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

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GCN is on its way out

AMD Radeon VII
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

The final death for a computer part isn't when it's taken off store shelves, but when software support ends. AMD is ending regular driver updates for its Polaris and Vega GPUs: some of AMD's most popular and notorious cards from the RX 400, 500, and Vega series are riding into the sunset.

AMD has only officially acknowledged that Polaris and Vega driver support is now irregular, but the company actually enacted this change in September. 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. October's 23.10.2 driver didn't even come to AMD's veteran GPUs.

In a statement to Anandtech, AMD stated that Polaris and Vega GPUs will continue to receive a level of support that's "greater than for products AMD categorizes as legacy." AMD's legacy products normally get zero driver updates except to fix critical bugs. This means Polaris and Vega will still receive semi-regular bug fixing drivers, but won't see any new features, such as Fluid Motion Frames.

A complicating factor in ending normal support for Vega GPUs is the fact the architecture was used for all but the latest AMD APUs. Only Ryzen 6000, 7035, 7040, and 7045 APUs use RDNA instead of Vega, which is still actively sold in the Ryzen 7020 and 7030 series.

Polaris and Vega were the last representatives of AMD's previous GCN architecture, which the company introduced in 2011 with its HD 7000 series. GCN propelled AMD to success initially as HD 7000 and Radeon 200 graphics cards were quite competitive with Nvidia's GTX 600 and 700 GPUs.

The R9 Fury X however was the last GCN card to truly compete with an Nvidia flagship, as the Vega-powered RX Vega 64 and Radeon VII could only catch up to the GTX 1080 and RTX 2080, respectively. Meanwhile, Polaris was used for the RX 400 and 500 series, which were well-received — though getting pretty old by the time they were replaced by RDNA cards. 

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.

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Matthew Connatser
Matthew Connatser

Matthew Connatser is a freelancing writer for Tom's Hardware US. He writes articles about CPUs, GPUs, SSDs, and computers in general.

15 Comments Comment from the forums
  • 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?
    Reply
  • Thunder64
    King_V said:
    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.
    Reply
  • 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...
    Reply
  • Order 66
    Eximo said:
    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.
    Reply
  • Eximo
    Order 66 said:
    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.
    Reply
  • Order 66
    Eximo said:
    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?
    Reply
  • Eximo
    That is a Vega GPU, so yeah, support is being curtailed but not ended.
    Reply
  • 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.
    Reply
  • 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?
    Reply
  • Colif
    Eximo said:
    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.
    Reply