AMD Clarifies Support for Radeon RX 5000 and 6000 Series GPUs After Driver Release Confusion
SANTA CLARA, CA – October 27, 2023 – AMD has moved to reassure owners of Radeon RX 5000 and 6000 series GPUs that support for thier cards remains active, following a wave of concern sparked by the release of Adrenalin driver version 25.10.2 last week. the initial announcement accompanying the release led to fears that these older GPUs – encompassing RDNA 1 and RDNA 2 architectures,some launched as recently as 2022 – would no longer receive updates for new games.
The confusion stemmed from AMD’s description of moving these gpus to “maintenance mode.” Following backlash, AMD issued clarifying statements, asserting that the older cards would continue to receive “new features, bug fixes, and game optimizations” based on “market needs.”
AMD further solidified its commitment in a separate post, confirming that driver release 25.10.2 “is not the end of support for RDNA 1 and RDNA 2.” The company stated that integrated and dedicated GPUs based on these architectures will continue to receive “game support for new releases,” “stability and game optimizations,” and “security and bug fixes.”
The core change, AMD explained, is a shift to a separate driver path for these older architectures. This separation is designed to prevent fixes and features intended for newer RDNA 3 and RDNA 4 GPUs from inadvertently causing issues with RDNA 1 and RDNA 2 cards.
“These [RX 5000 and RX 6000-series] products now benefit from a dedicated, stable driver branch, one built on years of tuning and optimization,” AMD stated. “This approach helps deliver a smoother, more consistent experience for yoru games while insulating previous generation GPUs from rapid changes designed for newer architectures… By separating the code paths, our engineers can move faster with new features for RDNA 3 and RDNA 4, while keeping RDNA 1 and RDNA 2 stable and optimized for current and future games.”
