News It's Curtains for Polaris and Vega as AMD Reduces Driver Support

[Admin]

Polaris and Vega were the last AMD GPUs to use the old GCN architecture, which was replaced by RDNA in 2019, and now AMD is reducing driver support.

It's Curtains for Polaris and Vega as AMD Reduces Driver Support : Read more

 

[King_V]

Polaris and Vega leave behind a messy chapter in the history of AMD graphics, but it is a little sad to see them go. These GPUs were never all that successful, but nonetheless were a crucial part in AMD's journey to where it is today.

I kind of get that for Vega, but weren't the Polaris cards considered very successful?

 

[Thunder64]

I kind of get that for Vega, but weren't the Polaris cards considered very successful?

They were. I didn't quite get that either. Vega was a mess though. As a dGPU anyway. At lower CU and power levels they did quite well for APU's.

 

[Eximo]

October Steam survey still has Polaris and Vega representing ~2% and ~1% of GPUs in use but RDNA based cards total ~3%.

So the user base is already shifting towards their RDNA based GPUs, coupled with them adding RDNA iGPUs to CPUs and APUs that will only go up.

My guess is this is the Steamdeck? "AMD AMD Custom GPU 0405" .59% total GPUs. Would think they would label that...

 

[Order 66]

October Steam survey still has Polaris and Vega representing ~2% and ~1% of GPUs in use but RDNA based cards total ~3%.

So the user base is already shifting towards their RDNA based GPUs, coupled with them adding RDNA iGPUs to CPUs and APUs that will only go up.

My guess is this is the Steamdeck? "AMD AMD Custom GPU 0405" .59% total GPUs. Would think they would label that...

I would assume or at least hope that the steam deck GPU would continue to get support.

 

[Eximo]

I would assume or at least hope that the steam deck GPU would continue to get support.

It is RDNA based, so, yes it is still supported.

If that large percentage is the GPU in the steamdeck and other APUs of that type (can't think of anything else it could be) then the current RDNA share is closer to 4%.

There are also categories for more typical older Radeon and AMD iGPU, but they don't break it down by type.

 

[Order 66]

It is RDNA based, so, yes it is still supported.

If that large percentage is the GPU in the steamdeck and other APUs of that type (can't think of anything else it could be) then the current RDNA share is closer to 4%.

There are also categories for more typical older Radeon and AMD iGPU, but they don't break it down by type.

Wow, so that would mean the vega 8 graphics in the 5700g are not supported anymore, or are they?

 

[Eximo]

That is a Vega GPU, so yeah, support is being curtailed but not ended.

 

[tlmiller76]

1 minor error in the article,

instead of Vega, which is still actively sold in the Ryzen 7020 and 7030 series.

7020 is RDNA2 IGP, not Vega.

 

[johny.be]

The 23.9.3 driver, though ostensibly available for Polaris and Vega just like RDNA-based GPUs, actually had different software under the hood for Polaris and Vega graphics.

What does it mean? I have RX570 with 23.9.2 driver, should I install earlier driver for better support of this card like 23.8.1?

 

[Colif]

October Steam survey still has Polaris and Vega representing ~2% and ~1% of GPUs in use but RDNA based cards total ~3%.

i wouldn't rely on it for being accurate. We don't even know how it gets those figures.

Don't AMD always put an older card family onto their other driver set every few years anyway? Its hardly new.

 

[abufrejoval]

Cezanne is still being sold, AMD better make sure that hardware isn't without support for many years to come.

If they don't want to maintain it, make it fully open source, including Windows.

And if they don't feel like it, perhaps regulators could help with motivation.

And obviously that should apply to anyone selling IT hardware.

I wouldn't even mind paying €10/year to have continued driver support five years after stop of sale say for another five to ten.

 

[mitch074]

Cezanne is still being sold, AMD better make sure that hardware isn't without support for many years to come.

If they don't want to maintain it, make it fully open source, including Windows.

And if they don't feel like it, perhaps regulators could help with motivation.

And obviously that should apply to anyone selling IT hardware.

I wouldn't even mind paying €10/year to have continued driver support five years after stop of sale say for another five to ten.

The last driver supporting this generation of chip is WDDM 2 compliant - so it's OK as long as Windows supports WDDM 2.

AMD's GPU specification are open, and can be implemented by whomever wants to do it. As a matter of fact, the biggest limitation is Microsoft forcing signed drivers on Windows, as such open sourcing them isn't the solution.

Regulators can't do anything about it - especially since AMD does provide working drivers for these parts, even if they're not the latest and shiniest.

Same as above - AMD is providing drivers, even if not the very latest, so there's nothing you can do. And where were you when Intel decided to end support for Haswell's iGPU, eventhough some parts using it could still be found as new?

Then you can contribute to whatever project is out there supports compiling and installing Mesa drivers on Windows. There you have it! Note : interest is extremely low, and it is currently easier to run Linux with open source Mesa drivers and any Windows software you can't do without in a wrapper on top of it than it is to compile and run Windows open source drivers.

 

[abufrejoval]

The last driver supporting this generation of chip is WDDM 2 compliant - so it's OK as long as Windows supports WDDM 2.

Well yes, M$ cutting out chips at arbitary points in time and evidently at least sometimes at the behest of the manufacturers, is another issue I'd like the regulators to put meaningful pressure on.

AMD's GPU specification are open, and can be implemented by whomever wants to do it. As a matter of fact, the biggest limitation is Microsoft forcing signed drivers on Windows, as such open sourcing them isn't the solution.

And a crypto-monopoly in the hands of Microsoft is yet another no-go. I'm holding back on Ryzen 4, because of the lack of transparency on Pluton TPMs.

The real culprit is obviously the spoiled fruity cult which was built on a DRM audio player instead of personal computers, but Microsoft's ongoing slow takeover of sovereignty over PCs must be stopped: I hired Microsoft as a concierge, but she believes she now owns my house and may control my life.

Regulators can't do anything about it - especially since AMD does provide working drivers for these parts, even if they're not the latest and shiniest.

I don't care about the lateset and shiniest in iGPU drivers, stability and security are really the most important features there. As long as they do maintain them for outright bugs and vulnerabilities, I'd be quite happy enough.

Same as above - AMD is providing drivers, even if not the very latest, so there's nothing you can do. And where were you when Intel decided to end support for Haswell's iGPU, eventhough some parts using it could still be found as new?

I believe Intel has made a split between feature evolution and maintenance for iGPUs. As long as that works, that's fine with me. I've rarely used Haswell iGPUs, so I never noticed, actually all of my Haswell CPUs are Xeons and mostly E5 big dies.

There lack of Windows 11 support is a bit more of a bother, but I fix that by running that on Proxmox with dGPU pass-through, where Windows 11 will just happly run on anything Nehalem or newer, disproving all hardware based vendor tales.

Then you can contribute to whatever project is out there supports compiling and installing Mesa drivers on Windows. There you have it! Note : interest is extremely low, and it is currently easier to run Linux with open source Mesa drivers and any Windows software you can't do without in a wrapper on top of it than it is to compile and run Windows open source drivers.

I put that demand there, not because I thought the idea would be immediately catch on or work pragmatically today.

Mostly I hate regulators only running after vendors after they have done their dirty deeds to a few too many, and instead put regulation proactively in place, where IT that is no longer maintained, needs to be open-sourced, so owners and 3rd parties can take over.

It's basically a regulator imposed escrow service to ensure against vendor malfaesance and failures including bankrupcy.

 

[dfx4509b]

Last time I thought, due to the AMD driver stack being open, the older cards in GCN1-3 and now Polaris and Vega, were still being kept alive with modern drivers via Mesa/RADV on the Linux side and Nimez drivers on the Windows side.

 

[JackieLombardi]

I kind of get that for Vega, but weren't the Polaris cards considered very successful?

I bought a rx580 in 2017 and it's been my only GPU until now. I mainly play competitive FPS games at 1080p, but the card has always run what I've wanted it to damn near flawlessly, even up to the present day...It's honestly kind of surreal to see driver support being reduced.