We’re now eight months away from Microsoft officially pulling the plug on Windows 10, and PC gamers aren’t ready to let go. But if you’re planning to upgrade your hardware while sticking with Windows 10, you might be in for some unexpected compatibility headaches—starting with AMD’s new Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT graphics cards.
AMD has quietly confirmed that all Radeon GPUs starting with the 9000 series will have “UEFI-only support”, according to a document spotted by VideoCardz.com.
For those unfamiliar, Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) is the modern replacement for the old BIOS firmware used to initialize your PC before booting the operating system. If your motherboard is less than 10 years old, chances are you’re already using UEFI. But if you’re still rocking an older setup, these new GPUs might not work properly—or at all.
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How Big of a Problem Is This?
Most Windows 11 users won’t be affected, since UEFI is required for Secure Boot and other security features. However, Windows 10 still supports older BIOS systems, and a significant chunk of gamers are still using it. According to Steam’s latest hardware survey, over 40% of Steam users are still on Windows 10—but it’s unclear how many are running motherboards with only BIOS instead of UEFI.
Will Radeon 9000 GPUs Work on Older Boards? Maybe, But…
AMD hasn’t outright stated that 9000-series cards won’t work on BIOS-based motherboards or UEFI boards with Compatibility Support Module (CSM) enabled, but performance and support won’t be guaranteed. That’s a big red flag for those who want to upgrade their GPU while keeping their aging hardware intact.
Even if you plan to stick with Windows 10 beyond its official end-of-life date, you can still upgrade your motherboard to a UEFI-compatible model and install Windows 10 instead of Windows 11. But as we get closer to that cutoff, expect more compatibility issues like this to start appearing.
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If you’re a Windows 10 holdout with older hardware, this might be the push you need to start thinking about your next big upgrade—before you run into a wall.