NVIDIA Outlines Support Plans for its DirectX 10 Generation GPUs

[btarunr]

With its next-generation "Maxwell" GPUs on the horizon, NVIDIA is preparing plans to gradually retire the GeForce 8 series, 9 series, and 200 series from its mainline driver support model. The GPUs make up NVIDIA's DirectX 10 generation, and include some iconic models, such as the 8800 GTX, the 8800 GT, the 9600 GT, and the GTX 260. The upcoming GeForce Release 340 driver will be the last to support these GPU series alongside its newer DirectX 11 generations, such as "Fermi," "Kepler," and "Maxwell." The driver that succeeds it, R343, will drop support for the older DirectX 10 generation.

With the R340 release, the DirectX 10 generation will be market "legacy." The lot will see continued support under R340 till April 2016. Whenever there's a glaring bug or security hole to address for the older GPUs, NVIDIA may ship out an R340 version (340.xx), but the GPUs will not get planned driver updates, unlike the "current" DirectX 11 generation. Support cycles are hence different from production cycle. A GeForce GTX 480, for example, may be "EOL" (end of life) in terms of its production cycle, but is still "current" in terms of its support cycle.



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[Baum]

Thank you Nvidia for the long drive support of:

9400GT (parents work pc)
9600GT (my office pc)
mobile 8600GT (my old laptop)
all in service under Windows 7 still...

may the GTX 560 and my trusty GTX 650 be supported for the same long period

 

[erixx]

Me too. The ListDevices.txt is increidibly long.
Anyway, I have some old pc and laptop and I never updated the drivers because they are not for gaming and everything works just fine. So the "End of life" is not as dramatic as some may think.

 

[Jack1n]

I didnt even know they were still supported,kudos to Nvidia since AMD hasent supported the 4xxx series for quite a while now.

 

[Animalpak]

Those graphics cards are still able to run BF4 or anything its a shame that they dont get support anymore.

 

[LiveOrDie]

My nephews computer i build him has a 640mb 8800GTS in it and it play most games on 1260x1024 haha and hes only 7 so he doesn't really care about the res.

 

[Shinshin]

I got "burned" by Nvidia with the acquisition of 3DFX and ULi.
Nvidia just stopped developing drivers for the hardware these companies made.

Maybe not all of you remember but, Nvidia (and AMD/ATI for that matter) was to blame for developing drivers for Windows Vista WDDM very late - as much as 1 year has passed after Vista was available (although beta version were available a bit earlier)!!!

I guess Nvidia has learned the lesson!
Good to see their support and commitment for their older hardware these days!

 

[Prima.Vera]

Relax, AMD also drop the support for their older gen cards long ago, even if they are listed in the supported list...

 

[arbiter]

This was long over due, driver packs need to get fat trimmed outta them given how big they been getting.

Those graphics cards are still able to run BF4 or anything its a shame that they dont get support anymore.

8000 series was released in 2007, 9 series was 2009. People that still use them don't care so much about rez/fps much anymore.

 

[HumanSmoke]

I got "burned" by Nvidia with the acquisition of 3DFX and ULi.

You got "burned" by 3Dfx, although since you don't seem to know how 3Dfx's demise unfolded, I'll assume your knowledge is anecdotal - just like the majority of people who look at the company through rose tinted glasses.

3Dfx had issues long before they folded. No 2D support, delays with product introduction (and non appearance of the Rampage chipset), lack of hardware based T&L, and a performance edge fast being eroded by the competition.
To cap it all off 3dfx then decided to cut off AIB's and market cards directly. Spending $141 million to buy STB and trying to compete with Taiwanese and Chinese manufacturing by building cards in Juarez, Mexico (!) Yeah, that'll work!
And it was all downhill from there:
February 2000 - Cuts 20% of workforce
Voodoo 4 and 5 still MIA
March 2000 - Decides to blow $186 million buying Gigapixel
August 2000- Nvidia sues 3Dfx for patent infringement. Tit-for-tat litigation countering 3Dfx's suing of Nvidia from 2 years previously regarding multi-texturing/mip-map dithering
November 2000 - Belatedly realizes that cutting out AIB's wasn't such a crash-hot idea...and news filters through that the Voodoo 5 won't be compatible with AGP 1.5V signalling.
December 2000 - Sells IP portfolio to Nvidia in the face of mounting losses, minimal sales, and lack of interest due to the lack of Pentium 4 chipset compatibility.

January 2003- The 3Dfx design team which transferred to Nvidia after the IP buyout produces its first Nvidia product, the NV30.....the FX 5800 "Dustbuster".

 

[Ali bakhshi]

thanks for the long time support nvidia...we love ya

 

[ensabrenoir]

awe man just picked up a 280 nearly for free.....but hey it still works no matter

 

[CounterZeus]

Hum, does that mean I'll have to run 2 drivers very soon? (560TI + 9600GT)
How will that work?

 

[Casecutter]

Folks that use these cards as Cuda card with a newer card? Honestly don't know the interaction, but that might be an issue. I'd suppose if it works today it will keep working as it had, just no ongoing optimizations, so not the worst.

 

[Patriot]

I got "burned" by Nvidia with the acquisition of 3DFX and ULi.
Nvidia just stopped developing drivers for the hardware these companies made.

Maybe not all of you remember but, Nvidia (and AMD/ATI for that matter) was to blame for developing drivers for Windows Vista WDDM very late - as much as 1 year has passed after Vista was available (although beta version were available a bit earlier)!!!

I guess Nvidia has learned the lesson!
Good to see their support and commitment for their older hardware these days!

I remember vista.... Bidaily bsods are hard to forget.

 

[xorbe]

I think I have one Fermi card left, which is on the shelf here to sell.

 

[Fairlady-z]

Wow...time flys I remember buying my MSI GTX8800Ultra.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

Those graphics cards are still able to run BF4 or anything its a shame that they dont get support anymore.

Sure, but there aren't enough people with these cards to make it worth Nvidia's time and money to continue supporting the cards in their drivers.

 

[Fairlady-z]

Sure, but there aren't enough people with these cards to make it worth Nvidia's time and money to continue supporting the cards in their drivers.

You said it brother....lets move on. I would love for the quality of drivers to get better if it means giving up support on 07 gpis.

 

[LiveOrDie]

Well i only paid $15 for the 8800GTS i brought a few months back and i think that was a steal haha.

 

[vega22]

have they made a driver which works well with fermi cards since the keplar ones came out anyway?

 

[SKL_H]

My GTX260+ was toasted last year, I still remember those Crysis Warhead days
Thank you for the long support we love yah

 

[swaaye]

The cards are still being supported for bug fixes until 2016. It's just that they still be staying on the 340 series driver for the rest of their natural lives. The 340 series driver will just be incremented if a fix is needed.

the Voodoo 5 won't be compatible with AGP 3.3V signalling.

It supports 3.3v signaling. In fact, it only supports 3.3v signaling. It's an AGP 1/2x card from a time when AGP 4x (1.5v) was taking off. The main problem with this was some 4x motherboards do not support AGP 3.3v, and no AGP 8x boards do, meaning the Voodoo5 couldn't go in them.

January 2003- The 3Dfx design team which transferred to Nvidia after the IP buyout produces its first Nvidia product, the NV30.....the FX 5800 "Dustbuster".

Now, now.. I doubt that 3dfx engineers were entirely responsible for that train wreck. Also, NV4x is a similar architecture and worked out pretty well.

 

[TRWOV]

I didnt even know they were still supported,kudos to Nvidia since AMD hasent supported the 4xxx series for quite a while now.

AMD cards get legacy releases once in a while. The latest legacy driver is 13.9, rocking it with my HD4670 and HD3850.

 

[slim142]

Im actually surprised 8 & 9 series made it this long.

But Im glad they did as well. 8800GT will never be forgotten.