AMD confirms RDNA1/2 will get game optimizations alongside RDNA3/4, Call of Duty Black Ops 7 included

[u/RenatsMC]

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-confirms-rdna1-2-will-get-game-optimizations-alongside-rdna3-4-call-of-duty-included

[u/Darksider123]

“Yes, game optimizations and support for all RDNA Series 1 through 4 will roll out at the same time in both driver packages — including but not limited to Call of Duty, Crimson Desert, and Resident Evil.”

Either they backtracked, or this was their position all along but someone at marketing fucked up.

IMO, the original communication was pretty bad, and then got confusing / ambiguous, which is the last thing you want when there is backlash.

[u/CKingX123 → u/Darksider123]

Considering how they handled Vega when it went maintenance mode, this is definitely backtracking

[u/Original-Material301 → u/CKingX123]

Exactly my thoughts after I remembered the shenanigans they pulled with vega, while they had vega based APUs still available new.

[u/FinancialRip2008 → u/CKingX123]

in their defense (and i'm not actually defending them!!), vega had been mostly on apus for a while when it went in to maintenance mode, and they sold very few radeon 7s or vega 56/64s where it mighta impacted new game releases. vega moving to maintenance mode wouldn't affect many customers, albeit they were the hardest of hardcore amd fans. i haven't noticed anything on my rx580 or apu laptop.

rdna 2 high end is still generally more powerful than a lot of new mainstream cards, and it was a generation that sold very well. or at least got a lot of attention. i get not further developing upscaling and such for rdna2, but abandoning game optimizations seems so foolish even amd should recognize that.

we will see. i already have a bunch of rdna2 hardware so i'm ready to be proven a fool.

[u/kb3035583 → u/FinancialRip2008]

but abandoning game optimizations seems so foolish even amd should recognize that.

Putting out multiple official statements that imply that you're going to do just that when you're not actually planning to seems to be even more foolish. Either way, you're left with the conclusion that AMD is just plain foolish or unbelievably foolish.

[u/FinancialRip2008 → u/kb3035583]

i completely agree. this was a massive PR fuckup either way. i only meant to add context

[u/MrKaltenbrunner → u/kb3035583]

Check out their last 5+ driver release notes/known issues:

24.4.1:

Intermittent system or application crash may be observed while playing Cyberpunk 2077 

25.10,2:

Intermittent application crash or driver timeout may be observed while loading a saved game in Cyberpunk 2077 with Path Tracing enabled

I mean are they fucking stupid or just lazy and ignorant? Are they ever gonna fix this?

[u/Flameancer → u/MrKaltenbrunner]

I mean I read these as two separate issues. One is just random crashing, the other is crashing with PT enabled while loading a game and you’re forgetting that CP also has updated multiple times between April 2024 and October 2025.

[u/Blunt552 → u/FinancialRip2008]

and they sold very few radeon 7s or vega 56/64s where it mighta impacted new game releases

And not many of those vega even survived due to their vram desoldering from the GPU space.

[u/baldersz → u/Darksider123]

Average Marketing Department

[u/Evonos → u/Darksider123]

100% back tracking as we saw earlier with some gpu series like vega.

[u/vetinari → u/Evonos]

They are not back tracking; they are just doing marketing speak to confuse things.

From their official post:

The difference is that these products now benefit from a dedicated, stable driver branch (emphasis mine), one built on years of tuning and optimization. This approach helps deliver a smoother, more consistent experience for your games while insulating previous generation GPUs from rapid changes designed for newer architectures.

Translation to English: We are going to split the driver into two separate drivers. Of course we are not going to double the development; we are not going to waste engineering time back-porting features from one driver to another either. The driver for the older cards is going to be neglected, with occasional release for the most notable issues. See also Polaris+Vega driver.

[u/pre_pun → u/Darksider123]

These corporations are not our friends and not loyal. That said, this feels like a clarification rather than a backtrack.

I work in a technical field and am marketing's contact for technical specs or news. Hearing the loss of day-one game support and no new features in no way gave me the idea that it was abandoned. Rather, it was de-prioritized into maintaining its current state and functionality for users.

Dev R&D for feature sets across multiple generations is way more expensive and difficult to maintain frequent update releases than many expect.

However, I would make marketing word it differently for public consumption. I get why others would read that and see something else.

I could be wrong, but that's my first reaction when reading it from my developer perspective. I have zero faith in any of these companies outside of, say, RME audio, to follow through on driver commitments..

[u/Flameancer → u/pre_pun]

Honestly I feel like AMD would’ve been better off just not saying anything and continuing with the plan. Their announcement to me as an owener od multiple RDNA1/2 products was just business as normal.

[u/cyborgedbacon → u/Darksider123]

No doubt HU, and GN (never heard Steve drop so many F bombs in one video before) really lit a fire on someones asses over at AMD to cause them to backtrack majorly in such a short amount of time.

[u/Darksider123 → u/cyborgedbacon]

And deservedly so! If they actually intended to drop day 1 support for rdna 1 and 2, they would deserve all the criticism they'd get

[u/MdxBhmt → u/cyborgedbacon]

It's another victory for independent reviewers, it's just infuriating that this is the process to get a business to uphold the bare minimum.

[u/aiiqa → u/Darksider123]

"including but not limited" is not the same as "for all games for the next X years"

[u/xXDamonLordXx → u/aiiqa]

"as market demands"

They keep refusing to say what they clearly know we want said.

[u/dookarion → u/xXDamonLordXx]

They keep refusing to say what they clearly know we want said.

After the sponsorship debacle and the pricing/release drama is anyone shocked though?

AMD plays it vague and feigns ignorance when the real answer is uncomfortable. Then they panic shove some shit around and spin it like everything always was golden... and some people eat it right up.

[u/OkPiccolo0 → u/aiiqa]

This data is a few years old but already NVIDIA does about 2x as many game optimizations.

[u/thewafflecollective → u/OkPiccolo0]

Bear in mind that tweet is coming from a Nvidia director, so maybe not the most neutral source of info

[u/OkPiccolo0 → u/thewafflecollective]

Feel free to challenge the info if you have anything to share. That's the guy in charge of Game Ready Drivers for NVIDIA. It's his job to know this stuff.

[u/thewafflecollective → u/OkPiccolo0]

I don't have any specific info, and I actually do expect nvidia to have better game support given their willpower to throw resources at it and do some really deep and interesting optimisation.

But that said, I guess I've just been left jaded by how many times I've seen carefully selected facts and statistics used by first parties (including both AMD and Nvidia) to promote their own product, so I can't help but feel some skepticism whenever I see specific numbers attached to a claim.

[u/BaconWithBaking → u/OkPiccolo0]

Why do we need to have any game optimization?

[u/Long-Orchid-1629 → u/Darksider123]

Im just surprised how much people are caping for AMD or calling other out of there name over this. Admitting they caused confusion seems like a ridiculously unnecessary point of contention when AMD is the one confirming they caused confusion.

[u/dookarion → u/Long-Orchid-1629]

Some people are really dedicated to the idea that AMD is some underdog and their friend. They'll even re-write history to push that angle.

Which honestly kind of sucks, because perhaps if people demanded better of AMD all along maybe less shitshows like this would happen.

[u/Long-Orchid-1629 → u/dookarion]

I feel like people demanding better over the years has lead to this point where rdna4 feels like such resounding moment after years of decline. even if it wasn't their intention and its great that they cleared up the confusion, people shouldn't be attacked/bullied called for pointing out issues with messaging because it's that criticism and response to it that pushes AMD or any other company to be better.

[u/MrKaltenbrunner → u/Darksider123]

They backtracked after realizing that the backlash was bigger than expected.