In brief: AMD's latest Adrenalin beta graphics driver is already available, and with it comes new features to improve the gaming experience and the usual slew of fixes. However, this driver also removes some features, including support for AMD Radeon HD 7000, HD 8000, 200, 300, Fury, and more.
AMD has moved some of its older graphics cards to a legacy model, meaning that there won't be any additional drivers supporting them. According to AMD, the Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.5.2 will be the last supported driver planned for these GPUs.
AMD's list of GPUs moving to a legacy model includes 9-year-old GPUs such as the HD 7000 series, but also other more recent ones like the GCN-based R7 M400 series, which is just five years old.
| Desktop | Mobile |
|---|---|
| AMD A-Series APUs with Radeon R4, R5, R6, or R7 Graphics | AMD A-Series PRO processors with Radeon Graphics |
| AMD Pro A-Series APUs with Radeon R5 or R7 Graphics | AMD FX-Series APUs with Radeon R7 Graphics |
| AMD Athlon™ Series APUs with Radeon R3 Graphics | AMD E-Series APUs with Radeon R2 Graphics |
| AMD Sempron™ Series APUs with Radeon R3 Graphics | AMD Radeon R7 M400 Series Graphics |
| AMD Radeon R9 Fury Series, R9 Nano Series Graphics | AMD Radeon R9 M300 Series Graphics |
| AMD Radeon R9 300 Series Graphics | AMD Radeon R7 M300 Series Graphics |
| AMD Radeon R9 200 Series Graphics | AMD Radeon R5 M300 Series Graphics |
| AMD Radeon R7 300 Series Graphics | AMD Radeon R9 M200 Series Graphics |
| AMD Radeon R7 200 Series Graphics | AMD Radeon R7 M200 Series Graphics |
| AMD Radeon R5 300 Series Graphics | AMD Radeon R5 M200 Series Graphics |
| AMD Radeon R5 200 Series Graphics | AMD Radeon HD 8500M - HD 8900M Series Graphics |
| AMD Radeon HD 8500 - HD 8900 Series Graphics | AMD Radeon HD 7700M - HD 7900M Series Graphics |
| AMD Radeon HD 7700 - HD 7900 Series Graphics |
We are not surprised to see decade-old graphics cards such as the HD 7000 series being moved to legacy models. Nvidia also announced it's ceasing support of its Kepler GPUs, but unlike AMD, it gave a few months for customers to prepare for it.
As for the 300, Fury, Nano and R7 M400 series, it would be nice if AMD kept supporting them. These GPUs are still fairly recent, with 5 to 6 years on their legs. Some of them were actually quite expensive, with the Fury and Nano cards releasing with an MSRP of $649 back in 2015. For that kind of price, some would expect to have a longer support period.
The graphics cards are not the only thing moving to legacy support. AMD's also informed that Radeon Software support for Windows 7 64-bit based OS will also be removed, more than a year after Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 7.
This latest hotfix driver update does more than remove support for older cards, AMD's beta introduces game optimizations for Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, support for AMD Radeon RX 6800M graphics (our review), and FidelityFX Super Resolution, a.k.a. FSR (our review).