NVIDIA Signals End of Support for Older Graphics Cards with Driver Version 580

NVIDIA has confirmed that the upcoming major release of drivers, version 580, will be the final one for its GeForce GTX 700, 900, and 10 series graphics cards. This signifies the impending end of support for the Maxwell, Pascal architectures, and even the TITAN V based on Volta.

According to NVIDIA, starting with version 580 (the current version is 576.80), there will be no further driver updates for the GTX 700 and 900 series (Maxwell), GTX 10 series (Pascal), and the TITAN V (Volta). This announcement was made alongside an update to the driver support schedule for UNIX systems, but the changes will also impact Windows since the 580 branch will be unified across both platforms.

While the GTX 16 series (Turing) will still receive support for the time being, this marks the end of official updates for many users. The Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta architectures are now 8 to 11 years old, making it reasonable for them to be phased out of support. However, for those still relying on these GPUs, particularly those on a tight budget for upgrades, this news may be unwelcome.

NVIDIA has not yet specified a release date for version 580, which could be several months away. For now, existing drivers remain functional, but in the future, users of older cards will need to either accept the lack of updates or consider upgrading their graphics hardware.