The AMD Driver Thread

[uscool]

You do know the card will still work with games yeah? Might not be hitting the max potential performance in a new title, whatever that may be, but the games will still work. You make it sound like games will suddenly become unplayable.

Guess time will tell how the 6800xt and 7800xt age going forward with new game releases with them being similar speed

Really early imo to stop optimizations on 6000 series still very capable cards last RDNA 2 card was released 2023 can't see many owners being ok with that

For context
Released 2018
Nvidia's RTX 20 series (Turing architecture) is still fully supported and receiving game optimizations through the regular GeForce Game Ready drivers

 

[Joxeon]

They aren't second hand, that's the point new mainstream 6000 series cards were still being released in 2022, you could have bought one on a day one and barely be out of a standard 3-year warranty right now yet driver support is getting sunset.

What's the incentive to buy a 9070xt right now if there's every chance they might give up full driver support in two years.

Its a bonkers decision from AMD at a time when they have already lost half their marketshare in the past year.

 

[tamzzy]

I probably should have just said buying a phone that has been out for awhile instead of second hand lol. But the point makes sense.

it doesn't because at least with phones you are aware of when they are becoming deprecated
with gpus, you are literally at the mercy of amd/nvidia as well demonstrated by this. literally a footnote at the end of a driver release with no advance notice.

there's even a website for common phones (and nvidia ): https://endoflife.date/tags/device

 

[Firegod]

Its a bonkers decision from AMD at a time when they have already lost half their marketshare in the past year.

They seemed to be doing well according to their last financials:
"Gaming revenue was $1.1 billion, up 73% year-over-year driven by an increase in semi-custom revenue and strong AMD Radeon™ GPU demand."
Please don't post Steam survey... I can't live through another one of those debates.

it doesn't because at least with phones you are aware of when they are becoming deprecated
with gpus, you are literally at the mercy of amd/nvidia as well demonstrated by this. literally a footnote at the end of a driver release with no advance notice.

there's even a website for common phones (and nvidia ): https://endoflife.date/tags/device

Good point. However, the GPUs haven't become "deprecated" though have they, they will (apparently) still be receiving bug fixes and security updates. Just not game specific optimisations.

Guess time will tell how the 6800xt and 7800xt age going forward with new game releases with them being similar speed

Really early imo to stop optimizations on 6000 series still very capable cards last RDNA 2 card was released 2023 can't see many owners being ok with that

For context
Released 2018
Nvidia's RTX 20 series (Turing architecture) is still fully supported and receiving game optimizations through the regular GeForce Game Ready drivers

In that case yeah, the AMD decision is premature vs Nvidia.

 

[NutritioN]

Example above about 1080
gtx 1080 released mid 2016, game-ready driver support ending 10/2025, security updates 10/2028

Don't really know about that, I reckon there's not as much difference between the Nvidia support and AMD. Nvidia Game-ready is what, profiles and making sure it works? Just wording spin, has the Pascal series really had that much optimisation in the past two years (genuine question)? I reckon in reality it's been on a maintenance schedule as it's not like it gets any of the RTX or DLSS stuff.

This comparison is only a part of what we're talking about though, I know people love pitting one manufacturer against another...

Are some of you really bothered that for some 4 and 6 year old GPUs:

• performance flattens off
• miracle fine wine deliveries halt
• resell value drops (check out my MM sale)
• they don't get day-0 optimisations

?

How this message was delivered we'll all forget about in a few weeks.

 

[hyperseven]

They seemed to be doing well according to their last financials:
"Gaming revenue was $1.1 billion, up 73% year-over-year driven by an increase in semi-custom revenue and strong AMD Radeon™ GPU demand."

Doesn't 'gaming' also include Xbox, PlayStation, Steam Deck/handhelds?

 

[welshrat]

I still think this is a nothing burger, just terrible comms from AMD as usual.

 

[Grim5]

AMD has heard the outrage and backtracks

AMD Backtracks, Says It Will Continue Game Optimizations And Features Support For RDNA 1 And RDNA 2 GPUs

AMD has changed its mind with regards to how it ended support for RDNA 1 and RDNA 2 GPUs when it comes to new features and game optimizations.

wccftech.com

 

[G J]

You do know the card will still work with games yeah? Might not be hitting the max potential performance in a new title, whatever that may be, but the games will still work. You make it sound like games will suddenly become unplayable.

8GB of VRAM approves of this post.

 

[uscool]

Don't really know about that, I reckon there's not as much difference between the Nvidia support and AMD. Nvidia Game-ready is what, profiles and making sure it works? Just wording spin, has the Pascal series really had that much optimisation in the past two years (genuine question)? I reckon in reality it's been on a maintenance schedule as it's not like it gets any of the RTX or DLSS stuff.

This comparison is only a part of what we're talking about though, I know people love pitting one manufacturer against another...

Are some of you really bothered that for some 4 and 6 year old GPUs:

• performance flattens off
• miracle fine wine deliveries halt
• resell value drops (check out my MM sale)
• they don't get day-0 optimisations

?

How this message was delivered we'll all forget about in a few weeks.

That's true but AMD sure doesn't help itself couldn't they not just do the same and avoid this negative attention , most will just read the headline and another plus for Nvidia

 

[eeii]

I still think this is a nothing burger, just terrible comms from AMD as usual.

When AI writes your PR comms

 

[SonicSW20]

AMD has heard the outrage and backtracks

AMD Backtracks, Says It Will Continue Game Optimizations And Features Support For RDNA 1 And RDNA 2 GPUs

AMD has changed its mind with regards to how it ended support for RDNA 1 and RDNA 2 GPUs when it comes to new features and game optimizations.

wccftech.com

Sounds more like the original "press release" was poorly worded, based on this:

the 6000 series hasn't really seen any targeted updates for a while now, though all gfx generations will benefit from generic fixes and improvements at the usermode driver level.

Perhaps whoever looks after the press stuff should run everything by Vik first

 

[KompuKare]

g: gtx 1080 released mid 2016, game-ready driver support ending 10/2025, security updates 10/2028
vs
rx6800xt released end 2020, "game-ready" driver support ending 10/2025, security updates until???

Over 4 years different. Any neme gaining ground like "Nvidia cards ran out of VRAM but at least they bothered to upgrade the drivers" is going to reflect really poorly on AMD. AMD's dGPU presense is already at a low-point.

It is the point to be fair. People don't kick up a fuss with mobile phones for example. If you buy a second hand phone you don't go arguing why are there no more official updates for it. Everyone accepts, you get 2-3 OS updates and then like 3-5 years security patches. If people are still buying 6 year old graphic cards, recently, then they aren't really thinking about longevity or doing any forward planning. At the end of the day, old hardware gets phased out. What I think would have been better and @NutritioN has said this, where was the news publication from AMD to say "Hey, in the next driver release or in x months time, this is going to happen. Here's the heads up." And I don't think that has happened. People are finding out from driver release notes. Not good.

Not a fuss, but if you look at phone specs on GSMArena. Recent lowish end Samsung:

Samsung Galaxy A17 - Full phone specifications

www.gsmarena.com

"Android 15, up to 6 major Android upgrades, One UI 7"
So at least Samsung is using that as a marketing point. And at the volumes Samsung do, it probably isn't that expensive.

AMD's GPU small volumes probably don't help here.

AMD has heard the outrage and backtracks

AMD Backtracks, Says It Will Continue Game Optimizations And Features Support For RDNA 1 And RDNA 2 GPUs

AMD has changed its mind with regards to how it ended support for RDNA 1 and RDNA 2 GPUs when it comes to new features and game optimizations.

wccftech.com

Typical AMD PR blunder. Take the damage then backtrack! They really will never learn.

As for me: well I wanted 16GB and got this 6800 pretty cheap. And really I mostly play heavily modded Skyrim so VRAM is important, and unless Bethesda milke Skyrim yet again, I do not expect to need newer drivers!

 

[mark 11:11]

lol so sounds like i [and many others] was right and this was more of a really badly worded statement that has caused a major debacle? epic yeah nice
im starting to get the constant jokes about amd and their pr/coms/marketing fails
yeah sounds like they should run everything by vik before they post anything officially lol

 

[Joxeon]

They seemed to be doing well according to their last financials:
"Gaming revenue was $1.1 billion, up 73% year-over-year driven by an increase in semi-custom revenue and strong AMD Radeon™ GPU demand."
Please don't post Steam survey... I can't live through another one of those debates.

Their revenue was up but that was largely down to console makers using up their stockpiles.

You can ignore steam if you like but other data backs it up

JPR: NVIDIA discrete GPU market share reaches 94% - VideoCardz.com

NVIDIA now at 94% of discrete GPU market share in Q2 2025, shipments jump 27% Jon Peddie Research has released its Q2 2025 market report, showing a sharp rebound in global add-in board (AIB) shipments. The market reached 11.6 million units, a 27% increase compared to the first quarter. This...

videocardz.com

 

[stuartharrison]

Appreciate the info - will relay that

It didn't work for me - I got a Vulkan error message on trying to launch star citizen
Downgraded to 24.9.1 and Star Citizen launched.
24.9.2 doesn't work according to user.
Had a weird thing when installing adrenalin downgrade, it said install successful, then when I closed that window there was another saying the download didn't work. Couldn't seem to get adrenalin to launch.
Forgot to turn off keep amd software up to date in adrenalin and it's gone back to 25.10.2 and Star Citizen isn't working again.
Definitely a problem between 25.10.2 and Star Citizen, possibly anti cheat.

 

[ICDP]

Example above about 1080
gtx 1080 released mid 2016, game-ready driver support ending 10/2025, security updates 10/2028

There were still new 10x0 series SKUs being released in OEM builds up until 2022 I believe. So don’t just look at when a GPU was released, look at when it was removed from sale to consumers.

For what it’s worth I felt the same ragging on Nvidia was also overblown.

It’s far more nuanced than just looking at the earliest iteration of a GPU range.

 

[stuartharrison]

@AMD_Vik I rolled back again and got the download failed window again. Adrenalin just opens to the download failed window, or will let me update it to 25.10.2
Ah well, I'll play Star Citizen for now and sort it out in the morning

 

[uscool]

There were still new 10x0 series SKUs being released in OEM builds up until 2022 I believe. So don’t just look at when a GPU was released, look at when it was removed from sale to consumers.

For what it’s worth I felt some of the on Nvidia was also overblown.

It’s far more nuanced than just looking at the earliest iteration of a GPU range.

With everything being said another case of self inflicted by AMD easily could have been avoided

 

[ICDP]

With everything being said another case of self inflicted by AMD easily could have been avoided

Is that the sound of goalposts moving? You tried making a point that while Nvidia do it it’s not as bad because it’s been 9 years. I pointed out that using the original release date for a GPU market life cycle is a poor metric in this scenario, because you need to use the actual EOL date.