Nvidia may soon drop driver support for GTX 700, 900 and 10 series graphics cards

Nvidia has confirmed a significant shift in its driver support strategy, announcing that the upcoming major driver branch (version 580) will be the final release to support three of its older GPU architectures: Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta. This move will impact a range of popular GeForce and professional products that have served gamers and professionals for over a decade.

As Nvidia states in its developer forum (via BlueGoliath), starting with the driver version following the 580 branch, Nvidia will no longer provide support for Maxwell-based GPUs, including the GeForce GTX 700 series (2013) and GTX 900 series (2014). The immensely popular Pascal-based GTX 10 series (2016) will also see its driver support cease. Additionally, the Volta-based GPUs are included in this deprecation plan.

While the announcement specifically references Unix systems, the underlying driver branches are shared across both Windows and Unix-based platforms, making it highly probable that this change will extend to Game Ready drivers for Windows users. If so, Nvidia will effectively discontinue Game Ready driver updates for some of its longest-supported GeForce GTX product lines. However, it's important to note that not all GTX cards will lose support. The GeForce GTX 16 series, which is based on the newer Turing architecture, will continue to receive support.

For users who don't play the latest titles or cannot afford immediate upgrades, their existing driver installations will continue to function. Nvidia has not yet provided a firm release date for the 580 driver branch, nor is there any information regarding the timing of the subsequent major branch that will drop support for these older GPUs. This indicates that the change should still be months away, minimising any immediate impact on users.

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KitGuru says: This deprecation targets architectures 11 years old, well past their typical prime in the fast-moving hardware landscape. However, Volta-based GPUs are only about 7 years old, and considering they were the flagships at launch, it seems it could be a bit premature to end support on them.

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