From PC Mag: AMD's latest driver update appears to segment graphics card owners into RDNA3 and newer, and everything else.
The latest 25.10.2 driver includes two downloads—25.20 and 25.10. The former applies to newer RX 9000 and 7000 cards, while the latter is for RX 6000 and 5000 GPUs. The former also includes game optimizations, while the latter does not (plus, it disables the USB-C power connector). AMD hasn't explained why it's made any of these changes.
The new AMD driver dropped on Oct. 29, and it was a mess right from the start, according to VideoCardz. First, the wrong driver was released, and it took over an hour for it to be corrected. But even when the right one was released, it caused concern over its segregated features.
“New Game Support and Expanded Vulkan Extensions Support is available to Radeon RX 7000 and 9000 series graphics products," reads the release notes for the 25.10.2 driver. The omission of older GPUs is deliberate: They don't get the game optimizations and expanded Vulkan support. The 1.56GB driver includes two distinct drivers, applying the 25.10 update without the optimizations to older RX 6000 and 5000 GPUs.
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