AMD drops support for non GCN based graphics cards
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TheDeeGee
They really try hard to go down under do they? 🙂
Yxskaft
I expected this considering AMD's previous support cycles.
No new drivers at all is a bit surprising though, previous Legacy cards got drivers for bug fixes for a year.
Clouseau
About time. Good move on their part. Now they can move forward; not that they really gave much attention to the non-gcn cards lately. Now just need to wait for the next crop before upgrading. Guess it is time to start planning to fill the Core X-9 case now.
zer0_c0ol
about damn time...
waltc3
Lol...;) nVidia does the same exact thing. They have to if they are going to make progress. Bear in mind that just as people continue to run XP today, some of them with no overt problems, the same will be true of so-called Legacy 3d cards. Those cards will not stop working with all of the games they work with now, which basically means D3d9/10 & maybe even some 11 games will continue to run on that hardware for years to come.
Not a big deal. Nothing is forever--not your cpu, your gpu your motherboard, your ram your hdd's, etc. Or your 3d cards...It's simply the way things work.
Yxskaft
And why do you think that?
Dropping VLIW won't magically increase GCN performance. They aren't running the same code.
The effect this will have for GCN drivers depends on how many engineers AMD still had devoted to the VLIW DX11 cards.
Well, at least these cards' support ended at a better time than the DX10 cards did.
Demrock
Fully understand this.
They should use all recources for the future at this point as their $$$ is running out and something has to give.
Currently using 970's now but cant wait for the 14nm gpu's and will go back to team Red 100%
Turanis
Every major hardware manufacturer do this:Intel,Nvidia,Samsung,even Apple.
Can't do anything for oldest HW in these days.What to improve?Nothing.
The world evoluate to new hw.
schmidtbag
I noticed whenever a game or benchmark supports a new version of DX or OpenGL (or in this case, Vulkan), shortly after AMD transitions incompatible hardware to legacy. It seems nvidia does the same thing but they wait several months longer. Nvidia also does a better job at maintaining their legacy drivers. As a linux user, AMD is a decent choice if you want long-term support. The HD2000 series and newer are actively maintained, though it does take a seat behind the HD7000 series and newer.
KissSh0t
Makes building drivers for DX12 easier I guess...
Yxskaft
Nvidia's Legacy support for its DX10 products will continue until April 2016.
Nvidia has very long support cycles for its older products.
And drivers aren't just about performance, but also about bug fixes. All new games are not demanding, but may require a driver fix to work correctly.
Newer drivers can also mean proper support for newer Windows.
Black_ice_Spain
Dropping support is not performance unless something really terrible happens
is just not blowing up things and keeping them working with newest windows, thats about it
aka wasting resources for something that rarely happens but... who knows
nhlkoho
How old is GNC now? 4-5 years old? I can't believe they were still supporting stuff prior to this.
icedman
I hope this means better drivers for relevant cards though i am a little disappointed since my richland apu isn't really that old.
zer0_c0ol
when i said about damn time i meant to say they are finally putting the 5000 series into legacy after 6 years of support
Yxskaft
And I just don't see how it makes sense to be happy about something being moved to legacy just for the sake of it
vbetts
Moderator
They had a good run, 5000 series had a long support cycle and really there were no new performance boosts for non gcn cards for a long while now.
zer0_c0ol
because it is time for it.. and tbh the 5000 series did not had any improvements for a long time...
Yxskaft
Improvements aren't just performance related
The HD 5000 and 6000 series did get official Catalyst drivers for Windows 10. A recent driver also mentioned fixing crashing issues for World of Warships.
So there has obviously been some work behind the scenes for these cards this last year.
I particularly don't care whether it's mainline or Legacy after six years, but bug fixes and support for new OS should still be provided.
zer0_c0ol
like fermi non existent dx 12 support?
