NVIDIA to End "Kepler" Support with R470 Drivers, 9 Years After Release: Support Roadmap

[Anymal]

9 years in gpu years is like 90 in human years.

 

[Ruru]

9 years in gpu years is like 90 in human years.

Meanwhile in AMD... 7970 will hit 10 years in the end of the year, and I can bet that GCN will still be supported for a good while.

 

[dgrdsv]

Can't remember but did the package size get smaller when they dropped Fermi support?

No. H/w codepaths weigh little, the bulk of the size are UI assets.

 

[newtekie1]

You'd think that if they support one Kepler, they'd support all Kepler, as the featureset is the same. Would be interesting to see the rationale for NVIDIA's thinking.

They are supporting them all through 2024.

 

[Nike_486DX]

At least they still provide a proper support for Windows 7, unlike Intel.
How does the HD 7000 series stack up support-wise btw? (Oland-Cape Verde-Pitcairn-Tahiti and all the mobile gpus and the rebrands)

 

[Ruru]

At least they still provide a proper support for Windows 7, unlike Intel.
How does the HD 7000 series stack up support-wise btw? (Oland-Cape Verde-Pitcairn-Tahiti and all the mobile gpus and the rebrands)

GCN is still supported on Win7, newest drivers are Adrenalin 21.5.2 Optional, dated 17.5.2021.

 

[AusWolf]

One can say a lot of bad things about the jolly green giant, but nothing about their driver support. 9 years of fresh drivers aren't too bad, not to mention that even unsupported cards are easy to find drivers for, and the last drivers for those are just as stable as any other. I worked on a PC with a GT 610 (Fermi) in it not long ago, and to my surprise, had no trouble with drivers.

Hasn't Kepler's driver support been more or less meh for a some time..?

Drivers for my GT 710 have been just as stable and functional as for my GTX 1650.

 

[Ruru]

Drivers for my GT 710 have been just as stable and functional as for my GTX 1650.

I mean for gaming if you have a 780 (Ti) or Titan (Black) for example.

 

[AusWolf]

I mean for gaming if you have a 780 (Ti) or Titan (Black) for example.

That I don't know, though I've had no problem running benchmarks (Superposition, World of Tanks enCore and various 3DMark editions), albeit with the incredible performance the 710 is famous for.

 

[qubit]

They are supporting them all through 2024.

Oh yeah, I see it now, my bad. I was under the impression that support was ending this year. Looking at the diagram, I see it's 2024, so that's not so bad.

 

[simlife]

A shame, but inevitable. How long has it been since NVIDIA sold a Kepler-based card?

I've always enjoyed the latest drivers for my MSI 780 Ti Gaming 3GB - a really good, endlessly powerful card for its day. Not for much longer now, alas.

MSI GTX 780 Ti Gaming 3 GB Review

MSI's GeForce GTX 780 Ti is the best graphics card I've reviewed in a long time. It is very fast because of its overclock out of the box, but doesn't run hot at all. Its powerful TwinFrozr cooler also enables MSI to run the card at fantastic noise levels that are quieter than most other graphics...

www.techpowerup.com

IM sorry how is it a shame the cards can still be used they just are not at 100%???? the 780 its a 699 card... almost 3 300 buckmore then a 400 sysem hd/cpu/ controler/ect.... ps5 and still less then the 1terabye 4k players 2.5 x the power x box if u can but a 699 mrps gpu from 2013 a 3-500 doolar onenow isnt to hard to concive

 

[qubit]

IM sorry how is it a shame the cards can still be used they just are not at 100%???? the 780 its a 699 card... almost 3 300 buckmore then a 400 sysem hd/cpu/ controler/ect.... ps5 and still less then the 1terabye 4k players 2.5 x the power x box if u can but a 699 mrps gpu from 2013 a 3-500 doolar onenow isnt to hard to concive

What? You seem to have an issue with what I said, yet your post makes no grammatical sense, so I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m not sure you do, either.

 

[renz496]

So "legacy" support will still continue until 2024?

 

[medi01]

That lovely hint of "isn't 9 years enough, anyway" in the title, ew...
Why do TPU titles look like they've been written by green marketing department?

 

[AusWolf]

That lovely hint of "isn't 9 years enough, anyway" in the title, ew...
Why do TPU titles look like they've been written by green marketing department?

1. Most people don't wait 9 years to upgrade. It's not a financially good decision for a company to spend working hours to develop support for a product that's only used by a handful of people.
2. You don't need the latest drivers to use a graphics card. You can find drivers back to the FX series on nvidia's website (and back to the Radeon 7000 series on AMD's website), which I think is quite awesome.

 

[Aretak]

Meanwhile in AMD... 7970 will hit 10 years in the end of the year, and I can bet that GCN will still be supported for a good while.

Before you fall over yourself praising AMD's long-term driver support, spare a thought for TeraScale owners. AMD dropped support for it all the way back in 2015, meaning that if you bought a HD 6000-series card, you only got five years of driver support (less than five years actually for the 6950 and 6970). That's the equivalent of Nvidia announcing today that they were dropping support for Pascal.

 

[Ruru]

Before you fall over yourself praising AMD's long-term driver support, spare a thought for TeraScale owners. AMD dropped support for it all the way back in 2015, meaning that if you bought a HD 6000-series card, you only got five years of driver support (less than five years actually for the 6950 and 6970). That's the equivalent of Nvidia announcing today that they were dropping support for Pascal.

Exactly, it's sad how fast they dropped the support for pre-GCN cards though they're still usable.

edit: typo

 

[Valent117]

wishing they could wait for the end of the gpu shortage

 

[dgrdsv]

wishing they could wait for the end of the gpu shortage

You're expecting it to last till 2025?

 

[Vendor]

so maxwell next year? oh my little boy 750 ti
and one of the biggest hit gpu series in entire history HD 6000 was only supported for 5 years, i am looking at you amd i was so furious when they did that had hd 6850.

 

[Mussels]

That lovely hint of "isn't 9 years enough, anyway" in the title, ew...
Why do TPU titles look like they've been written by green marketing department?

It's not like the cards stop working without any further updates, they'll continue to function exactly like they do right now

 

[nguyen]

If I still had my old GTX 680 around all I would play are CSGO and DOTA 1+2, no need for any new game-ready drivers with a 9 year old GPU.

 

[Lindatje]

This is some bad news, maybe not buying Nvidia annymore….
Now i need to replace my 780TI.

 

[AusWolf]

This is some bad news, maybe not buying Nvidia annymore….
Now i need to replace my 780TI.

Why? The driver you're running isn't gonna stop working.

 

[Lindatje]

Why? The driver you're running isn't gonna stop working.

New games are not goin to work well.