Various widely used AMD cards based on GCN architecture might be looking at the end of their life cycle.
Users still using AMD cards based on Vega and Polaris should consider upgrading their hardware in the near future to continue receiving driver support for new games.
According to an AMD spokesperson, the red team will soon be abandoning support for 4th and 5th-generation cards based on GCN architecture, which includes AMD Polaris and AMD Vega series graphics cards.
Because of their maturity, stability, and performance, the AMD Polaris and Vega graphics architectures don’t gain as much from routine software optimization. Moving forward, AMD will supply crucial security and feature updates, along with other updates, through a distinct driver package for products based on the Polaris and Vega architectures.
However, with Polaris and Vega-based cards, gamers can still enjoy their favorite games till AMD decides to move its GCN-based products to the retired list of ‘legacy’ graphics cards.
The GCN architecture was unveiled by AMD back in 2011, while the Radeon RX 400 series, also known as Polaris, was released in 2016. The Radeon RX 500 series and Vega-based graphics cards, on the other hand, were released later in 2017 and 2019, respectively.
The Radeon RX 400 series, or Polaris, was one of AMD’s most well-received products because of its price-to-performance ratio, which challenged the PC gaming industry with a $200 product, beating its competition in terms of value and performance.
Looking at the Steam hardware survey, about 14.79% of users are currently using AMD graphics cards in their system. The Radeon RX 580, which is also based on Polaris, is currently used by 0.74% of Steam users, making it the highest-ranking AMD card on Steam.
That being said, the Radeon RX 580 is still a capable graphics card and performs quite well for its price in recent well-optimized titles, like Resident Evil 4 Remake. Still, the old GCN architecture has slowly started showing its age compared to RDNA 1 or RDNA 2.
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[News Reporter]
Malik Usman is student of Computer Science focused on using his knowledge to produce detailed and informative articles covering the latest findings from the tech industry. His expertise allows him to cover subjects like processors, graphics cards, and more. In addition to the latest hardware, Malik can be found writing about the gaming industry from time to time. He is fond of games like God of War, and his work has been mentioned on websites like Whatculture, VG247, IGN, and Eurogamer.
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