AMD has announced significant changes for its Radeon RX 5000 and RX 6000 series GPUs, shifting its focus to newer models. This move has left many owners of these older cards wondering about the future of their graphics capabilities.
Game Optimization and Feature Updates End for Older Radeon Series
The Radeon RX 5000 series, introduced just six years ago, alongside the RX 6000 series, will no longer receive official optimization or feature updates. Recent release notes from AMD’s Adrenalin Edition 25.10.2 highlight support for Battlefield 6 and Ryzen AI 5 330 APU, yet they only provide “Game Support” and “Expanded Vulkan Extensions Support” for the newer RX 7000 and RX 9000 series.
This indicates that the latest game optimizations are reserved for RDNA 3 and RDNA 4, leaving the earlier RDNA 1 and RDNA 2 behind. Sources have confirmed that AMD has indeed ceased game optimization and feature updates for these earlier GPU families.
RDNA 1 and RDNA 2 graphics cards will continue to receive driver updates for critical security fixes and bug resolutions. To focus on optimizing and delivering new and improved technologies for its latest GPUs, AMD is placing the Radeon RX 5000 and RX 6000 series (RDNA 1 and RDNA 2) into maintenance mode with the AMD Software Adrenalin Edition 25.10.2 release. Future driver updates with targeted game optimizations will be focused on RDNA 3 and RDNA 4 GPUs.
A Shift in Focus for AMD
This decision impacts the RX 5000 series, released in 2019, and the RX 6000 series from 2020, which will no longer receive the latest features or game support. Surprisingly, even newer models like the RX 6750 GRE from 2023 are excluded from future optimizations. This move marks a significant shift as AMD will now focus on delivering only essential security updates and bug fixes for these series, concentrating its efforts on the RX 7000 and RX 9000 series.
This change raises concerns among consumers about the longevity of support for their GPUs, especially when compared to NVIDIA’s extended support for its older Maxwell and Pascal series, which lasted nearly a decade. Many users hope this trend doesn’t continue with future AMD GPU generations.