DXVK 2.7 cut Polaris and Vega on Windows - old AMD GPU were left without support

An update has been released DXVK 2.7 — an important component in the Proton ecosystem that allows you to launch Windows-Games on Linux and Steam Deck. While the new version brings performance and compatibility improvements, it also has a serious limitation: old support discontinued Windows-AMD drivers, not compatible with the extension Vulkan VK_KHR_maintenance5.

This change will not affect Linux users, as Mesa drivers for AMD Polaris and Vega continue to be updated. However, owners of Radeon RX 400, 500 and Vega video cards on Windows now risk losing the ability to launch games through Proton, especially in the absence of fresh alternative solutions. In particular, we are talking about GPU GCN 4 and GCN 5 architectures, which will officially be left without support from AMD back in 2022.

According to the developers of DXVK, support for legacy AMD drivers for Windows became increasingly burdensome, and taking into account the progress in development Vulkan and Proton, the project had to take a step forward. The VK_KHR_maintenance5 extension has become key to a number of new features and improvements, without which further development of DXVK would be slowed down.

It is important to note that this decision is not related to the technical incapacity of the video cards themselves - they are still functional. But the lack of updates from AMD on Windows makes them incompatible with current standards Vulkan, which deprives users of some new games and features. For those who are not ready to change GPU, the only thing left is to switch to Linux, where Mesa continues to be supported.

DXVK 2.7 was a major milestone for the Proton ecosystem, but it also made it clear that the era of Polaris and Vega was over. Windows ended.