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



## btarunr (Apr 21, 2012)

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*


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## dj-electric (Apr 21, 2012)

Cool... hehe....


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## lyndonguitar (Apr 21, 2012)

too bad for those who still have 4xxx and older


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## mtosev (Apr 21, 2012)

Lucky me as I have a HD 5000 series card


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## Flanker (Apr 21, 2012)

awww, those 4850's have left nice memories


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## Melvis (Apr 21, 2012)

Gayness!!


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## newtekie1 (Apr 21, 2012)

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...


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## Jetster (Apr 21, 2012)

There will still be other people tweaking the old driver


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## jaredpace (Apr 21, 2012)

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


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## eidairaman1 (Apr 21, 2012)

jaredpace said:


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



love sarcasm.


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## RejZoR (Apr 21, 2012)

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.


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## snuif09 (Apr 21, 2012)

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


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## Jetster (Apr 21, 2012)

snuif09 said:


> 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


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## eidairaman1 (Apr 21, 2012)

RejZoR said:


> 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


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## mum1989 (Apr 21, 2012)

Drop support on windows too ??


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## RejZoR (Apr 21, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> 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.


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## eidairaman1 (Apr 21, 2012)

RejZoR said:


> 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.


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## WhiteLotus (Apr 21, 2012)

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.


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## TheMailMan78 (Apr 21, 2012)

snuif09 said:


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





Jetster said:


> 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!


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## WhiteLotus (Apr 21, 2012)

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


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## KingPing (Apr 21, 2012)

Glad i drop support for AMD/ATI!


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## RejZoR (Apr 21, 2012)

WhiteLotus said:


> 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...


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## Jetster (Apr 21, 2012)

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


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## WhiteLotus (Apr 21, 2012)

RejZoR said:


> 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


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## TheMailMan78 (Apr 21, 2012)

WhiteLotus said:


> 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!


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## Hustler (Apr 21, 2012)

Well seeing as just about every Catalyst driver after 10:9 has been a pile of shit for my 4850, it's no big loss.

The visual artifacts when running with AA or/and AF in some games (BF2, BFBC2) such as flickering textures, missing water, non working Vsync etc,etc means i dont bother updating anymore anyway.


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## meirb111 (Apr 21, 2012)

i think they are trying to save some money by doing this since first quarter profits sucked
less support less programers hours more $ per stock.


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## eidairaman1 (Apr 21, 2012)

meirb111 said:


> i think they are trying to save some money by doing this since first quarter profits sucked
> less support less programers hours more $ per share.



reduction of overhead


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## WhiteLotus (Apr 21, 2012)

TheMailMan78 said:


> 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.
> 
> http://tpucdn.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_570_Direct_Cu_II/images/fannoise_load.gif
> 
> This is UNDER LOAD!



Trust me I ummed and Ahhhhed over that card for a while. At nearly £400 it's just too expensive for me. 

And this was my old 4850:






Edit:

Getting off topic now anyway. Back to the farewell party!


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## illli (Apr 21, 2012)

going by memory you will be able to download updated drivers for it, like every 6 months. they did that to old cards previously. still release updates but not every month.


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## ObSo-1337 (Apr 21, 2012)

I actually really like this! I still have my 4890 because i don't see much point in spending hundreds of pounds when this card already plays all the games i run at the highest settings. Go AMD!


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## Melvis (Apr 21, 2012)

illli said:


> going by memory you will be able to download updated drivers for it, like every 6 months. they did that to old cards previously. still release updates but not every month.



I hope your right as my two cards still plays all the most modern and hardcore games pretty well, so loosing support for these cards that can still play every game out there and most likely any other modern game to come for a few yrs suck ass IMHO :shadedshu


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## specks (Apr 21, 2012)

Doesn't matter. I don't even update my drivers.


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## bear jesus (Apr 21, 2012)

Really i think 4 years of updates (for the 48xxs) is enough time, i know compatibility issues may arise with games in the future but for everything that is out it is not like there is massive improvements to be made so the current versions should be more than good enough for most users.

My old 4870 is in a friends computer now and he is not too computer savvy but for the most part all the difference this will make to him is i have to tell him to go to a different link on the AMD website to get the right driver in the future.


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## qubit (Apr 21, 2012)

This will piss off users of these older cards who are satisfied with them. I still play around with my HD 2900 XT occasionally, for example, so it matters to me.


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## Kiska (Apr 21, 2012)

RejZoR said:


> 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.



Actually Windows Update will just look for the best driver for the OS say they updated Catalyst right now and it doesn't support their hardware, Windows 8 will just download the latest for that card only not that new version so it won't screw things over for people who want Windows 8. By the way Microsoft screwed Windows 8.   Wondering why I am mad? Well first it screws up the MBR (Master Boot Record), second it makes the fan go to full speed and won't stop until my room is at a satisfying 15 degrees Celsius THREE I had to spend 4 hours on the phone to Microsoft to change or recode their boot screen as wouldn't boot-up and FOUR they told me to get F*ck off and told me to recode it myself. How disrespectful to a loyal customer who has been with them for 5 years and counting, thanks microsoft I am switching to Linux


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## Dent1 (Apr 21, 2012)

newtekie1 said:


> 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...



Missinformation.

The 4000 series flagship card was the 4870X2 and it was released in June 2008, that is 4 years.  So yes you got over 3 years support which is the average warranty period for electronics. 

So you accidentally agreed with AMD's practices.



meirb111 said:


> i think they are trying to save some money by doing this since first quarter profits sucked
> less support less programers hours more $ per stock.



I doubt its to do with saving money, they are just being efficient, it isnt wise to have a team of programmers working on drivers for a products which people are moving away from. Why cater for the 10% whom refuse to upgrade, when the 90% need looking after?


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## Kiska (Apr 21, 2012)

Dent1 said:


> Missinformation.
> 
> The 4000 series flagship card was the 4870X2 and it was released in June 2008, that is 4 years.  So yes you got over 3 years support which is the average warranty period for electronics.
> 
> So you accidentally agreed with AMD's practices.



Yes and when they go out of warranty they stop, etc, etc, etc. Well Nvidia is still providing support for the 9300M GS and thats over 4 years ago so still I would go with Nvidia if possible and try and stay away from AMD. If you do look into my system specs you'll see my main rig and thats the only rig I have, thats why I prefer if they still kept old drivers on the support list.


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## W1zzard (Apr 21, 2012)

nvidia still provides full support in their drivers for the geforce 6 series - 8 years ago

i guess it makes sense for amd. not supporting old stuff means there is less personell required to qualify new driver versions, which means they can fire more, or make up for fired people


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## WhiteLotus (Apr 21, 2012)

qubit said:


> This will piss off users of these older cards who are satisfied with them. I still play around with my HD 2900 XT occasionally, for example, so it matters to me.



So you just find an old driver that works. What's the problem? 


Why make drivers for cards that don't have the hardware in them to play the games that are being played today?


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## Dent1 (Apr 21, 2012)

Kiska said:


> Yes and when they go out of warranty they stop, etc, etc, etc. Well Nvidia is still providing support for the 9300M GS and thats over 4 years ago so still I would go with Nvidia if possible and try and stay away from AMD. If you do look into my system specs you'll see my main rig and thats the only rig I have, thats why I prefer if they still kept old drivers on the support list.



Thats great for you. 

It makes no sense AMD optimising drivers for video cards which can't cope with today's game anyways. You really want AMD to waste resources trying to get a  6 year old ATI 2600 to run Battlefield 3 above 10FPS on low detail.


But people with ATI 2000, 3000 and 4000 series can still use Catalyst 12.6 and older drivers which are stable. These older drivers will be in AMD's legacy section on their website. So no big deal.


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## THE_EGG (Apr 21, 2012)

WhiteLotus said:


> So you just find an old driver that works. What's the problem?
> 
> 
> Why make drivers for cards that don't have the hardware in them to play the games that are being played today?



what the hell is up with ur sig!?


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## Mussels (Apr 21, 2012)

illli said:


> going by memory you will be able to download updated drivers for it, like every 6 months. they did that to old cards previously. still release updates but not every month.



this is what i was going to say.


they stop monthly updating the drivers, but updated ones (and CAP) will appear every now and then.


as long as you have a stable driver with updated crossfire profiles, who cares? 4K cards are long past performance improvements, and DX10 gaming is dead. there is no more gains to be had.


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## renz496 (Apr 21, 2012)

epic!! 

lol joking aside i see something like this will come sooner when they started changing architecture once a year. but i think people with GCN architecture should have longer support if the rumor about upcoming series will still based on GCN (GCN+)


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## Grim_Reaper (Apr 21, 2012)

Just great. Of course, 4xxxx is already extremely weak and old in terms of performance and technology. However, this is just a signal of greedy laziness. Not so later after they do this they will cut support of 5 and 6xxxx just because it is not meet their standards. And what about NB/SB? I thing they're abandoned as well.
But not everyone can follow the GPU trend, like sophisticated women of fashion. This is ridiculous to consider only a small bunch ppl who buy the top cards each year/few month just for sake of buying. Imagine many ppl cannot afford even middle-end cards, even by working 12 hours per day 7 days a week. 
Nevertheless, after 4 years, 4xxxx series still got not a single fully sufficient driver. Let just hope, that by abandoning old series, AMD will focus all their "might" on actual GPUs and will make perfect drivers.
Don't get me wrong. I understand and agree that the time for cards that are not in use is gone. But imo, they can do it only after some decent investigation, surveys, and monitoring of users base. And to cut a certain series only if there's NO users at all, or only tiny bit. But this looks more as just a fashion.


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## entropy13 (Apr 21, 2012)

Mussels said:


> as long as you have a stable driver with updated crossfire profiles, who cares? 4K cards are long past performance improvements, and *DX10 gaming is dead*. there is no more gains to be had.



lol yeah, DX9 gaming killed it.


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## H82LUZ73 (Apr 21, 2012)

entropy13 said:


> lol yeah, DX9 gaming killed it.



ol yeah, DX9 CONSOLE gaming killed it

 

Fixed it right


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## MeanBruce (Apr 21, 2012)

TheMailMan78 said:


> 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.
> 
> http://tpucdn.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_570_Direct_Cu_II/images/fannoise_load.gif
> 
> This is UNDER LOAD!



Many enthusiasts have not experienced how quiet the DirectCu HSFs from Asus really are.


Speaking of Asus, the entire graphics card product section is DOWN for a 2nd day now, so something must be going on pretty big??? 

At least the US website.


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## slim142 (Apr 21, 2012)

I honestly didnt expect that for the 4000 series, which sucks.

I think cutting support for anything below 4000 is fine. But then again, there is a lot of people out there who will want to upgrade to Windows 8 and I know even the high-end 2000 series are capable of doing so (w/out DX10/11 obviously).

Oh well, kind of an aggressive move but let see what happens.


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## OneCool (Apr 21, 2012)

Thats why nVidia is the WIN and AMD sucks


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## Mussels (Apr 21, 2012)

slim142 said:


> I honestly didnt expect that for the 4000 series, which sucks.
> 
> I think cutting support for anything below 4000 is fine. But then again, there is a lot of people out there who will want to upgrade to Windows 8 and I know even the high-end 2000 series are capable of doing so (w/out DX10/11 obviously).
> 
> Oh well, kind of an aggressive move but let see what happens.



who said they wont work in win 8? they just arent getting monthly updates


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## Dent1 (Apr 21, 2012)

OneCool said:


> Thats why nVidia is the WIN and AMD sucks



No, this is why you are stupid.



slim142 said:


> But then again, there is a lot of people out there who will want to upgrade to Windows 8 and I know even the high-end 2000 series are capable of doing so



As already explained, there will be drivers for legacy cards, just not monthly.

Additionally Windows 8 will probably have compatibility drivers integrated. 


This issue really isnt a big deal.


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## Delta6326 (Apr 21, 2012)

Aww looks like my 2x 4850's won't be supported. Might just have to get a 7970 or 680 with a whole new computer


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## meirb111 (Apr 21, 2012)

Dent1 said:


> Missinformation.
> 
> I doubt its to do with saving money, they are just being efficient, it isnt wise to have a team of programmers working on drivers for a products which people are moving away from. Why cater for the 10% whom refuse to upgrade, when the 90% need looking after?




if that was the case they would dump 2000 wait a year then dump 3000 and a year after
4000 series but they did it in one time ,looks like big haste not gradual:shadedshu


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## newtekie1 (Apr 21, 2012)

Dent1 said:


> Thats great for you.
> 
> It makes no sense AMD optimising drivers for video cards which can't cope with today's game anyways. You really want AMD to waste resources trying to get a  6 year old ATI 2600 to run Battlefield 3 above 10FPS on low detail.
> 
> ...



It isn't about coping with todays games(even if a lot of them getting the axe do it just fine).

The important things are bug fixes and most importantly OS support.  AMD did the same thing when Win7 was about to come out.  They axed a crap load of cards, ending official support for them right before release of Win7, to try and force people into upgrading if they wanted to upgrade to the new OS.  Luckily the Vista driver still worked, and the Win7 driver will probably work with Win8, but it should have to be this way.  We should have to use unofficially supported drivers just to run an OS.


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## pioneer (Apr 21, 2012)

Dent1 said:


> No, this is why you are stupid.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



yeh stupid isnt big deal (i got it )

absolutely- we see who's stupid -many ones like you who love they brand for any cost.in this forum we can see many ones like you(over 95% users on this forum)

nvidia still support they 8 years old card's (even split shader card's like 6000 / 7000 series graphics ) . but now we saw amd forgotten old customers for their shity reasons.and many Mentally retarded amd fanboys  just Advocating shity brand.


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## eidairaman1 (Apr 21, 2012)

pioneer said:


> yeh stupid isnt big deal (i got it )
> 
> absolutely- we see who's stupid -many ones like you who love they brand for any cost.in this forum we can see many ones like you(over 95% users on this forum)
> 
> nvidia still support they 8 years old card's (even split shader card's like 6000 / 7000 series graphics ) . but now we saw amd forgotten old customers for their shity reasons.and many Mentally retarded amd fanboys  just Advocating shity brand.



ya know what you are not very bright for arguing with other members here. Definition of a pioneer is they get arrows in the back n knees. Btw calling people a fanboy just means you are one yourself. You are very hypocritical. Also since you are new here show respect here if you want it in return otherwise you wont get it kid.

On another Note NV is guilty of dropping support aswell. Users of NF1-NF4 got shafted for driver support under Vista let alone 7. That right there made many switch to intel via sis or AMD for chipset motherboards. Btw youre telling meNv isnt guilty of dropping official support of their products. Look at GF 1-GF FX.

Atleast the last Agp driver that Amd Had for R9***-X1K ran those cards fine in Vista and 7.


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## SIGSEGV (Apr 21, 2012)

i hope they can do more focus to improve their drivers to gain more robust performance for supporting their cards and compete with nvidia.


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## eidairaman1 (Apr 21, 2012)

SIGSEGV said:


> i hope they can do more focus to improve their drivers to gain more robust performance for supporting their cards and compete with nvidia.



this right here is a reason they do it. Focus on newer products.

Also they cut down on overhead. In All honesty this just means driver releases pretty much become quarterly instead of monthly. If you have any problems just send up a Catalyst report.


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## slim142 (Apr 21, 2012)

Dent1 said:


> No, this is why you are stupid.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




I mentioned it because I recently installed a computer with an ATI X200 chipset and I had to use Vista 64 drivers (10.2) on the Windows 7 installation I had done.

Would really suck if I had to use Win7 drivers on Win8. I dont need 3000 cards to get performance updates (if any left), just certificated drivers for other OSs.


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## Easo (Apr 21, 2012)

Awww, thats bad.
I went from 4850 to 6870. Oh boy...


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Apr 21, 2012)

Just because there dropping support for the cards doesn't mean you can't use them any more. It's not like AMD/Ati are going to flip a switch and kill the cards. Just download the latest supporting driver and use it. Hell I ran my 9800xt for 6 yrs on the same driver without updating because the driver I was using worked great. We really don't need to upgrade to every driver released. Sometime it's best to not fix what isn't broken.


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## OneCool (Apr 21, 2012)

Dent1 said:


> No, this is why you are stupid.




Nope im a damn GENIUS!!!!!!!!!!

Dont worry I will hate Nv next week and love AMD


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## swaaye (Apr 21, 2012)

edit-

note the news source is Phoronix. Linux stuff here methinks.


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## creepingdeath (Apr 21, 2012)

*This is for linux only.  * Does the author have an axe to grind with AMD?  On nvidias payroll?

Its not cool seeing techpowerup sink to trash journalism like other sites.  Way to intentionally misrepresent the truth.


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## creepingdeath (Apr 21, 2012)

swaaye said:


> edit-
> 
> note the news source is Phoronix. Linux stuff here methinks.



It is for linux only.   Scumbag author that posted the article didn't even bother reading or verifying the news with anyone.  Good stuff!


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## Dent1 (Apr 21, 2012)

meirb111 said:


> if that was the case they would dump 2000 wait a year then dump 3000 and a year after
> 4000 series but they did it in one time ,looks like big haste not gradual:shadedshu



The HD 2000 and HD 3000 were released in the same year (2007), maybe that's why they are grouping it together. The HD 4000 was released the year after, so that confuses me.

Ideally they should phase it out, I'm not disputing that, I'm just saying its not going to affect the majority of users with old cards.



pioneer said:


> nvidia still support they 8 years old card's (even split shader card's like 6000 / 7000 series graphics ) . but now we saw amd forgotten old customers for their shity reasons.and many Mentally retarded amd fanboys  just Advocating *shity brand.*



It's not that AMD has forgotten customers, it's about using resources efficiently - They are a business with a budget.

PS. 

But this thread isn't about what Nvidia does, its great that Nvidia support older cards, great for them and you, excellent, next time I see you I will give you a medal. 

It isn't about being a fanboy, because I've owned Nvidia cards, I've had more Nvidia cards than ATI cards, in fact I still run Nvidia card right now in another rig. I have no problem with Nvidia. So please explain why we are fanboys? 

Surely the fact that you call ATI a "shitty brand" just shows your hate towards them. Maybe the fanboy is a bit closer to home.


Edit:



creepingdeath said:


> *This is for linux only.  * Does the author have an axe to grind with AMD?  On nvidias payroll?
> 
> Its not cool seeing techpowerup sink to trash journalism like other sites.  Way to intentionally misrepresent the truth.



Wait wait wait, so its linux only? Funny all the Nvidia fan boys show up to bash ATI, now they've got it wrong, their true colours came out - where are they now to appologise.



newtekie1 said:


> Are you sure they are the ones that didn't bother reading?
> 
> From the *first paragraph* of the source:
> 
> ...



"Likely" isnt a conclusive definite. If news is to be posted it should be conclusive otherwise its a rumour.


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## newtekie1 (Apr 21, 2012)

creepingdeath said:


> *This is for linux only.  * Does the author have an axe to grind with AMD?  On nvidias payroll?
> 
> Its not cool seeing techpowerup sink to trash journalism like other sites.  Way to intentionally misrepresent the truth.





creepingdeath said:


> It is for linux only.   Scumbag author that posted the article didn't even bother reading or verifying the news with anyone.  Good stuff!



Are you sure they are the ones that didn't bother reading?

From the *first paragraph* of the source:


> This is likely happening with the *Windows* Catalyst driver too...



Next time try reading before insulting the news staff.



Dent1 said:


> Wait wait wait, so its linux only? Funny all the Nvidia fan boys show up to bash ATI, now they've got it wrong, their true colours came out - where are they now to appologise.
> 
> "Likely" isnt a conclusive definite. If news is to be posted it should be conclusive otherwise its a rumour.



The  news that was posted is definite, or at least concrete enough to be considered definite.   AMD will be dropping support for these cards in 12.7 one way or another, and that is what was reported.  Though perhaps it should be made clear that it is only definite for Linux and highly likely for Windows.


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## Wile E (Apr 21, 2012)

Well this sucks. I still have my 4870x2 in the kids' computer. Piss poor driver team is exactly why I went back to NV.


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## Dent1 (Apr 21, 2012)

Wile E said:


> Well this sucks. I still have my 4870x2 in the kids' computer. Piss poor driver team is exactly why I went back to NV.



Its for Linux only. There is no concrete proof this will happen under Windows. Lets wait and see.



Wile E said:


> No, but it is likely, considering how they handled it in the past.
> 
> EDIT: Either way, I'm sticking to NV for the time being. Their drivers under both Windows and Linux are just better. I hope AMD gets their thumbs out of their asses sometime soon.



You are probably right, it "might" affect windows. I'm just pointing out it isnt official.

In the past they provided good legacy drivers. I don't see how this would be any different (if its true).

For some reason Linux is always the first OS to get shafted. Always wanted to move to Linux but the way it gets treated support wise from all brands makes me say "forget it".


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## Wile E (Apr 21, 2012)

Dent1 said:


> Its for Linux only. There is no concrete proof this will happen under Windows. Lets wait and see.



No, but it is likely, considering how they handled it in the past.

EDIT: Either way, I'm sticking to NV for the time being. Their drivers under both Windows and Linux are just better. I hope AMD gets their thumbs out of their asses sometime soon.


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## wiak (Apr 21, 2012)

dont think they are fully dropping them, more like retired to lagacy driver, that gets updated every 3-6 months or so, they did that with pre x1900 series


----------



## techtard (Apr 21, 2012)

They should have multiple driver teams.
1) Legacy for older cards, release quarterly drivers
2) Card-family specific teams that write only for their specific card. Example : Hd5xxx team, HD6xx team, HD7xxx team.
3) Dedicated teams for Windows, MacOS, Linux/*nix
Sure, it would cost more every year to increase the software and drivers teams. But the payoff would be worth it if they could actually put out lighteight, decent and stable drivers.

AMD needs to get their drivers sorted. That's one of the things holding them back. That and nV paying for game optimization on their arch, and sometimes even de-optimization for AMD/ATI.

As for this only being a Linux issue, it's only a matter of time before they discontinue monthly support for those cards on Windows too.


----------



## wiak (Apr 21, 2012)

techtard said:


> They should have multiple driver teams.
> 1) Legacy for older cards, release quarterly drivers
> 2) Card-family specific teams that write only for their specific card. Example : Hd5xxx team, HD6xx team, HD7xxx team.
> 3) Dedicated teams for Windows, MacOS, Linux/*nix
> ...


they already do number 1, and 2,3 is expensive, meybe they should do team 7000 and team 6000, or they might already do that


----------



## _Zod_ (Apr 21, 2012)

Good move, waste of resources. The drivers for these cards were as optimized as they were going to be years ago. Win 7 drivers will work on Win 8 so this really is a non issue. I just wish they would offer a driver only package so you wouldn't need all of the extra bloat, same goes for nVidia it would help a lot with stability.


----------



## Mistral (Apr 21, 2012)

So much drama...

So, you might not be getting monthly driver updates for pre-DX11 cards released over 3 years ago? Big deal. Also, pretty sure 4xxx and older will work just fine on Win8. Got a x800 mobile in an old laptop that I put Win7 for kicks on and it runs the games it's fast enough for just fine.


----------



## ensabrenoir (Apr 21, 2012)

Wont knock em cause its the crown jewel in the amd brand......its simply time to progress.  Legacy is cool and all but for amd to remain rellevant they must focus more so to current and future requirements


----------



## chris89 (Apr 21, 2012)

Was planning to upgrade to a HD7870 or similar later this year honestly.

Have to say the HD4870 (1GB ones) has been fantastic and owned two since release.

Chris


----------



## newtekie1 (Apr 21, 2012)

wiak said:


> dont think they are fully dropping them, more like retired to lagacy driver, that gets updated every 3-6 months or so, they did that with pre x1900 series



There has yet to be a Pre-HD2000 driver released for Win7.  They do quarterly releases for Vista and XP but not for Win7.  Officially they don't support Win7.  So far the Vista driver has worked, but who know.  Frankly, the x1000 and x000 series cards should at least get a Win7 and Win8 release driver that officially supports the OSes.  Even if they drop support shortly afterwards. 



Mistral said:


> So much drama...
> 
> So, you might not be getting monthly driver updates for pre-DX11 cards released over 3 years ago? Big deal. Also, pretty sure 4xxx and older will work just fine on Win8. Got a x800 mobile in an old laptop that I put Win7 for kicks on and it runs the games it's fast enough for just fine.



Pretty sure and officially supported are different things.  The x1000 series should be officially support in Win8, they will run Win8 just fine assuming the driver works.  But now people with those cards have to use a Vista driver on Win8(if that is even possible) to get their cards to work.  I don't care how old the cards are, they are still capable of running Win8, so the driver should be there to do it.  The HD4000 series should definitely get an officially driver release.

I said this the last time and I'll say it again, AMD is only doing this as a money grab to get people to buy new cards that don't really need to.  The average consumer is going to see that their card isn't officially support by the latest OS they want to use and they are going to buy a new one.  If it was anything other than a money grab they would at least release an official driver for the cards that supports the latest version of Windows and they definitely wouldn't do it right before the next major release of Windows...twice... The timing is just too coincidental both times they have done it.


----------



## Steevo (Apr 21, 2012)

lyndonguitar said:


> too bad for those who still have 4xxx and older



Hows that?


Either (A) They have been using the same driver packages and libraries for the older cards for awhile now as no improvements have been made, or (B) a company expects you to update graphics cards when you purchase a new system/new games.


Lastly if you are the sort of power user who needs the latest drivers that offer no improvements just so you have something to do, insert your hardware ID lines into the driver package and install them anyway and have fun tweaking your system.


----------



## YogurtMaster (Apr 21, 2012)

This is another reason why I stopped buying AMD/ATI Products.  Driver updates are a big deal and we know that AMD has terrible drivers and I would never want to use an unfinished product that is no longer supported.  I remember when AMD/ATI stopped supporting drivers for my laptop for Windows 7.  Never again.


----------



## Andy77 (Apr 21, 2012)

TheMailMan78 said:


> 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.
> 
> http://tpucdn.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_570_Direct_Cu_II/images/fannoise_load.gif
> 
> This is UNDER LOAD!




Was thinking more in line of PowerColor 7950 PCS+, it's 28dbA under load, at 70*C a "tad" faster and newer, with GCN, support might last longer.


----------



## aayman_farzand (Apr 21, 2012)

I wish Nvidia did the same as well, and only updated older cards for professional usage fixes. 6xxx and 7xxx series of cards have run their course when it comes to gaming.

Driver support is expensive for both companies, why beat a dead horse when there won't be any difference.


----------



## badsykes (Apr 22, 2012)

I want windows 2000 pro support for 6950 .... do i want too much ?


----------



## xenocide (Apr 22, 2012)

aayman_farzand said:


> I wish Nvidia did the same as well, and only updated older cards for professional usage fixes. 6xxx and 7xxx series of cards have run their course when it comes to gaming.
> 
> Driver support is expensive for both companies, why beat a dead horse when there won't be any difference.



Nvidia isn't doing poorly financially, why does it matter?  On top of it, the Nvidia drivers are a smaller file size, and work more effectively than AMD drivers in my own experience.


----------



## Dent1 (Apr 22, 2012)

xenocide said:


> Nvidia isn't doing poorly financially, why does it matter?  On top of it, the Nvidia drivers are a smaller file size, and work more effectively than AMD drivers in my own experience.



Whether Nvidia is doing well or not, it doesn't take away from the fact that driver support is expensive to maintain.

Also ATI drivers are not that big, it's 2012, and most people in Western countries should have broadband. If you can afford Nvidia' or ATIs latest and greatest you can afford broadband. I literally download ATI drivers in less than 5mins.

Shish, the size of driver files are tiny in comparison to game patches. Downloaded a bloody 1.2GB? Battlefield 3 patch last week, so 161 MB Catalyst file is nothing.


----------



## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Apr 22, 2012)

Dent1 said:


> Whether Nvidia is doing well or not, it doesnt take away from the fact that driver support is expensive to maintain.
> 
> Also ATI drivers are not that big, it's 2012, most people in Western Countries should have broadband. If you can afford Nvidia' or ATIs latest and greatest you can afford broadband. I literally download ATI drivers in less than 5mins.



Great point there and also most people have huge drives these days and the size really doesn't matter that much.


----------



## MilkyWay (Apr 22, 2012)

Maybe trying to get older users to upgrade. Still, to kill the HD4000 series off so quickly when they can still run the latest games and software is a bit of a dick move. I cant believe there is nothing left to be gained from a HD4000 series card. Then i thought the same as newtekie1, if someone wanted to throw in an old card just for display, why not support them in a windows 8 driver release?


----------



## OneCool (Apr 22, 2012)

badsykes said:


> I want windows 2000 pro support for 6950 .... do i want too much ?



No...miracles do happen....Santa will put that in your stocking


----------



## SIGSEGV (Apr 22, 2012)

whenever amd news come up, it will surely receives much of attention.. 
well, keep forward amd! and please make a better competition, although you dropped to support (Linux) Driver for Pre-HD5000 GPUs, that's make me sad  but well,  it doesnt matter, it's propietary driver then..



eidairaman1 said:


> this right here is a reason they do it. Focus on newer products.
> 
> Also they cut down on overhead. In All honesty this just means driver releases pretty much become quarterly instead of monthly. If you have any problems just send up a Catalyst report.



yeah, i hope their drivers will significantly increase the performances on their magnificent cards and bring the competition


----------



## Steevo (Apr 22, 2012)

YogurtMaster said:


> This is another reason why I stopped buying AMD/ATI Products.  Driver updates are a big deal and we know that AMD has terrible drivers and I would never want to use an unfinished product that is no longer supported.  I remember when AMD/ATI stopped supporting drivers for my laptop for Windows 7.  Never again.



So your 4870 and the lack of driver updates for newer games afflicts you. 



tell us all about how bad this makes you feel.




What laptop GPU did they stop supporting?


----------



## eidairaman1 (Apr 22, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> Just because there dropping support for the cards doesn't mean you can't use them any more. It's not like AMD/Ati are going to flip a switch and kill the cards. Just download the latest supporting driver and use it. Hell I ran my 9800xt for 6 yrs on the same driver without updating because the driver I was using worked great. We really don't need to upgrade to every driver released. Sometime it's best to not fix what isn't broken.




Ya they really say only update the bios or drivers for any hardware that is having troubles, thats any hardware company.


I looked at it this way for that situation, its up to laptop makers to supply drivers but if you want support use Mobility modder off of hardwareheaven



Steevo said:


> So your 4870 and the lack of driver updates for newer games afflicts you.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


----------



## Delta6326 (Apr 22, 2012)

Dent1 said:


> Also ATI drivers are not that big, it's 2012, and most people in Western countries should have broadband. If you can afford Nvidia' or ATIs latest and greatest you can afford broadband. I literally download ATI drivers in less than 5mins.
> 
> Shish, the size of driver files are tiny in comparison to game patches. Downloaded a bloody 1.2GB? Battlefield 3 patch last week, so 161 MB Catalyst file is nothing.



...I take it you live in a city and/or not in USA. As nationally USA has slow internet and still a large part has Dial Up. I live in the country about 20 min. out and the only thing is Dial Up, Satellite which the providers out here have caps of 350MB/day or Cell phone tower internet(I have this one).

If broadband sends a line to my home I will sign up that day

Other than slow internet I really don't care about the file size as I start most my downloads at night before bed.


----------



## Dippyskoodlez (Apr 22, 2012)

Kiska said:


> . By the way Microsoft screwed Windows 8.   Wondering why I am mad? Well first it screws up the MBR (Master Boot Record), second it makes the fan go to full speed and won't stop until my room is at a satisfying 15 degrees Celsius THREE I had to spend 4 hours on the phone to Microsoft to change or recode their boot screen as wouldn't boot-up and FOUR they told me to get F*ck off and told me to recode it myself. How disrespectful to a loyal customer who has been with them for 5 years and counting, thanks microsoft I am switching to Linux



I hear beta testing software when you have no idea what you're doing, and on a non development machine is what its intended for.

/facepalm

I don't see any issues with AMD dropping this support though, if the driver is mature enough, games shouldn't have any major issues.


----------



## Absolution (Apr 22, 2012)

Time to sell off my 4870


----------



## xBruce88x (Apr 22, 2012)

I only really update drives when I see a big difference. For example... when i first installed win7 with my 8800GT, i just grabbed the then current driver and didn't upgrade until the latest BETA, which added FXAA support to my card 

Ever since AMD went all nuts over having to use .net for their drivers (well for their control panel), it seems their driver quality hasn't been so great. On my laptop I use 3rd party drivers (omegadrivers.net i think)


----------



## eidairaman1 (Apr 22, 2012)

xBruce88x said:


> I only really update drives when I see a big difference. For example... when i first installed win7 with my 8800GT, i just grabbed the then current driver and didn't upgrade until the latest BETA, which added FXAA support to my card
> 
> Ever since AMD went all nuts over having to use .net for their drivers (well for their control panel), it seems their driver quality hasn't been so great. On my laptop I use 3rd party drivers (omegadrivers.net i think)



never had any issues with them here, my bro infact updated ontop of his drivers without a hitch cuz the drivers said there was a driver update


----------



## xenocide (Apr 22, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> never had any issues with them here, my bro infact updated ontop of his drivers without a hitch cuz the drivers said there was a driver update



I have had the exact opposite experience.  With Nvidia I could always just install over, but with AMD I usually have to do an uninstall and restart before installing the newer drivers.  It's gotten worse since I got my HD5850, now I have to do driver sweeps inbetween restarts before installing, and even then it's only successful like 75% of the time.


----------



## eidairaman1 (Apr 22, 2012)

xenocide said:


> I have had the exact opposite experience.  With Nvidia I could always just install over, but with AMD I usually have to do an uninstall and restart before installing the newer drivers.  It's gotten worse since I got my HD5850, now I have to do driver sweeps inbetween restarts before installing, and even then it's only successful like 75% of the time.



he is running a 6770


----------



## Mussels (Apr 22, 2012)

xenocide said:


> I have had the exact opposite experience.  With Nvidia I could always just install over, but with AMD I usually have to do an uninstall and restart before installing the newer drivers.  It's gotten worse since I got my HD5850, now I have to do driver sweeps inbetween restarts before installing, and even then it's only successful like 75% of the time.



i never have any issues with drivers updating over the top, unless i do one of two things.

1. install beta drivers, then retail drivers with older dates than the betas (must uninstall/reboot there)

2. driver sweeper. seriously, if i ever do use it, i end up stuck using it. it breaks more than it fixes most of the time, and should only be used as a last resort before a format.


----------



## RejZoR (Apr 22, 2012)

xenocide said:


> I have had the exact opposite experience.  With Nvidia I could always just install over, but with AMD I usually have to do an uninstall and restart before installing the newer drivers.  It's gotten worse since I got my HD5850, now I have to do driver sweeps inbetween restarts before installing, and even then it's only successful like 75% of the time.



Bullshit galore. I'm installing Catalyst drivers over old ones since the days i owned Radeon 9600 Pro (and later on x1950 Pro, HD4850, HD4870, HD5850, HD6870 and now HD6950). Only thing that changed over the years is that you now don't have to restart after the upgrade. Before you had to. But other than that it works perfectly fine for years.
And same applies to NVIDIA as well. Have been updating them with install over the old one since the GeForce 2 MX days (and later GeForce 2 Pro, geForce 4 Ti4200, GeForce 6600GT, GeForce 7300GT, GeForce 7600GT, GeForce 8400GS)  and never had any problems.
So i'd say i know the drivers prety well.


----------



## eidairaman1 (Apr 22, 2012)

RejZoR said:


> Bullshit galore. I'm installing Catalyst drivers over old ones since the days i owned Radeon 9600 Pro (and later on x1950 Pro, HD4850, HD4870, HD5850, HD6870 and now HD6950). Only thing that changed over the years is that you now don't have to restart after the upgrade. Before you had to. But other than that it works perfectly fine for years.
> And same applies to NVIDIA as well. Have been updating them with install over the old one since the GeForce 2 MX days (and later GeForce 2 Pro, geForce 4 Ti4200, GeForce 6600GT, GeForce 7300GT, GeForce 7600GT, GeForce 8400GS)  and never had any problems.
> So i'd say i know the drivers prety well.



to me it seems its only worth it if switching card brands or to a different card series


----------



## RejZoR (Apr 22, 2012)

For that, you need to indeed. I had severe problems after using GeForce and then switching to Radeon. Even though i've uninstalled NVIDIA drivers something was still causing problems.
After a proper cleanup everythingw as fine. I've never experienced such problem going the other way around (from Radeon to NVIDIA)...


----------



## Dent1 (Apr 22, 2012)

MilkyWay said:


> Then i thought the same as newtekie1, if someone wanted to throw in an old card just for display, why not support them in a windows 8 driver release?



But it will be supported in Windows 8 as a legacy driver, released every once month opposed to once a month.



Delta6326 said:


> ...I take it you live in a city and/or not in USA. As nationally USA has slow internet and still a large part has Dial Up. I live in the country about 20 min. out and the only thing is Dial Up, Satellite which the providers out here have caps of 350MB/day or Cell phone tower internet(I have this one).
> 
> If broadband sends a line to my home I will sign up that day
> 
> Other than slow internet I really don't care about the file size as I start most my downloads at night before bed.



Ouch, aint used dialup since about 2002. Time to complain to your local council or move lol


----------



## eidairaman1 (Apr 22, 2012)

RejZoR said:


> For that, you need to indeed. I had severe problems after using GeForce and then switching to Radeon. Even though i've uninstalled NVIDIA drivers something was still causing problems.
> After a proper cleanup everythingw as fine. I've never experienced such problem going the other way around (from Radeon to NVIDIA)...



its because Nvidia doesnt want you using AMD. Even drivers that are built into windows from Nvidia cause problems if your card is auto detected


----------



## xenocide (Apr 22, 2012)

Mussels said:


> i never have any issues with drivers updating over the top, unless i do one of two things.
> 
> 1. install beta drivers, then retail drivers with older dates than the betas (must uninstall/reboot there)
> 
> 2. driver sweeper. seriously, if i ever do use it, i end up stuck using it. it breaks more than it fixes most of the time, and should only be used as a last resort before a format.



I never used to until I got my HD5850.  With my HD4870 I would usually install over and it worked pretty well, I had one funky error that was my fault with my old Q6600 setup because I was being dumb and listening to music while watching YouTube videos and installing drivers, my system had a seizure and blue-screened.

I also never used to have to Driver Sweep until I started getting issues.  Whenever I try regularly installing it will say--quite literally--"Driver Installation Successful, but with Unknown Errors" and have a Grey Question Mark circle instead of the Green Check Mark circle.  I'd never say it's an issue exclusive to AMD\ATi, but when I had my 7800GS I never had such issues, and even my x800 handled installing over a lot better.


----------



## xBruce88x (Apr 22, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> never had any issues with them here, my bro infact updated ontop of his drivers without a hitch cuz the drivers said there was a driver update





xenocide said:


> I have had the exact opposite experience.  With Nvidia I could always just install over, but with AMD I usually have to do an uninstall and restart before installing the newer drivers.  It's gotten worse since I got my HD5850, now I have to do driver sweeps inbetween restarts before installing, and even then it's only successful like 75% of the time.



what OS? i'm wondering if an OS difference had anything to do with one having good luck and the other not.



Mussels said:


> i never have any issues with drivers updating over the top, unless i do one of two things.
> 
> 1. install beta drivers, then retail drivers with older dates than the betas (must uninstall/reboot there)
> 
> 2. driver sweeper. seriously, if i ever do use it, i end up stuck using it. it breaks more than it fixes most of the time, and should only be used as a last resort before a format.



yea i've noticed that with driver sweeper too, I don't use it as much anymore. the only time i use it is if i switch from ati to nvidia or vice versa. I hate having leftovers of catalyst control center in my menus and such and getting errors about files not found or no ati card present.



xBruce88x said:


> Ever since AMD went all nuts over having to use .net for their drivers (well for their control panel), it seems their driver quality hasn't been so great. On my laptop I use 3rd party drivers (omegadrivers.net i think)



Actually now that i think about it, its only been since vista drivers that i've had problems with amd/ati. nothing too hard to fix/work around though. I do find it annoying that i couldn't set custom refresh rates for my monitor (since the last time i used an ati card anyway, 3200igp)


----------



## Steevo (Apr 22, 2012)

xenocide said:


> I never used to until I got my HD5850.  With my HD4870 I would usually install over and it worked pretty well, I had one funky error that was my fault with my old Q6600 setup because I was being dumb and listening to music while watching YouTube videos and installing drivers, my system had a seizure and blue-screened.
> 
> I also never used to have to Driver Sweep until I started getting issues.  Whenever I try regularly installing it will say--quite literally--"Driver Installation Successful, but with Unknown Errors" and have a Grey Question Mark circle instead of the Green Check Mark circle.  I'd never say it's an issue exclusive to AMD\ATi, but when I had my 7800GS I never had such issues, and even my x800 handled installing over a lot better.



I used to get that too, it was caused by me not using the ATI HDMI sound driver as the default device. Odd quirk, but now since I use my TV as my primary monitor I never have the issue.


----------



## eidairaman1 (Apr 22, 2012)

He is now Using Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit. I initially had installed catalyst 11.8/11.9 Drivers He installed over those since CCC stated there is a driver update, now he has Catalyst 11.12, I told Him not to update drivers every Month and just leave what he has in there.

I Used to do the thorough wipe out. on My laptop I have to use Mobility Modder since the OEM is responsible for driver releases, bear in mind my laptop is 7-8 years old now



xBruce88x said:


> what OS? i'm wondering if an OS difference had anything to do with one having good luck and the other not.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


----------



## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Apr 22, 2012)

RejZoR said:


> Bullshit galore. I'm installing Catalyst drivers over old ones since the days i owned Radeon 9600 Pro (and later on x1950 Pro, HD4850, HD4870, HD5850, HD6870 and now HD6950). Only thing that changed over the years is that you now don't have to restart after the upgrade. Before you had to. But other than that it works perfectly fine for years.
> And same applies to NVIDIA as well. Have been updating them with install over the old one since the GeForce 2 MX days (and later GeForce 2 Pro, geForce 4 Ti4200, GeForce 6600GT, GeForce 7300GT, GeForce 7600GT, GeForce 8400GS)  and never had any problems.
> So i'd say i know the drivers prety well.



I do the same thing. I even use the Amd driver auto finder thingy to update the drivers. I haven't uninstalled a driver in years to update. Hell when I set up crossfire on this rig I simply shut it down, moved the card it was using down and installed the new card as primary, installed crossfire bridge. Then booted up, let window do it found new hardware thing and all was good. Didn't uninstall the drivers or install any drivers.


----------



## kafkacell (Apr 22, 2012)

CEO of AMD must be a badass for just cutting support to HD 2xxx HD 3XXX (until last year I owned an HD 3850 and it worked great even on new games) and HD 4XXX.

Maybe it's just my opinion, but it's real: they are cutting support to million of AMD happy users.

Maybe HD 2xxx it's under the logical limits (they are old, not very powerfull and maybe those users will understand), but come on HD 4980 for example? that card still have a lot of power inside.

regards.


----------



## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Apr 22, 2012)

Well the hd 3xxx series is still supported by the newest drivers (12.3) under win xp, vista, and 7. I just updated the drivers on 2 of my crunchers running 3650's last week.


----------



## DarthCyclonis (Apr 22, 2012)

This comes as no surprise.  Seems AMD is taking a page out of Intel's play book.  They want to sell more cards and want to force people to change every few platforms.


----------



## eidairaman1 (Apr 23, 2012)

kafkacell said:


> CEO of AMD must be a badass for just cutting support to HD 2xxx HD 3XXX (until last year I owned an HD 3850 and it worked great even on new games) and HD 4XXX.
> 
> Maybe it's just my opinion, but it's real: they are cutting support to million of AMD happy users.
> 
> ...



3000 series are just a die shrink of the 2000 series, Hence why performance gains are nill between 3870 and 2900XT.



DarthCyclonis said:


> This comes as no surprise.  Seems AMD is taking a page out of Intel's play book.  They want to sell more cards and want to force people to change every few platforms.



NV did this to NF Users NF1-NF4 by completely dropping driver support (updates) right before Vista Launched so they are just as guilty of greed if not more. If NV released a worthwhile GART driver that doesn't prevent users from using another makers cards (AMD, Matrox, Kyro) with an AMD Dual Core on NF3 Platforms and an Optimized Gart that works like the XP one of NF2 Platfroms (Not built into windows as that is the 440BX chipset GART). They would not be considered greedy.


On Another Note about 100% of Average Joes never upgrade their drivers or Bios Files so this pretty much doesnt mean anything to them, and the enthusiast market is a very very small percentile its not even funny


----------



## Mussels (Apr 23, 2012)

do people think they're going to remove any and all driver support for these cards, or what? a lack of monthly updates shouldnt cause all this doom and gloom.


----------



## eidairaman1 (Apr 23, 2012)

Mussels said:


> do people think they're going to remove any and all driver support for these cards, or what? a lack of monthly updates shouldnt cause all this doom and gloom.



I agree with you on this. THis doesnt bother me as much as Myself still run old hardware.

My Bro is who owns the fastest computer in the house right now.

I myself have been saying isnt it time that some cards have drivers reduced because they are not focused on as much anyways.


----------



## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Apr 23, 2012)

It also doesn't bother me at all. I still run some older cards. I can do without monthly updates. Hell if they only did yearly updates it wouldn't bother me. I have yet to understand why they need to do monthly updates.


----------



## eidairaman1 (Apr 23, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> It also doesn't bother me at all. I still run some older cards. I can do without monthly updates. Hell if they only did yearly updates it wouldn't bother me. I have yet to understand why they need to do monthly updates.



Because users were bitching that NV at the time had monthly updates and AMD didnt so they increased the driver releases which to me are pointless anyway, considering they have the Feedback program to implement fixes in the next driver set even hotfixes when an issue is very common amongst several hardware configurations. A Quarterly release will definitly work as it is not worth updating drivers every month as it just leads to trouble, just do it like 3-4 months.

CCC/Drivers on my Bros machine is ver 11.12 he upgraded from 11.8/11.9 (whichever was released in early september) Still running the motherboard drivers off ASRock site with newer lan and Audio drivers as of September of last year


----------



## KissSh0t (Apr 23, 2012)

I remember when they axed support for the 1000 series cards, at the time I had a X1900XTX

Then I was like （╯°v°）╯︵ ┻━┻


----------



## Dippyskoodlez (Apr 23, 2012)

KissSh0t said:


> I remember when they axed support for the 1000 series cards, at the time I had a X1900XTX
> 
> Then I was like （╯°v°）╯︵ ┻━┻



Most people here obviously don't follow their linux support either. My X1800XL AIW was still supported by the main release, but the Linux driver had dropped support like 2-3 months before, enough that I got no 3d under the current (at the time) ubuntu.

Driver support in general, has prettymuch eliminated linux from my choice of use,


----------



## newtekie1 (Apr 23, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> It also doesn't bother me at all. I still run some older cards. I can do without monthly updates. Hell if they only did yearly updates it wouldn't bother me. I have yet to understand why they need to do monthly updates.



So no support for these cards in Win8 doesn't bother you then?


----------



## djxinator (Apr 23, 2012)

Yay, all focus on DX11


----------



## Steevo (Apr 23, 2012)

newtekie1 said:


> So no support for these cards in Win8 doesn't bother you then?



Can you point out where that is said?


Really, really, really , really old cards are supported in Windows 7, doesn't mean its a good idea, but they are.


I have an idea, lest actually go LOOK for drivers and see what we find, for a 9600XT for example, or a 9550


Linux X86 X64
Windows through 7 X64


Damn, and how old is that card? 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R300


2002 cards fully supported in a 2009 OS that is now 3 years old itself.


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## Mr McC (Apr 23, 2012)

mtosev said:


> Lucky me as I have a HD 5000 series card



There is little solace to be gained knowing that ill fate has visited another, particularly when you know that you are next in line.


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## kn00tcn (Apr 23, 2012)

yeesh, so many crazy people

pre dx9 cards were dropped a long time ago ~6.4?
pre dx10 cards dropped ~9.3?
pre dx11 cards could be dropped ~12.7?

& the big deal is? my old comps with 9800pro & x800xtpe are still on omega 7.10 & 7.12, there's no need to update constantly every month unless there is a problem

sure now things are complicated since more people have CF, but most CAP updates dont require a new driver dll

also CEO of AMD? what a moronic joke, the CEO is obviously not the one managing the driver team since the pre dx9 drop happened at least THREE CEOs ago

gee, let's say the driver (or QA) team is 5-10x smaller than nvidia's, why waste resources all the time for no gains, just some bug fixes IF any, & a shrinking installbase (especially this month) http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/videocard/




eidairaman1 said:


> A Quarterly release will definitly work as it is not worth updating drivers every month as it just leads to trouble, just do it like 3-4 months.



nope.... UE3 pixelated sunshafts on 5 series, rage issues, skyrim issues, brink issues, etc, waiting 3-4 months to release things is a bad idea, unless you just mean WHQL while having various hotfixes in between

the thing is, why does everyone assume they're being overworked & freaking out about the monthly cycle? they're CONSTANTLY writing drivers, there are many branches & versions, someone just picks one to be a WHQL candidate, once it's sent to microsoft, they continue writing future drivers & what comes out as WHQL is 2-4 weeks after it was written


*EDIT: http://www.rage3d.com/index.php?cat=75#newsid33989241




			The reason for the shift in support policy is largely due to the fact that the AMD Radeon HD 2000, AMD Radeon HD 3000, and AMD Radeon HD 4000 Series have been optimized to their maximum potential from a performance and feature perspective. 

The 8.97 based driver, released in May 2012 will be the first driver for the AMD Radeon HD 2000, AMD Radeon HD 3000, and AMD Radeon HD 4000 Series under the new support model; it is an extremely stable and robust driver branch for these products and will be the baseline for our quarterly updates.

the In-the-box AMD Graphics driver that ships with Windows 8 will include support for the AMD Radeon HD 2000, 3000, and 4000 Series, and it will support the WDDM 1.1 driver level features. The AMD Catalyst driver for Windows 8 will only include support for WDDM 1.2 support products (AMD Radeon HD 5000 and later).
		
Click to expand...

*
8.97 has not leaked i dont think, good user reports mostly for 8.96 (12.4?)


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## Dippyskoodlez (Apr 23, 2012)

Steevo said:


> Can you point out where that is said?
> 
> 
> Really, really, really , really old cards are supported in Windows 7, doesn't mean its a good idea, but they are.
> ...



The linux driver only supports limited versions of Xorg.

Of which is years old, at this point. No official linux support for that card with any current distro.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Apr 24, 2012)

newtekie1 said:


> So no support for these cards in Win8 doesn't bother you then?



I'm pretty sure there will be a win 8 driver for them.


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## Mussels (Apr 24, 2012)

kn00tcn said:


> it is an extremely stable and robust driver branch for these products and *will be the baseline for our quarterly updates.*



that says it all.


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## Widjaja (Apr 24, 2012)

Damn it!

This mean I will now have to get a new GPU and PSU this year when I had recently just bought some new stuff.


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## TheoneandonlyMrK (Apr 24, 2012)

Sends a shiver down my spine .this isnt good for my future ie its comeing the end .

Coincidenfally iv a new conspiracy for you.
I heard that the mayan calander indeed points to something epic... 8###   +gk110 tech combo. The work will lie undone the streets empty.


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## eidairaman1 (Apr 24, 2012)

Widjaja said:


> Damn it!
> 
> This mean I will now have to get a new GPU and PSU this year when I had recently just bought some new stuff.



You have a strong powersupply no worries there


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