Nvidia to drop driver support for Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta GPUs

[Alfonso Maruccia]

In a nutshell: As Nvidia continues to release driver updates at an accelerated pace, even well-established gaming hardware will eventually struggle to keep up. A pending update will end official support for three GPU architectures, though the affected cards won't stop working immediately.

Nvidia has just confirmed that the upcoming 580 series of display drivers will be the last to support GPUs based on the Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta microarchitectures. After the 580 release, a significant number of older GeForce cards will no longer receive bug fixes or potential – though unlikely – code optimizations.

The Santa Clara – based company announced the news through its Unix graphics feature deprecation schedule, which provides guidance for GeForce users on Linux and other Unix-based operating systems. The change will also impact Windows users, although it may take a few more driver branches to fully take effect in that ecosystem.

Even after official support ends, users can expect an additional year of critical security updates.

Still, ending support for three GPU architectures at once is a notable move, even for Nvidia. The Volta architecture powered the high-end Titan V card released in 2017, while Pascal was best known for its use in the GeForce 10 series from 2016.

Maxwell is a name few PC gamers remember today, as the architecture debuted in 2014 with the GeForce GTX 750. Even now, some users are still seeking advice on hardware forums after finally deciding to retire their "beloved" GeForce GTX 1080 or 1080 Ti in favor of a more modern GPU.

I had my fair share of Pascal fun with a mobile GeForce GTX 1060 GPU back in 2017, when that card was good enough to run the 2016 Doom remake at a steady 80 – 120 FPS in Full HD. Next time I pull my old gaming laptop out of the closet, I'll see if the same hardware can manage Elden Ring at 30 frames per second.

Nvidia has yet to provide any details about the scheduled release of the 580 driver series. The company is currently focused on rapid iterations of newer drivers, as the last few Game Ready releases have caused headaches for owners of both the latest (50 series) and previous-gen (40 series) GeForce GPUs.

My GeForce RTX 4080 Super-equipped PC is still happily purring along with the 566.36 Game Ready driver, and I don't plan to update it anytime soon. After all, the setup is "good enough" to run Doom: The Dark Ages at a steady 1440p 100+ FPS with DLSS Quality, and without relying on AI frame generation.

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Nvidia to drop driver support for Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta GPUs

 

[yRaz]

I loved my 1080ti, it was a legend for it's time. I just wish Asus honored the warranty when it died. Until nVidia starts proper Linux support I'm gonna be strictly an AMD guy. Here's to hoping UDNA actually competes at the high end because I haven't had a highend PC build since my 1080ti. I'd love a 9070XT, but they're still selling significantly higher over MSRP. AMD also has the issue where there is actually a lot demand for their product, they just aren't making enough of them. They seriously underestimated demand and now we are all literally and figuratively paying for it.

Goodbye Pascal, you will be missed

 

[themastergoose]

GTX 1080 was the longest I'd ever kept a card for. Got it around launch time, swapped to Radeon Xmas 2020 and stay with Radeon ever since - mainly due to price during that time and kind of how it is again at the moment (RTX just too expensive).

Had many thousands of happy hours on that card. Was quite surprised to learn they're still supported - Seems ages ago since I sold that card now.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

That's about right on time for pascal, Maxwell had a surprisingly long life cycle. Pascal will be 10 years old when the 580 driver branch ends, and Maxwell will be 12.

One of my regrets is sticking with AMD at the time and not springing for a 1080ti.

 

[yRaz]

That's about right on time for pascal, Maxwell had a surprisingly long life cycle. Pascal will be 10 years old when the 580 driver branch ends, and Maxwell will be 12.

One of my regrets is sticking with AMD at the time and not springing for a 1080ti.

To be fair, everyone thought that the HBM2 on the Radeon cards was going to make it wipe the floor with nVidia cards. It sorta in in productivity, but not in gaming. I hear it often said that the only reason that nVidia released the 1080ti was that they were afraid of the the HBM2 on the Radeon cards. They probably would have been the better productivity card if they had better driver support.

 

[themastergoose]

One of my regrets is sticking with AMD at the time and not springing for a 1080ti.

Those who had the cash for the GTX 1080 Ti at launch were laughing with what come 3 years later. The GPU shortage, Covid and the fact RTX 20 series didn't increase raster perf at all over the still quick GTX 1080 Ti mean those cards had a good run well into RTX 30 launch cycle too.

In hindsight, buying a GTX 1080 Ti in 2017 would have been very smart for longevity.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Ran with my 980Ti for 6.5 years. At the 3.5 year mark with my 3080Ti and so far the generational improvements since the 3080Ti have paled in comparison by a lot compared to two generations after Maxwell.

Unless there's a big performance gain (right now a 3080Ti is within spitting distance of a 5070) in the next generation there will go another generation where it's pointless to upgrade from a high end Ampere card unless you have nothing better to spend your money on.

As things are slowly progressing, it's looking like I should get a solid 6-7 years out of my 3080Ti before it will even be worthwhile to upgrade to something new.

 

[CrisisDog]

I was running dual GTX 980ti cards in SLI all through the pandemic years, finding many fan- built profiles for games that were technically unsupported. Borderlands 3 at 4K, hovering around 90 FPS was one of my main accomplishments. Finally gave that up for an AMD 7900XTX which has been perfectly fine. If I collect enough spare parts, I may resurrect the SLI configuration just for fun…

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I was running dual GTX 980ti cards in SLI all through the pandemic years, finding many fan- built profiles for games that were technically unsupported. Borderlands 3 at 4K, hovering around 90 FPS was one of my main accomplishments. Finally gave that up for an AMD 7900XTX which has been perfectly fine. If I collect enough spare parts, I may resurrect the SLI configuration just for fun…

I keep my ivy bridge build around just for SLI tinkering. Part of me is tempted to track down a pair of 2GB 560tis or 2.5GB 570s and build another SLI rig. Or maybe buy some 550tis and rebuild the rig I had in high school.

 

[AnilD]

Pour one out for the GTX 1080, the card that carried an entire generation through 1440p gaming like a champ. It didn’t just age gracefully, it aged like a fine wine with RGB lighting.

 

[Subset6]

My SLI Titan Maxwell’s (12 Gb) lasted me 10 years.. that’s insane. If SLI compatibility didn’t die out could have lasted longer. The cards still work great to this day. Might put them in a retro-rig at some point. I could not even guess the gamer hours on them bad boys.

 

[brucek]

I've still got an old machine with a 1080, and it's far from terrible. At a time with unappealing and/or unavailable GPUs, I'm glad to have it.

 

[godrilla]

I loved my 1080ti, it was a legend for it's time. I just wish Asus honored the warranty when it died. Until nVidia starts proper Linux support I'm gonna be strictly an AMD guy. Here's to hoping UDNA actually competes at the high end because I haven't had a highend PC build since my 1080ti. I'd love a 9070XT, but they're still selling significantly higher over MSRP. AMD also has the issue where there is actually a lot demand for their product, they just aren't making enough of them. They seriously underestimated demand and now we are all literally and figuratively paying for it.

Goodbye Pascal, you will be missed

Prices should come down after Blackwell super drops. If you can hold till Black Friday prices normally are significantly cheaper as well.

 

[Hassanabi]

Not like newer drivers are necessarily better. The December 2024 566.36 drivers are still the best for the 4xxx-series or at least for the 4090.

I believe it's also one of the better drivers for the 2xxx/3xxx-series but not 100% sure.

For 5xxx-series I think the 572.83 or first drivers that support the 5xxx-series 572.16 are the better ones.

Even older drivers might work perfectly fine for 2xxx/3xxx/4xxx-series in newer games, so the urge to update to the absolute latest is something I don't understand. If you find a driver that works good for you, don't update just for the sake of it.

 

[madboyv1]

I'm still using my GTX 1080, and at this rate will probably continue to do so considering current generation cards... voting with my wallet or something, not that a single wallet matters much.

 

[daffy duck]

I better sell my 2080 Super ASAP, Turing support will be gone within 1 year after Rubin launches IMO.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Have my old 980ti running in a Steambox system and honestly while the card is "supported" in newer drivers it's not like it ever really needs or receives meaningful bug-fixes.

Driver support for those pre-turing cards just means some basic validation to make sure the newest drivers don't cause any new issues on the old cards.

Nothing is really changing under the hood...

 

[OortCloud]

I bought a 1080 at launch. It's still doing daily service to this day in my nephew's PC.

 

[ZedRM]

This should be a surprise to no one. It was time. Pascal was and still is excellent! It's 9 years old now.

 

[amghwk]

GTX 980Ti was the last flagship I had when 1080Ti came out. It was a dream card to have, but my 980Ti was still going strong at that time in the games I played.

I held on it for quite some time, until the 1440p killer underdog - the 5070XT came along, and I jumped from 980Ti to it.

It was quite a long jump while I saw some quite powerful cards from Nvidia came along - the 20xx and 30xx series. I managed to withstand these cards, but finally, when the 4090 arrived, I jumped to it.

I waited for AMD to beat Nvidia after the 5070XT, but every generation after that from AMD stopped short and seem to be content to be in the 2nd place, and every Nvidia flagship after that seems to be making higher strides leaving AMD quite far behind. (When talking about flagship performance.)

Until now, AMD is just playing catch up to Nvidia (in terms of best performance). I think, AMD is no longer even trying to capture the GPU crown anymore.

I want to see Radeon regain it's crown, but so far seeing no sign of it. Actually I prefer AMD cards since I'm using Linux. But for now, the 4090 it is and will do, which is only beaten by 5090, but the 50xx series from Nvidia is also one of the most lukewarm so-so release from Nvidia too.

 

[yannus]

Nvidia doesn't have the financial power to support the 1080 which is still a valid card for most users ?! Nor do they want to open source the drivers for their customers sake.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Ha! I wisely skipped the 10 series and got a 2070 with *ray tracing*!!!

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Shoot, I still have an i7 8700 + GTX 770 *2GB* system in the corner of my office waiting to become a steam deck system for gaming on my lunch break.

...now I'm wondering if that is actually more or less powerful than my Surface Pro’s iGPU.

 

[BadThad]

My SLI Titan Maxwell’s (12 Gb) lasted me 10 years.. that’s insane. If SLI compatibility didn’t die out could have lasted longer. The cards still work great to this day. Might put them in a retro-rig at some point. I could not even guess the gamer hours on them bad boys.

That was a healthy but WISE investment! I loved SLI when it worked!