Nvidia officially ends driver support for Kepler GPUs, Windows 7 & 8

Daniel Sims

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TL;DR: Nvidia announced months ago that it would stop releasing Game Ready drivers for the almost decade-old Kepler graphics cards this year, but it seems today is the day. The Keplers are absent from the list of GPUs supported in the latest update.

The main stories in the latest Nvidia driver release are the optimization support for the newly released Back 4 Blood and the addition of DLSS to 10 more games. Buried within, however, are the details of the end of Kepler support as well as the end of support for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1.

This means Kepler cards will no longer get driver improvements, performance improvements, new features, or bug fixes. Though, they will still get critical security updates through September 2024. Nvidia has a list of which GPUs this covers here, but it includes GTX 600 and GTX 700 series cards along with the early Titans, cards that originally came out in 2012 and 2013. This is the full list of affected cards:

  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Black
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 Ti
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 (192-bit)
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 Ti OEM
  • NVIDIA GeForce GT 740
  • NVIDIA GeForce GT 730
  • NVIDIA GeForce GT 720
  • NVIDIA GeForce GT 710
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 645
  • NVIDIA GeForce GT 640
  • NVIDIA GeForce GT 635
  • NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

The bottom of the download page for the latest driver does mentions exceptions for certain notebooks.

It should be noted that three 700 series GPUs are still getting support because they aren't Kepler but rather part of the following architecture, Maxwell. They are the GTX 750 Ti, GeForce GTX 750, and GeForce GTX 745 (OEM). TechSpot also has a download page for the latest drivers, with detailed information on the changes and which games they affect. The latest drivers only support 64-bit Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Nvidia first announced it was planning to soon end Kepler support this past summer. In the latest Steam survey, the 750Ti still ranks in the middle of the list of most popular graphics cards, above all of AMD's recent RDNA2 cards and almost all of Nvidia's own Ampere cards which released late last year. Kepler cards like the GTX 660 and 760 are much further down, with less than one percent share of overall GPU usage.

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How about mobile kepler cards?

I have an Alienware 18 with 2 880m cards inside... not that I'd need to be upgrading the drivers for them anyways...
 
Ending driver support for Windows 7 is probably not the greatest decision. There is a significant minority who still prefer it, particularly for compatibility reasons, and who are using the latest GPUs on the old reliable OS.
They would have all the data they need from downloads to assess the impact, I doubt niche users on old platforms are particularly valuable to Nvidia.
 
The GTX 750ti was an great card for the buck back in the day. Able to run off of the PCI-E slot power, it was a cheap upgrade for pre-built systems. Not surprised it is still in heavy use today.
 
I'm not surprised.... AMD ended support for Fury X and AMD R9 390 not long time ago, and these are 2015 GPU....... Nvidia GTX 600 and 700 series are 2012-2014 GPU

At least nvidia provided windows 11 driver for these old GPU while fury x and AMD R9 390 don't have any official windows 11 driver
 
Ending driver support for Windows 7 is probably not the greatest decision. There is a significant minority who still prefer it, particularly for compatibility reasons, and who are using the latest GPUs on the old reliable OS.


They can still use the current driver !! Ending driver support does not mean you can't use you GPU
 
Ending driver support for Windows 7 is probably not the greatest decision. There is a significant minority who still prefer it, particularly for compatibility reasons, and who are using the latest GPUs on the old reliable OS.
Do the latest games support Windows 7 though? If not, Driver updates won't do much if you can't run the games anyway.
 
I'm not surprised.... AMD ended support for Fury X and AMD R9 390 not long time ago, and these are 2015 GPU....... Nvidia GTX 600 and 700 series are 2012-2014 GPU

At least nvidia provided windows 11 driver for these old GPU while fury x and AMD R9 390 don't have any official windows 11 driver
Wow. This is first I'm hearing of that and it's super disappointing because of the chip shortage.

Cards like the R9 390X are definitely still capable of a playable 1080p gaming experience. I mean, they basically perform just like an RX 580 would.
 
Do you people understand that ending driver support on an unsupported OS is irrelevant? The only purpose to updating your driver is to account for new "stuff" that comes out that your GPU can't take full advantage of.

No "new stuff" is coming out for Windows 7... so your Kepler card doesn't need to be updated - the current drivers for it will be sufficient forever.

The annoying part of this is for those using a Kepler card for Windows 10 (or 11). If a new game comes out now, your Kepler card won't be optimized for it any more...
 
Normally this would be fine, since most of the kepler cards are utterly useless for newer games due to VRAM limitations and performance limitations in general, and they got a stable W11 driver at the end of their life.

The problem is for anyone still using kepler there are 0 upgrade options. The market is screwed right now. It's not a good look for nvidia, would have made more sense to keep support until supply issue was resolved IMO.
Wow. This is first I'm hearing of that and it's super disappointing because of the chip shortage.

Cards like the R9 390X are definitely still capable of a playable 1080p gaming experience. I mean, they basically perform just like an RX 580 would.
The 390x is a niche card. The entireity of what AMD discontinued, the 7000 series, the r9 200, the r9 300, the fury, and fury x combined had less market share then the 7 year old 970. The 390/x by itself had 0.02% marketshare. There were more gamers using the GT710.

I dont know why anyone would be surprised, apparently everyone forgot the HD 6000 series getting cut over 3 years before its fermi competitor, left with no drivers for 10 at all, and the last drivers being a buggy mess. Or the HD 2000, 3000, and 4000 series beign dropped years before the 8000 and 9000 series. Or their AGP cards being left out to dry while nvidia's got support as long as their PCIe counterparts. AMD's support has never been as long as nvidias, finewine was a fluke due to AMD re-releasing GCN over and over, and those of us who called that GCN was goign to get dropped like a hot potato once rDNA caught on were proven 100% right.
 
Ending driver support for Windows 7 is probably not the greatest decision. There is a significant minority who still prefer it, particularly for compatibility reasons, and who are using the latest GPUs on the old reliable OS.
It was completely stupid with 20% of the PC's on the planet still actively using Windows 7.
 
Do you people understand that ending driver support on an unsupported OS is irrelevant?
Not with 20% of users still using the OS. Nvidia's motivations are clear: They've jumped on board with ms in trying to driver new PC sales by forcing out older PCs.
 
Not with 20% of users still using the OS. Nvidia's motivations are clear: They've jumped on board with ms in trying to driver new PC sales by forcing out older PCs.
But no NEW software is being written for Windows 7 that will require a driver update for your Kepler card... so 20% is irrelevant... your Kepler card will work just as well next year as it does now...

As for new games that may support Windows 7... they will run just as terribly on your Kepler card now as they would have last year... or next year...
 
But no NEW software is being written for Windows 7 that will require a driver update for your Kepler card...
Oh no, you didn't read the small print. NVidia is killing ALL Windows 7 support, even on newer cards. Yeah. Still think it's a smart move?
 
Oh no, you didn't read the small print. NVidia is killing ALL Windows 7 support, even on newer cards. Yeah. Still think it's a smart move?
Yes... and what do you NEED that Windows 7 support FOR? All you need it for is for anything NEW that happens to Windows 7... and since Windows 7 has already been discontinued... that would be NOTHING!!

All of your Nvidia cards will work just as well for Windows 7 5 years from now as they do now...

Anyone buying a new GPU now would be a complete fool to use it in a Windows 7 system anyways.... but again, it will work just fine...
 
Yes... and what do you NEED that Windows 7 support FOR? All you need it for is for anything NEW that happens to Windows 7... and since Windows 7 has already been discontinued... that would be NOTHING!!
Wow, feel passionate do we? How about me running my RTX2080 in Windows 7 for games such as Cyberpunk2077, which run perfectly on Windows 7. Hmm?
All of your Nvidia cards will work just as well for Windows 7 5 years from now as they do now...
Grasping at straws now are we?
Anyone buying a new GPU now would be a complete fool to use it in a Windows 7 system anyways.... but again, it will work just fine...
Seriously? Did you miss the part about NVidia ending support on 7 for all cards? Because a new card won't work if there's no drivers for it...
 
Wow, feel passionate do we? How about me running my RTX2080 in Windows 7 for games such as Cyberpunk2077, which run perfectly on Windows 7. Hmm?

Grasping at straws now are we?

Seriously? Did you miss the part about NVidia ending support on 7 for all cards? Because a new card won't work if there's no drivers for it...
Your RX2080 will work fine with CyberPunk 2077 on Windows 7... assuming it worked last year, it will work this year... and next year... not sure the problem you are having...

That goes for every card that exists RIGHT NOW as well... the 3090, for instance, will play any game that runs on Windows 7 just fine...

Any FUTURE card - like the 4000 series (still at least a year away) - won't support Windows 7... but why on Earth would you buy one of those and run Windows 7 on your PC?!?!

There are no straws being grasped... you don't seem to understand what driver support actually means... there is nothing wrong with your CURRENT drivers - you only need to UPGRADE something if there is a CHANGE... since the software we are talking about has already been discontinued (except for security patches), there should be no reason you would need to update your Windows 7 GPU drivers... for ANY card!
 
but why on Earth would you buy one of those and run Windows 7 on your PC?!?!
Because I LIKE Windows 7 and HATE, LOATH and DESPISE Windows 10. I am far from alone in that option. Don't care if ms doesn't support it anymore, hardware vendors should until the user base falls to a number that doesn't justify continued support and 20% is not that threshold.

Honestly don't care if you understand that or not.
you don't seem to understand what driver support actually means...
Keep thinking that, sport.
 
Because I LIKE Windows 7 and HATE, LOATH and DESPISE Windows 10. I am far from alone in that option. Don't care if ms doesn't support it anymore, hardware vendors should until the user base falls to a number that doesn't justify continued support and 20% is not that threshold.

Honestly don't care if you understand that or not.

Keep thinking that, sport.
While the % of EXISTING computers might be 20%... the % of new computers being bought which will have Windows 7 on it is almost certainly less than 1%...

THAT is why any NEW hardware does not (and should not) support Windows 7.

Do you truly believe that if the actual developer of the software has abandoned it, it should be up to hardware vendors to continue supporting it?!?!?

Alas, your world is a world of make believe...

Windows 7 is already obsolete... you might like it better... there are people who still like Windows XP too... but it has been replaced... move on...
 
Do you truly believe that if the actual developer of the software has abandoned it, it should be up to hardware vendors to continue supporting it?!?!?
As long as a significant portion of the public still uses that software, Yes, it should continue being supported. I find your narrow-minded perspective disturbing.
Alas, your world is a world of make believe...
Oh please. Grow up, do.
Windows 7 is already obsolete... you might like it better... there are people who still like Windows XP too... but it has been replaced... move on...
I'll use what I like as I see fit and if I want to complain because NVidia has removed support for an OS that myself and 20% of the rest of the world still use, I'm well within the bounds of reasonable relevance(going back to your original comment) to do so. You don't like that? Aww, look at the rest of us not caring.
 
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