AMD dumps Windows 7 support on DX9 cards

[Rollo]

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownloa...w_vista32.aspx

I guess if you have a X1900 you better plan on upgrading that with your Windows 7 purchase. Interesting way to drive sales for those who held off on Vista/DX10 cards.

[shbris]

nothing wrong with dumping the support for older cards, you can buy an equivalent dx10 card better than any dx9 card for a pittance, so why should amd waste time developing drivers on an inferior product. not just about extra sales its about moving forward!

[scaryjim]

Also hardly news, ATI announced this months ago. And you can use legacy WDDM 1.0 drivers with Windows 7 (if you put in a DX9 card and Windows 7 to the driver selector it'll take you to the appropriate page), it's just that ATI don't officially support that configuration.

Frankly, I suspect most people on a pre-2k series card will either stick to XP, or would be planning to upgrade now anyway...

[shaithis]

you can use legacy WDDM 1.0 drivers with Windows 7 (if you put in a DX9 card and Windows 7 to the driver selector it'll take you to the appropriate page), it's just that ATI don't officially support that configuration.

nVidia could learn a lot.....

[Rollo]

nothing wrong with dumping the support for older cards, you can buy an equivalent dx10 card better than any dx9 card for a pittance, so why should amd waste time developing drivers on an inferior product. not just about extra sales its about moving forward!

Wow. People were buying those cards just two years ago. I moderate on nZone, if NVIDIA dropped support of it's 6 and 7 series card now people would riot!

So how long do you think driver support should continue on products you may have paid $500 for? 1 year? 2?

Not everyone wants to buy new cards every two years, personally I don't think they should have to.

[shaithis]

Wow. People were buying those cards just two years ago. I moderate on nZone, if NVIDIA dropped support of it's 6 and 7 series card now people would riot!

You mean like if they disabled CUDA/Physx if they found a competitors card in the system?

At least AMD do not hide behind the excuse "It's not supported"...and as others said, they will continue with the Vista (WDM1.0) drive development, which work on Windows 7 anyway.

[badass]

Wow. People were buying those cards just two years ago. I moderate on nZone, if NVIDIA dropped support of it's 6 and 7 series card now people would riot!

So how long do you think driver support should continue on products you may have paid $500 for? 1 year? 2?

Not everyone wants to buy new cards every two years, personally I don't think they should have to.

Anyone that pais $500 for a dx9 card even 2 years ago deserves whatever they get!
Anyone that pays $50 for a graphics card 2 years ago is paying $50 for a card that's been out for ages and shouldn't expect support for it to last on anything more than their current OS.

[aidanjt]

TBH, it's not as if DX9 ATi cards *don't* work in Win7, it's just not officially supported by AMD, and that's fair enough IMHO.

[MadduckUK]

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownloa...w_vista32.aspx

I guess if you have a X1900 you better plan on upgrading that with your Windows 7 purchase. Interesting way to drive sales for those who held off on Vista/DX10 cards.

this is hardly bumpgate is it? the cards are still going to work fine. nice FUD though

[peterb]

OK, I'll tone it down a bit....errrr....a LOT......I do tend to get a little "over enthusiastic" when discussing this stuff. snip--->

I think you might recognise that from another thread...

I'd like you to apply it to this thread too please. I recognise you are a member of the Nvidia user group, but that doesn't allow you to be quite so provocative in attacking a commercial decision by AMD/ATI.

This decision does not affect Nvidia users, and while this is a subject for debate, there is a fine line between debate and using the debate to promote a product with which you have a vested interest, however tenuous that may be.

It is a line that, IMHO, you are crossing.

Please don't do it again! ('Cos you know what will happen if you do...)

[Pob255]

I agree with Badass there, although I'd not of said it so strongly.
2 years ago we where already up the the 2nd series of DX10 cards, when the mid-range where finally outperforming the old high end dx9 cards, if anyone did buy a dx9 card for $500 at that time then boy where they ripped off, as they could of got a better faster card for less.

Infact the only reason I could think of for still buying an nvidia dx9 card would of been very cheap 2nd hand or they where still on agp and nvidia dropped agp with the first dx10 series cards, where as ati where still releaseing HD3xxx series cards in agp

I do like nvidia cards, one of the main things that's drawn me to them over the past few years has been the good stock cooling, an area that ari has been weak on IMO
Granted my graphics card cooling views still data back to my ati 9700pro which cooked it's own memory, but that one thing made me aware that there's more to cooling a graphics card than just the gpu and nvidia stock coolers have worked on a better more unified cooling.

But you cannot say this isn't something nvidia would not do, when they would, in fact I expect them too when they finally get around to releaseing dx11 cards.

[this_is_gav]

NVIDIA have done so in the past to. The time comes with you realistically just need to drop support for products that won't benefit users and continue pushing the newer cards and products.

The Geforce 4 series were announced in 2002. In 2006 support was dropped for them. 4 years later. 2005 was when R520 was released. 4, nearly 5 years later support gets dropped.

[Domestic_Ginger]

I do like nvidia cards, one of the main things that's drawn me to them over the past few years has been the good stock cooling, an area that ati has been weak on IMO

Couldn't agree more; my x1950pro vrms overheating with stock cooler another example (though it may be sapphires fault for rushing through the cards).

x1950pro worked okay with W7 RC and didn't give any problems. I can understand that the drivers are probably optimised after a few years so there may not be many improvements even if they did support them.

[Rollo]

NVIDIA have done so in the past to. The time comes with you realistically just need to drop support for products that won't benefit users and continue pushing the newer cards and products.

The Geforce 4 series were announced in 2002. In 2006 support was dropped for them. 4 years later. 2005 was when R520 was released. 4, nearly 5 years later support gets dropped.

I agree support gets dropped on products, but the X1900 cards were all ATi was selling till the middle of 2007. It wasn't that long ago. That's why I posted this, usually hardware gets a good 4-5 years of support.

[shaithis]

I agree support gets dropped on products, but the X1900 cards were all ATi was selling till the middle of 2007. It wasn't that long ago. That's why I posted this, usually hardware gets a good 4-5 years of support.

They were released in 2006 and support is still active for them....they are just not officially supported on Windows 7.....even though there are drivers still being produced that work on Windows 7 without needing 3rd party hacks.

[DanceswithUnix]

I agree support gets dropped on products, but the X1900 cards were all ATi was selling till the middle of 2007. It wasn't that long ago. That's why I posted this, usually hardware gets a good 4-5 years of support.

But there is some level of support, the card should work. The writing is on the wall though, so I guess some time in the next year the users should upgrade. I am sure most users will be fine with that.

If you want to see customers really abandoned, take a look at Creative Labs.