Tuesday, April 24th 2012
Pre-HD 5000 Will be Removed from Catalyst Mainline, But Onto a New Support Model: AMD
AMD confirmed to TechPowerUp its plans of removing pre-HD 5000 series Radeon GPUs from the Catalyst mainline update model (where WHQL-certified driver updates are released on a monthly basis), but that doesn't necessarily mean a discontinuation of support for those products. AMD told us that it is merely relocating pre-HD 5000 GPUs (under the Radeon HD 2000, HD 3000, and HD 4000 series), to a new update model that will have new WHQL-certified drivers being released on a quarterly basis.
This model is carved out of the mainline, because the driver team is encountering a diminishing number of problems that can be addressed, with the older chips, and can pool them up over a quarter and release updates for them. The driver team can then focus on Radeon HD 5000 (and later) product lines. AMD also talked about the current lack of driver support for pre-HD 5000 GPUs on Windows 8 consumer preview. It said that the driver that Microsoft ships with Windows 8 will support for pre-HD 5000 GPUs, and of course in the future AMD will have WHQL-certified Windows 8 drivers for these chips, part of its new update model. A variant of the driver version 8.97, released in May, will be the first pre-HD 5000 driver in this new update model.
A transcript of AMD's statement follows.
This model is carved out of the mainline, because the driver team is encountering a diminishing number of problems that can be addressed, with the older chips, and can pool them up over a quarter and release updates for them. The driver team can then focus on Radeon HD 5000 (and later) product lines. AMD also talked about the current lack of driver support for pre-HD 5000 GPUs on Windows 8 consumer preview. It said that the driver that Microsoft ships with Windows 8 will support for pre-HD 5000 GPUs, and of course in the future AMD will have WHQL-certified Windows 8 drivers for these chips, part of its new update model. A variant of the driver version 8.97, released in May, will be the first pre-HD 5000 driver in this new update model.
AMD will be moving the AMD Radeon HD 2000, AMD Radeon HD 3000, and AMD Radeon HD 4000 Series of products to a new driver support model. We will continue to support the mentioned products in our Catalyst releases, but we're moving their updates to a quarterly basis, whereas our AMD Radeon HD 5000 and later products will continue to see monthly updates. The Quarterly Catalyst releases will focus on resolving application specific issues and critical updates. 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 update.
Our main development and testing efforts will now be focused on the AMD Radeon HD 5000 and later products. This is the best use of our resources as the AMD Radeon HD 5000, AMD Radeon HD 6000, AMD Radeon HD 7000, and future products have the greatest potential for further performance and feature enhancements.
Also with regards to Windows 8 support for the AMD Radeon HD 2000, 3000, 4000 Series of products; 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).
27 Comments on Pre-HD 5000 Will be Removed from Catalyst Mainline, But Onto a New Support Model: AMD
Oh... the drama queens and why they've stopped buying AMD.
I rarely installed every monthly update which came out anyway, as the results can be worse.
Either way I think this is a good idea to make the driver package smaller.
It's better all around: the pre-HD 5000 will get a smaller installer file and so will the current catalyst installer.
Anyhoo, hopefully it doesn't affect people who have mixed generation cards too much. Several years ago when they did this before I had two cards installed on either side of the "split". I still got them working, but it wasn't as easy.
nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2041
nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9/related/1/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xMzM1MzA0OTExL3NpZC9WeFJRenRXaw==
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NForce3
this is the driver for X1K and lower boards for Both Windows Vista and Windows 7
support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Legacy/Pages/radeonaiw_vista32.aspx?type=2.4.1&product=2.4.1.3.13&lang=English
support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Legacy/Pages/radeonaiw_vista64.aspx?type=2.4.1&product=2.4.1.3.13&lang=English
And I was just a annoyed with the drop of the nForce2/3/4 support from nVidia. I had some Socket 462 and 939 rigs I wanted to put Win7 on.
(First AMD GPU=,But AMD kept ATI name on chips until 6970) typing in the dark with no key light sucks...
N it worked for my Laptop and My Sig Rig, despite the sig rig not having a Optimized AGP GART (Uses the 440 BX gart driver just to get it running)
My laptop i wasnt sure if there was a 865 PE Chipset Driver for Win Vista/7 that wasnt built into windows (Drivers in Windows Suck Donkey Dick anyway)