AMD Retires Legacy GPUs, GCN Only Going Forward

[kcarbotte]

AMD released the first installment of its Radeon Software Crimson today. The announcement of the new driver suite was met with much publicity but the company made another announcement that you may have missed: Only GCN GPUs will be supported from now on.

AMD Retires Legacy GPUs, GCN Only Going Forward : Read more

 

[Ryguy64]

Maybe it is time to replace my HD 6870. I probably need to replace my i3 2120 as well. Too bad I don't really do anything with my computer that needs more than that.

 

[Josh5890]

Well now it really looks like it is time for me to update my 6970

 

[TechyInAZ]

Maybe it is time to replace my HD 6870. I probably need to replace my i3 2120 as well. Too bad I don't really do anything with my computer that needs more than that.

If you upgrade, you'll save a lot of power.

 

[Sakkura]

I think they should have kept up support until next year, when 16/14nm GPUs arrive. Would have been a natural time to close the book on the old 40nm hardware. As it is, the 5000/6000 series cards are not entirely obsolete.

But okay, AMD probably has to strictly prioritize its resources.

 

[troger5troger5]

sigh --_-- so it looks like the last amd cards I have now have no support................................. 6970 crossfire that still works great for 1080p

 

[Achoo22]

Maybe it is time to replace my HD 6870. I probably need to replace my i3 2120 as well. Too bad I don't really do anything with my computer that needs more than that.

You can absolutely be forgiven for the delay. They haven't really released compelling price/performance upgrades for your board. The same $170 that bought a 6870 can finally buy a rebranded 7850/7870. Upgrade, yes. Something to get excited about? No.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

[quotemsg=17006681,0,1695593]

Maybe it is time to replace my HD 6870. I probably need to replace my i3 2120 as well. Too bad I don't really do anything with my computer that needs more than that.

If you upgrade, you'll save a lot of power. [/quotemsg]

It would take years, even more than a decade to save in power what money is accounted for the purchase of a new graphics card. I did calculations of similar stuff a while back comparing Nvidia and AMD cards: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2833574/electric-bill-amd-nvidia-mathematics-calculated.html

 

[dimar]

It starts in 1ms, but I think vertical switches would be nicer than drop down boxes.

 

[InvalidError]

[quotemsg=17006723,0,551379]I think they should have kept up support until next year, when 16/14nm GPUs arrive. Would have been a natural time to close the book on the old 40nm hardware. As it is, the 5000/6000 series cards are not entirely obsolete.[/quotemsg]
I agree. Between the HD5770 and R7-250, the performance difference is minuscule considering the four years age difference. It would be easier to see support for older chips go if they were clearly outclassed by modern equivalents but here, we are still roughly in the same performance class.

Not that it makes too much of a difference in my case since I was already not bothering with upgrading graphics driver more than once or twice a year and I was planning to get a 2GB 15nm GPU to replace my 1GB HD5770 next year anyway.

 

[Amdlova]

today my 4870 died! iam very sad. used a old trio64 to see the dead card on ruinwindows good old days never come back!

 

[Martell1977]

To me it seems that 14.2 was the last fully functional driver for the 6XXX series. If I update the driver to any newer driver, my HDMI sound stops working. I have the same issue on 2 different 6870's and a clients 6670.

I'm waiting until the next gen to come out and whether I get nVidia or AMD GPU's will come down to the price/performance for the $250-$300 range.

 

[jhansonxi]

They're starting to close the gap between their Windows and Linux drivers, just not in a positive way. :/

 

[Hando567]

This is actually good for me, I just donated my old HD5770s and HD5670 to work in order to upgrade their graphics for CAD from old HD3xxx stuff. Now the drivers will always be up to date! Which is good, because the company IT dept will never update them even if they did release new ones.

 

[none12345]

Cant wait for the 14/16nm stuff.

Im overdue for an upgrade, but the 28nm stuff just doesnt excite me at all. If i was going to buy a 28nm chip i would have done it 3 years ago.

 

[ern88]

Hopefully next year cards will be good enough for me to upgrade my HD 7950 Vapor-x.

 

[xchoice]

To me it seems that 14.2 was the last fully functional driver for the 6XXX series. If I update the driver to any newer driver, my HDMI sound stops working. I have the same issue on 2 different 6870's and a clients 6670.

My 5670 also lost hdmi sound with drivers newer than 14.2

 

[Larry Litmanen]

AMD can't do ANYTHING right, at the very least do not announce anything, just stop the updates if you must but don't tell people that your product is no longer supported.

Secondly, these cars are from 2013, that's a tad too close to today's date.

 

[Larry Litmanen]

[quotemsg=17006739,0,313069]sigh --_-- so it looks like the last amd cards I have now have no support................................. 6970 crossfire that still works great for 1080p[/quotemsg]


I have an issue with 8000 series because it is from 2013, but come on the 6000 series you have is from 2010.

 

[Larry Litmanen]

I wrote above that cards from 2013 are too young to be retired, but i went to Nvidia's website to see their Legacy Products and it looks like almost entire 700 series (750ti is not included) is there, even Titan. So retiring cards from 2013 is an industry thing, not an AMD thing.


http://www.nvidia.com/page/legacy.html

 

[unksol]

There is nothing to complain about. The 6950 is 5 years old. There's simply not much left to tweak in the drivers. The cards are not magically going to start having issues because they stopped updating drivers that most people wouldn't ever update anyway.

 

[sicom]

My fiancé is hoping to get me a GTX 970 for Christmas. Quite timely. It'll be replacing my 6870, although this card will be going into my youngest sibling's PC, so it still won't be retired. Another sibling of mine still sports a 5770.

 

[okcnaline]

Hmm... Maybe there will be something big enough to mandate for a driver update even past the beta? My guess?

 

[Alec Mowat]

"AMD announced that it has discontinued support for legacy GPUs"

Again, no future support. No updated drivers.
If you want to play games, it's Nvidia or nothing. There's no telling what this company will do in a year. Don't invest on an AMD videocard just to save a few bucks.

 

[Schepkens Hendrik]

what about the r9 280x isnt that a 7970 ghz edition?