Following AMD's decision to put RDNA 1 and 2-based GPUs into
"maintenance mode" in order to focus on new features for its more recent graphics technology, the company is backtracking a bit. AMD tells
Tom's Hardware that RDNA 1 and 2 won't be left in the dust entirely when it comes to game optimizations.
"New features, bug fixes and game optimizations will continue to be delivered as required by market needs in the maintenance mode branch," an AMD spokesperson told
Tom's Hardware.
That's a statement that's likely to confuse some customers, as it's unclear what those "market needs" are. This sounds like new features will still be focused on RDNA 3 and 4-based GPUs, but AMD's clarification implies that RDNA 1 and 2 will continue to get day-zero support for games, including on handhelds.
This is meant to clarify a statement from yesterday that read: "In order to focus on optimizing and delivering new and improved technologies for the latest GPUs, AMD Software Adrenalin Edition 25.10.2 places
Radeon RX 5000 series and RX 6000 series graphics cards (RDNA 1 and RDNA 2) in maintenance mode. RDNA 1 and RDNA2 graphics cards will continue to receive driver updates for critical
security and bug fixes."
That statement, which would apply to a number of fairly recent graphics cards, as well as the integrated graphics in some laptops (like the Ryzen 7000 and 6000 series) and the
Asus ROG Xbox Ally handheld (but not the more expensive Xbox Ally X), caused serious blowback among PC gamers and in the enthusiast press.