh, or at most a refresh of a refresh with the excuses of "the latest cpu's need a more optimized pin layout" or some other BS.
I suppose the good thing is AMD actually listens to the customers, hopefully enough backlash on RDNA driver support at least gets 6000 series back onto day 1 game optimized support.
And 5 billion is total R&D, thats pocket change compared to Nvidia, even pocket change to Intel getting a $8.9 billion handout, so yes in comparison the radeon side of AMD is fighting tooth and nail to not become irrelevant in the GPU market.

TheinsanegamerNSorry but "I know a secret and I can't tell you" can be written by anyone.

I completely understand.

Hecate91Intel did the same thing and the sentiment was simply oh well those were too old anyway, even though Intel still sells products using those GPU's with discontinued drivers.

I only really have one problem with this comparison, AMD must be held to a higher standard than Intel, because it needs to push towards excellence, not mediocrity. Alder Lake's graphics were, are, and will always be... mediocre and passable. RDNA 2, on the other hand, isn't.

This is the most stupid thing AMD has done in years. Nvidia supported Maxwell for over a decade and Pascal also almost for a decade.

Then AMD discontinues a generation which came out around the same time as Nvidia RTX 30 cards. Unbeliavable.

RuruThis is the most stupid thing AMD has done in years. Nvidia supported Maxwell for over a decade and Pascal also almost for a decade.

Then AMD discontinues a generation which came out around the same time as Nvidia RTX 30 cards. Unbeliavable.

Support is one thing, game optimization is another. I'm pretty sure those older gen nvidia cards aren't getting new game optimizations. It's not like these cards are magically going to stop working, you're still gonna play your games just fine.

Here we go again.

No matter the driver support neither AMD or Nvidia is actively optimising drivers for 5 year old architectures.

ToTTenTranzThe actual message here:

- No FSR4 for RDNA2, ever.

exactly.

Fuck AMD. And I was one of their ""supporters"". Go green.

CheeseballRDNA1 I can understand due to it being a new arch back then in 2019 and not having many GPUs based off it (e.g. no flagship/halo GPU), but RDNA2 should be the one getting game optimization. The Ryzen Z2 A (in the Xbox Ally non-X) is Van Gogh and current, so it uses an 8 CU RDNA2 iGPU.

And RDNA2 is the heart of current gen consoles, yet they put it on backburner on PC.

MakaveliI'm looking forward to RDNA 5

Been using Radeon since the first Radeon DDR 64 :)

I was, now i'm not so sure, if they drop RDNA2 by the near end of current gen consolse, who knows what will happen with RDNA5/UDNA by the end of PS6 era.

olymind1And RDNA2 is the heart of current gen consoles

They don’t need drivers, one has basically nothing to do with the other.

W3RN3RSupport is one thing, game optimization is another. I'm pretty sure those older gen nvidia cards aren't getting new game optimizations. It's not like these cards are magically going to stop working, you're still gonna play your games just fine.

You know what I meant. When there's cards like RX 6700 XT and above which oblirates the Nvidia 40/50 series' mid-end cards, it's insane that they won't get driver optimizations when they would easily have the performance to run games even in the future.

6750xt came out 3.5 years ago LMAO

6750GRE (chinese market) came out exactly 2 years ago (october 2023) LMAOx2

there are still brand new 6600xt being sold LMAOx3

FSR4 never coming in any official capacity to rdna2 even though they're more than capable of running it LMAOx4,x5,x6


honestly anybody not seeing the problem here has some problems or it's just trolling