- AMD has dropped mention of Windows 10 support in its latest driver
- This has led some to conclude that the older operating system is no longer supported by Radeon GPUs.
- AMD has clarified that this is not the case and that support is still in place for Windows 10
If you’re worried that AMD will suddenly no longer support Windows 10 with its graphics drivers, as some reports suggest, don’t worry: Team Red has clarified that this is not the case.
Of course, what happened earlier this month was that Windows 10 reached end of support, and that ties into this whole thing.
As Windows Latest noticed, in AMD’s most recent GPU driver (Adrenalin v25.10.2), the release notes only list Windows 11 as supported by compatible operating systems. Windows 10 is notably absent, leading gamers with AMD graphics cards – and some tech sites – to worry that Team Red may have dropped support for the older Microsoft operating system.
This is not the case, as an AMD spokesperson explained, telling Windows Latest: “To clarify, the new driver does not claim support for Windows 10 because Windows 10 is End of Life according to Microsoft.
“The AMD Software Adrenalin package, while not specifically calling out support for Windows 10, does support Windows 10. Support for Windows 10 will continue to be available in AMD Software Adrenalin Edition through the Windows 11 installer.”
In short, the Adrenalin graphics driver is still good for Windows 10 gamers, even if it is not labeled as such.
Analysis: Don’t worry yet, but the driver ax will eventually arrive for Windows 10
Of course, support for an operating system is important, as graphics driver releases apply important bug fixes and add new features as well as optimizations for recently released games. For example, this latest Adrenalin driver, which appeared a few days ago, provided support for Battlefield 6.
If a driver is not tested on Windows 10 systems, issues with the older operating system may go undetected by AMD and gamers may experience issues. But rest assured, AMD still develops its Radeon drivers with Windows 10 as well as Windows 11 in mind.
So why did AMD remove mention of Windows 10 from its release notes? Probably because he believes that players should not stick with the old OS without it being supported (i.e. coming with regular security updates from Microsoft), and therefore Team Red does not want to officially “encourage” this in any way.
That said, Windows 10 is different because consumers can get extended support – for an additional year – for the first time ever, so a lot more people will stick with the operating system until at least October 2026. Given that, I think it would make sense for AMD to continue to officially list support for another year, but Team Red is clearly sticking to the letter of the law here in terms of an end-of-life date for Windows 10.
While there’s no cause for concern yet, AMD will eventually put Windows 10 on ice with its graphics drivers. If we go back to Windows 7, it was released into support by AMD – with only critical security patches applied, and nothing else, meaning perhaps a strange patch should manifest a really glaring vulnerability – a year and a half after Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 7 with monthly updates.
So, perhaps around the middle of 2027, Windows 10 will meet the same fate. For now, though, you’re all comfortable using AMD GPU drivers in Windows 10.
It’s also worth noting that even when AMD graphics cards aren’t supported in Windows 10, it’s not like they’ll suddenly stop working – you’re just more likely to run into issues and won’t be patched against security flaws (except for the ones mentioned above that might be serious enough for Team Red to decide to take action with a one-time patch).
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