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

[Hustler]

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.

 

[meirb111]

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.

 

[eidairaman1]

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

 

[WhiteLotus]

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!

 

[illli]

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.

 

[ObSo-1337]

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!

 

[Melvis]

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

 

[specks]

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

 

[bear jesus]

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.

 

[qubit]

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.

 

[Kiska]

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

 

[Dent1]

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.

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?

 

[Kiska]

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.

 

[W1zzard]

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

 

[WhiteLotus]

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?

 

[Dent1]

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.

 

[THE_EGG]

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!?

 

[Mussels]

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.

 

[renz496]

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+)

 

[Random_User]

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.

 

[entropy13]

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.

 

[H82LUZ73]

lol yeah, DX9 gaming killed it.

ol yeah, DX9 CONSOLE gaming killed it



Fixed it right

 

[MeanBruce]

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.

 

[slim142]

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.

 

[OneCool]

Thats why nVidia is the WIN and AMD sucks