AMD ending driver support for HD 4xxx and older GPUs soon

[90sgamer]

Any gamers out there still using an HD 4xxx card? If so, you will see an end to driver updates after this year's june drivers.

 

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/26877-amd-to-say-goodbye-to-pre-hd-5000-gpus

 

Apparently, AMD is ending HD 4xxx, 3xxx, and 2xxx GPU driver support after Catalyst 12.6. 12.7 will only support HD 5xxx and newer.

Its a real shame because a 4870 for instance still can play plenty of new games. Anything UE3 based (Like Mass Effect 3) should run fine as well as heaps of other games. Maybe not BF3 on ultra, but these are still some great cards.

 

I do understand why they are doing it though. Maybe without having to test and make compatibility adjustments for these older cards, they can focus on making newer drivers much more stable and finally fix crossfire for everyone.

I'm all for that

Edited April 22, 2012 by 90sgamer

[Waco]

Phoronix was guessing that Windows support will end just like the Linux support. I highly doubt that this will be the case.

[90sgamer]

I just checked out the Phoronix article. You're right. However, the author bases his hunch on a few points such as the last time legacy hardware driver support was dropped it was ended on both Windows and Linux at the same time. Also the Catalyst Linux and Windows drivers share a large majority of code between them, so it wouldn't make much sense end support on one and continue it on the other.

 

In any case, I hope this frees up some of the driver team so more people can continue perfecting newer drivers instead of working on legacy hardware compatibility.

[Waco]

I just find it odd they'd step away from the whole unified driver thing - especially since the drivers for the 5000 series are nearly identical in every way to the ones specifically written for the 4000 series as well.

[El_Capitan]

They just want people to upgrade their cards in order to play the latest games. That's how they make money, by people buying their stuff.

[sword_fish]

They just want people to upgrade their cards in order to play the latest games. That's how they make money, by people buying their stuff.

 

marketing sucks

[IVIYTH0S]

They just want people to upgrade their cards in order to play the latest games. That's how they make money, by people buying their stuff.

 

They're not happy at $45 dollar used card like the 4870 can play 70% of games at appreciably high settings due to console ports and select efficient game engines

Edited April 22, 2012 by IVIYTH0S

[bilcliff]

 

They're not happy at $45 dollar used card like the 4870 can play 70% of games at appreciably high settings due to console ports and select efficient game engines

that will (might?) change when the 8th gen consoles launch. but by then gtx 7xx series and the amd HD 8xxx series will be out.

[IVIYTH0S]

that will (might?) change when the 8th gen consoles launch. but by then gtx 7xx series and the amd HD 8xxx series will be out.

But of course, finally PC gaming won't suffer certain aspects to consoliatis anymore lol

[Hyper]

both of my 4870's have died (lost the 2nd one a few months ago) so it doesnt realy effect me (thoguh i think my roommate is still useing a 4850), but in any case I hate it when they drop support meaning (to me anyway) that the newer drivers will no longer recognize the older cards...