Computing is advancing by leaps and bounds. Therefore, it makes no sense to use an operating system from 12 years ago (and without support for 18 months) on a daily basis and, in addition, want the latest pieces of hardware to work on it. Just a week ago, NVIDIA announced that its new graphics card drivers were no longer being compatible with Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. And, as you might imagine, now it has been AMD who has taken the same step announcing compatibility changes in its new drivers.
AMD is the second most used graphics card manufacturer by PC gamers with a share of 16.18%. Although it is very far from its rival, NVIDIA, this manufacturer is gradually gaining the trust of users thanks to its new models of graphics cards. In recent tests they have shown to offer superior performance than equivalent NVIDIA cards, as well as being cheaper.
Little by little, this manufacturer is gaining users. But in order to continue like this, it is necessary to change your mindset and evolve as you have done with these new drivers released a few hours ago.
Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.6.1: New AMD Drivers
Today, AMD has released its new Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.6.1 drivers. This new version of the AMD drivers stands out, above all, for launching a new function that will improve the gaming experience: FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) . FSR wants to become an alternative to NVIDIA’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS ) with the difference that, to function, it does not depend on the Tensor Core of its rival’s graphics. Thanks to FSR, game graphics will be rendered at lower resolutions and scaled, with little loss of quality, to improve the performance of games that support this technology.
These new drivers also add support for new games and improve the performance of different titles through all sorts of optimizations. Of course, as usual, they also fix a number of bugs and problems found in a wide variety of titles.
All new features, enhancements and optimizations of the graphics drivers are always welcome. However, if you are one of those who still refuse to upgrade to Windows 10, then these drivers also bring bad news.
Goodbye to old Windows and older graphics
Supporting outdated operating systems with very low market shares generates losses for the company and burdens, in a way, the development of drivers for new versions of Windows. As expected, after seeing the move by NVIDIA, AMD has followed suit and, as of this new version 21.6.1 of its drivers, these will stop working in Windows 8.1 and other previous versions of the operating system.
And not only that, but AMD has also announced that their new drivers will no longer have support for their older graphics cards. In this way, all series prior to Polaris , that is, prior to the Radeon RX 400 series, will no longer be supported.
If you still have a graphic prior to Polaris, or you use Windows 7 or 8.1, you can continue using it on your PC, yes, using the AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.5.2 drivers, or an earlier version. And you will not be able to update.
The new AMD drivers are now available on their website .
