Non-GCN AMD GPUs moved to Legacy Support

[WYP]

Non-GCN AMD GPUs have been moved to Legacy Support, meaning that owners of Non-GCN based AMD GPUs will no longer get new drivers.

Read more on Non-GCN GPUs becoming legacy products.

 

[cooperman]

Now AMD want to increase focus on their drivers stability and performance, so working only on models with the newest architectures makes a lot of sense, after all who buys a AMD HD 6970 or older GPU anymore?

A mate of mine picked up a 6990 last month and a lot still use 6950's and 6970's as thay are still great cards sounds like excuses from AMD to me.

 

[Zoot]

5 years is a good run really.

I haven't ever kept a graphics card that long, although the GTX 560 in my secondary system is approaching that now.

 

[NeverBackDown]

A mate of mine picked up a 6990 last month and a lot still use 6950's and 6970's as thay are still great cards sounds like excuses from AMD to me.

Buying really old hardware doesn't mean it should be supported.. Those cards are from years ago and have reached there peak in support tbh.

Besides dropping the support means they focus more on there newer hardware which should mean more drivers more frequently since there is less to test.

 

[jimma47]

5 Years is plenty. You wouldn't expect to play recent releases on max settings with anything that old. My 570 lasted nearly 5 years and that was a good innings.
It doesn't mean they stop working it just means they stop developing and making fixes for things that have occurred well after their life cycle. This means they can focus on supporting new or current products.

 

[sfelock]

Bummer, I suppose this means my 6970s are becoming obsolete and I should start saving to replace them

 

[Doothe]

Nvidia's legacy line up starts at the 700 series. http://www.nvidia.com/page/legacy.html
Excuse me if I sound ignorant but does that mean everything except the newest gen nvidia gpus receive support? This question is coming from someone who just built their first computer recently.

 

[Kushiro]

TBH when you think about it, its not even worth it to buy a pre GCN card anyways. Given the efficiency and the price of them.

 

[Emu]

Nvidia's legacy line up starts at the 700 series. http://www.nvidia.com/page/legacy.html
Excuse me if I sound ignorant but does that mean everything except the newest gen nvidia gpus receive support? This question is coming from someone who just built their first computer recently.

I think that particular page shows GPUs that are no longer being manufactured. The latest driver (version 359.00) supports the 400 series onwards. Hopefully my link works.
http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/95559

 

[Porxster]

6000 Series are obsolete for most serious gamers.
The new scheme looks much better, but I prefer to use the old set-up...
Can we have drivers supporting X-Fire in Battlefront without the graphic corruption ?

 

[BigDaddyKong]

I don't see what the issue is. I guess everyone was spoiled by how long Microsoft supported XP, and all tech should live that long.

Of course, I'm from the time when a new DX version was released, old cards did not support it at all. None of this partial stuff. If you wanted to play, you had to pay.

 

[Dark NighT]

Good one AMD, sometimes you just gotta let go and make things easier.

 

[notcool]

I think that particular page shows GPUs that are no longer being manufactured. The latest driver (version 359.00) supports the 400 series onwards. Hopefully my link works.
http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/95559

Yep exactly and actually last week I reinstalled my GTX 480 because my heating wasn't working and it's still bloody powerful it's great that Nvidia still provides new drivers for it.

6000 Series are obsolete for most serious gamers.

Why? they're still functional and fairly powerful not everyone upgrades every year.

 

[Kilbane]

Why? they're still functional and fairly powerful not everyone upgrades every year.

Yes they are still OK, however they are 5 years old now. I think 5 years on a GPU is sufficient by any standard. Remember they have not stopped them working, just wont release any new drivers. These cards will not support DX12, so anything they can already run already has a suitable legacy driver available.

 

[AlienALX]

Why? they're still functional and fairly powerful not everyone upgrades every year.

No one said every year. They said every five, and TBH? any serious PC gamer really ought to be looking to upgrade every three years or so at least.

You're making it sound like it's the end of the world and the hardware won't even work any more. Places like Techpowerup will carry legacy software as they always do.

DX12 is about to become the next best thing and AMD rely on GCN. DX12 will not work on these older, legacy products.

 

[Vicey]

HD 7970 came out in 2012, HD 7990, 2013. That's 3 and 2 years ago.

I think that's a bit too soon for the 7xxx series really. Especially if some future games run completely terrible on these cards and desperately need driver updates.

These kinds of decisions drive people to the competition where even a 2010 card like a GTX 480 still receives frequent driver support in the latest titles.

Around this time I'd expect AMD to drop 5xxx cards and maybe 6xxx but not the 7xxx series.

EDIT:// Sorry, these cards I just mentioned are GCN based and thus are still covered. It's actually just the HD 7600 and below which are not GCN and thus not covered inside the 7xxx series.

 

[shambles1980]

hd 7xxx cards should be GCN cards.
so i don't see the argument of them only being 2-3 years old as they wont be legacy.

 

[Vicey]

hd 7xxx cards should be GCN cards.

You're 100% correct, my fault for not reading properly. It's only the HD 7600 and below which aren't GCN and thus not covered. The HD 7970, HD 7990 etc are still covered by driver updates as they are GCN based.

 

[barnsley]

Yep exactly and actually last week I reinstalled my GTX 480 because my heating wasn't working and it's still bloody powerful it's great that Nvidia still provides new drivers for it.

IIRC its as fast as a 750Ti.



As much as I am a fan of saving cash, the 400 series and pre GCN cards all won't support DX12 (or even 11 in some cases) so people might as well upgrade around the time DX12 cards come out.