AMD to Drop Support for Pre-HD 5000 GPUs with Catalyst 12.7

[btarunr]

AMD will conclude driver updates for pre-Evergreen, or pre-Radeon HD 5000 (that's HD 2000, HD 3000, and HD 4000) series GPUs, starting this summer. The change could take effect with Catalyst 12.7 (around July). Users of these older GPUs can use the (then) latest driver (Catalyst 12.6) to run their older DirectX 10/10.1 graphics cards. The elimination of pre-Evergreen GPUs could also slim down the driver package a bit, in terms of file-size.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[dj-electric]

Cool... hehe....

 

[lyndonguitar]

too bad for those who still have 4xxx and older

 

[mtosev]

Lucky me as I have a HD 5000 series card

 

[Flanker]

awww, those 4850's have left nice memories

 

[Melvis]

Gayness!!

 

[newtekie1]

AMD needs to get their act together with drivers. Their driver is 161MB, and only goes back to the HD2000 series. They drop support for cards that were flagship cards just 2.5 years ago to "shave a few MB off the driver". Come on, nVidia is still releasing drivers that support all the way back to the 6000 series cards, and their driver file is only 159MB.

If you are going to phase out support at least do it grandually, phase out one generation at a time as you introduce a new generation. Don't just axe 3 generations of cards in one swipe, especially not when they were selling as flagship cards just 2.5 years ago. That is just way too short of a life span, I would expect at least 3 year of support with new drivers out of a card. At least long enough to get through the (common) warranty period...

 

[Jetster]

There will still be other people tweaking the old driver

 

[jaredpace]

Saw this coming. AMD already stopped support for HD7000 series in Cat 12.1.

 

[eidairaman1]

Saw this coming. AMD already stopped support for HD7000 series in Cat 12.1.

love sarcasm.

 

[RejZoR]

It would be nice if they'd drop support after they released at least 1 WHQL driver for Windows 8 for these older series. So they don't screw old users over ability to upgrade to Windows 8 properly.
I totally hate it when company drops driver support just before the release of new OS.
On one hand that saves them the work but on the other hand it screws users big time as well.

With 1 proper driver, they at least get proper support, even if it's a bit buggy here and there. It's usually better than no support at all.

 

[snuif09]

Was planning to upgrade this summer anyways. The 4xxx series are boss and one of the best cards I ever had.

 

[Jetster]

Was planning to upgrade this summer anyways. The 4xxx series are boss and one of the best cards I ever had.

Wait til you upgrade

 

[eidairaman1]

It would be nice if they'd drop support after they released at least 1 WHQL driver for Windows 8 for these older series. So they don't screw old users over ability to upgrade to Windows 8 properly.
I totally hate it when company drops driver support just before the release of new OS.
On one hand that saves them the work but on the other hand it screws users big time as well.

With 1 proper driver, they at least get proper support, even if it's a bit buggy here and there. It's usually better than no support at all.

nv did it to nf2/3 users

 

[mum1989]

Drop support on windows too ??

 

[RejZoR]

nv did it to nf2/3 users

And we weren't too pleased with it (i had nForce 2 at that time). That's why i never bought nForce 4 mobo... do the math then.

 

[eidairaman1]

And we weren't too pleased with it (i had nForce 2 at that time). That's why i never bought nForce 4 mobo... do the math then.

ya same i wont use them.

 

[WhiteLotus]

I'm actually pleased with this move. It means (hopefully) they can focus on the cards that are out now plus a couple of generations. [Hopefully] this will will mean that they will become better.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Was planning to upgrade this summer anyways. The 4xxx series are boss and one of the best cards I ever had.

Wait til you upgrade

Yeah man! snuif09 is in for a real treat when he upgrades. I remember going from two 4850's to one 5850. It was epic. Going from a 4850 to a 7950 or even a "lower" 570 WOW!

 

[WhiteLotus]

Unfortunately with the newer cards heat and sound are problems. Well... for someone who likes a silent computer anyway.

 

[KingPing]

Glad i drop support for AMD/ATI!

 

[RejZoR]

Unfortunately with the newer cards heat and sound are problems. Well... for someone who likes a silent computer anyway.

Actually a 4x more powerful HD6950 that i own now is far more silent than HD4850 that i used to have. And reference HD5850 was more silent as well and it was still 2x faster. It was a fine card, can't deny that but with reference cooler it was very loud. And hot. But it was a single slot...

 

[Jetster]

Well my 7950 is the coolest and quietest gaming card Ive had in a while

 

[WhiteLotus]

Actually a 4x more powerful HD6950 that i own now is far more silent than HD4850 that i used to have. And reference HD5850 was more silent as well and it was still 2x faster. It was a fine card, can't deny that but with reference cooler it was very loud. And hot. But it was a single slot...

Everyday you compromise I guess.

I had a Powercolor 4850 with a cooler so silent I had to look to see if my hard drive activity light blinked to check if my computer was on when I came into my room so I knew that all I had to do was turn my monitor on. lol

 

[TheMailMan78]

Everyday you compromise I guess.

I had a Powercolor 4850 with a cooler so silent I had to look to see if my hard drive activity light blinked to check if my computer was on when I came into my room so I knew that all I had to do was turn my monitor on. lol

You want quiet? A 580/570 DCII is insane. I had to take the side of my PC off to make sure the fans were running. Look at W1zz's review.

This is UNDER LOAD!