AMD has another statement
AMD’s communication around its latest driver updates continues to cause confusion.
After several clarifications, AMD has now walked back its original statement and confirmed that the so-called “maintenance mode” does not mean RDNA1 and RDNA2 architectures will stop receiving game optimizations.
As usual, AMD’s message sent to Tom’s Hardware feels incomplete and lacks detail. It only mentions that optimizations will continue “based on market needs.” This does not fully reverse the earlier statement, it simply clarifies that while newer GPUs will remain the main focus, older ones will still receive updates when needed. The previous version did not mention game optimizations for these architectures at all, though, so that’s new.
“New features, bug fixes and game optimizations will continue to be delivered as required by market needs in the maintenance mode branch,”
— AMD to Tom’s Hardware
If you’re unsure what’s going on, here’s a brief timeline of events:
Timeline
- AMD released driver 25.10.2 with two subranches for RX 7000/9000 series and RX5000/6000 separately ( Driver )
Changelog noted- USB-C power charging has been disabled for Radeon™ RX 7900 series graphics products. Users requiring this feature are recommended to use AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition version 25.3.1.
- New Game Support and Expanded Vulkan Extensions Support is available to Radeon™ RX 7000 and 9000 series graphics products.
- AMD confirms RX 6000/RX 5000 series are in maintenance mode and will no longer receive game optimizations ( Article via PCGH )
- AMD confirms error, USB-C power delivery on RX 7900 cards WILL NOT be disabled ( Article via TechPowerUP )
- AMD clarifies maintenance mode for RX 6000/5000 does not mean lack of game optimizations (we are here).
It’s worth noting that while the USB-C information was removed from the changelog, the “new game support” entry remains. This suggests that some updates may still reach older GPUs, though not with the same level of optimization as the RDNA3 and RDNA4 series.
Unfortunately, this is yet another statement that lacks confirmation on what is actually going to happen to ALL RDNA2 based products, such as Ryzen APUs.
The real question is: how needy are RDNA2 owners for new updates?
Source: Tom’s Hardware
