NVIDIA Begins Phasing Out Support for Older GPUs, Including the GTX 1060
Solomon Thompson / 4 days ago
NVIDIA is preparing to reduce support for its older GPUs as it gears up for the launch of the RTX 50xx series, which will be based on the new Blackwell architecture. According to information in the CUDA notes (thanks arsTechnica), NVIDIA is set to freeze support for the Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta architectures in an upcoming update, marking these GPUs as complete in terms of functionality.
Impact on Older GPU Series
This decision impacts GPUs from the GTX 700 series through the GTX 1000 series (launched in 2016) and includes some Quadro and Titan workstation cards. While these cards were still supported by the Game Ready drivers released in December, the cessation of new CUDA functionality strongly suggests they may soon be excluded from future driver updates.
This is not an unusual move for companies like NVIDIA or AMD, which have historically phased out support for older products. The last similar announcement from NVIDIA occurred in 2021, while AMD followed suit in 2023. Both companies continue to provide dedicated drivers for older GPUs, but these updates are infrequent and focus primarily on security, offering little to no improvements in performance or compatibility.
Maxwell and Pascal GPUs
The Maxwell and Pascal architectures are particularly well-regarded among PC gamers. They represent a time when upgrading a GPU didn’t involve spending exorbitant amounts of money. Notable GPUs from these generations include the GeForce GTX 750 Ti (Maxwell), which was praised for its high performance combined with low power consumption, and the GeForce GTX 1060 (Pascal), one of the most popular GPUs in history. The GTX 1060 held the top spot in Steam’s hardware surveys for five consecutive years and remains highly regarded, though it has since dropped to twelfth place.