Radeon RX 9000 Series GPUs are almost here and could make an excellent drop-in upgrade for midrange systems everywhere. However, if you plan on pairing the pixel pusher with an older machine then you’ll need to conduct one final check before purchasing one.
Just before launch, AMD has shared that Radeon RX 9000 Series graphics and its RDNA 4 architecture by extension requires UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). It’s a essentially a replacement for BIOS on motherboards. Don’t worry if you haven’t heard of it before, it’s been around for some time to the point that you likely already have it if you own a relatively-modern system.
AMD is dropping support for BIOS starting with Radeon RX 9000 Series, including CSM (Compatibility Support Module) modes. Abandoning these older standards should ensure that the graphics cards have access to modern features like Resizable BAR (stylised as AMD Smart Access Memory).
If you’re curious about whether your motherboard supports UEFI, you can quickly find out by diving into its firmware during the boot process. AMD provides a detailed guide on how to do this, alongside screenshots from various manufacturers.
This move has been a long time coming from AMD, with Nvidia dropping support for BIOS several years ago and Intel requiring UEFI for its Arc dedicated graphics. This shift shouldn’t cause widespread problems, but could serve as reason enough to those hanging on to older hardware to finally upgrade. Don’t worry, any CPU that fits into an AM5 or LGA 1700/1851 socket will do just fine.
Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 will launch on March 6 and you can expect reviews on both cards from Club386 later this week. Stay tuned for the site’s thoughts on GeForce RTX 5070 too, along with comparisons from prior generations and rivals for all.
