AMD Drops Windows XP Support with Latest Graphics Driver Update

AMD has a new beta graphics driver available--the AMD Catalyst 13.6 Beta2 Driver--which features the typical sort of feature list that you’d expect from a driver release, with a notable exception: there’s no support for Windows XP.

In the “system requirements” area, AMD lists Windows 8 (32 & 64-bit versions), Windows 7 (32 & 64-bit versions with SP1 or higher), and Windows Vista (32 & 64-bit versions with SP2 or higher).

Windowx XP, no longer supported in 2014, no longer supported by AMD graphics

That’s not surprising. Windows XP is a venerable operating system, to be sure, but it’s long overdue for mothballs. Microsoft will stop supporting the OS in April, and the company has been pushing for businesses, who are otherwise content to continue using the aged Windows XP, to upgrade to a newer version.

Other features of the AMD Catalyst 13.6 beta driver release include increased performance in PCMark benchmarks with AMD’s APUs; fixing an HDMI audio dropout problem; enhancements to AMD Enduro technology; AMD Wireless Display support (Windows 8); and more.