NVIDIA Discontinues Support for Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta GPUs

NVIDIA has announced that it will stop supporting drivers for Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta graphics processing units (GPUs).

This step means that new versions of NVIDIA drivers that contain optimizations and bug fixes for modern games and applications will no longer be available for owners of graphics cards based on the mentioned architectures.

What Does This Mean for Users?

Users of Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta-based graphics cards will be able to continue using NVIDIA’s existing drivers. However, they will not have access to the new features, performance improvements, and bug fixes that will be available for newer generations of GPUs such as Turing, Ampere, and Ada Lovelace.

In particular, this means:

• No optimizations for new games.
• Lack of support for new technologies.
• Limited support for new API versions.

Which GPUs Are Affected by the End of Support?

The following GPU series are affected by the end of support:

• Maxwell: GeForce GTX 750, GTX 750 Ti, GTX 950, GTX 960, GTX 970, GTX 980, GTX 980 Ti, Titan X (first generation).
• Pascal: GeForce GTX 1050, GTX 1050 Ti, GTX 1060, GTX 1070, GTX 1070 Ti, GTX 1080, GTX 1080 Ti, Titan Xp.
• Volta: Titan V, Quadro GV100.

Why Did NVIDIA Make This Decision?

NVIDIA explains this decision by the need to focus resources on developing and supporting newer architectures. Supporting older architectures requires significant resources that can be redirected to development and optimization for more current products.