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

[btarunr]

NVIDIA is planning to stop releasing driver updates to the "Kepler" generation of GPUs with the R470 driver series, according to a company driver support roadmap. Updated Software Support Matrix tables for datacenter GPUs, reveal, that the R470 drivers, released in 2021, will be the final driver updates to the "Kepler" architecture, completing 9 (!) years of driver updates since the architecture's 2012 debut. Support for the older "Fermi" ended with R390. A roadmap diagram also explains the various branches under which NVIDIA drivers are developed and released.

Although the roadmap predominantly refers to data-center GPUs, it's very likely that support for the GeForce GTX 600 "Kepler" series will end with GeForce R470 drivers, too, if not sooner. As of this writing, the current GeForce R465 series drivers do support GTX 600 series "Kepler," even if not all day-one game optimizations are applied all the way back to this series.



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[Rithsom]

Does this mean that the 700 series cards that are Kepler-based (GTX 770, GTX 780, etc.) will no longer have driver support while the Maxwell-based 700 series cards (GTX 750 Ti) will continue to have driver support?

 

[Vayra86]

Almost as predictable as MS.

Except you never know

 

[newtekie1]

If I'm reading the chart right, the R470 drivers will be a LTSB Branch that continues to receive updates into 2024. That's 12 years of driver support, not too shabby.

 

[dgrdsv]

R470 will be the last branch *with* Kepler support and it's also the next LTSB branch which will get releases until 2025 or so.

 

[Ruru]

Does this mean that the 700 series cards that are Kepler-based (GTX 770, GTX 780, etc.) will no longer have driver support while the Maxwell-based 700 series cards (GTX 750 Ti) will continue to have driver support?

Yep. They aren't discontinuing cards by a model numbers, they're discontinuing cards by architecture.

 

[Rithsom]

Yep. They aren't discontinuing cards by a model numbers, they're discontinuing cards by architecture.

Weird, but not unheard of, I suppose.

 

[newtekie1]

Yep. They aren't discontinuing cards by a model numbers, they're discontinuing cards by architecture.

Not that it really makes much difference in a practical sense. I don't think people with Keplers are going to care they have the bleeding edge latest driver. As long as there is a driver that works and gives them a display output, they'll probably be happy.

 

[Ruru]

Weird, but not unheard of, I suppose.

It was already weird that they had cards from two architectures on their lineup in 700-series.

Not that it really makes much difference in a practical sense. I don't think people with Keplers are going to care they have the bleeding edge latest driver. As long as there is a driver that works and gives them a display output, they'll probably be happy.

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

 

[King Mustard]

Hurray, my 2014 GTX 850M (Maxwell) is safe (for now).

 

[newtekie1]

It was already weird that they had cards from two architectures on their lineup in 700-series.

I'm not sure what they were thinking on that. The only logical thing to me is to test Maxwell they produced a batch of small chips, and then figured out they need to make some tweaks. But instead of just tossing the original small chip design, they decide to release that design under the previous generation model numbers.

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

I have no idea, I don't have any Kepler GPUs anymore.

 

[qubit]

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

 

[Ruru]

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

I had the same card several years ago. I was going to grab a 1060 3GB but ended up getting that MSI 780 Ti used. Back then it was a truly solid card.

 

[damric]

For a long time now the GT 710 has been the lowest model card you can buy if you just need it for display output. I'm guessing they finally plan on replacing it with something.

 

[Ruru]

For a long time now the GT 710 has been the lowest model card you can buy if you just need it for display output. I'm guessing they finally plan on replacing it with something.

Maybe they finally are releasing the GT 1010 which they announced already on January?

 

[XiGMAKiD]

*Looks at my Pascal*

Hang in there little guy, you still have some time left

 

[Caring1]

I saw the title and thought for a second, why are Nvidia making drivers for an AMD GPU?

 

[Mussels]

Pretty non exciting news, very long support time for their products.

I wonder if the download package will finally see a size reduction because of it?

 

[TheDeeGee]

*Looks at my Pascal*

Hang in there little guy, you still have some time left

Remember what leatherman said to Pascal owners when 3000 series released?

"It's now safe to upgrade"

Just not very safe for your financial balance...

 

[newtekie1]

For a long time now the GT 710 has been the lowest model card you can buy if you just need it for display output. I'm guessing they finally plan on replacing it with something.

Why would that change?

 

[damric]

Why would that change?

If they aren't going to update the driver then they won't produce anymore and eventually the existing new stock will run out. They must be getting ready to replace it with something else, as mentioned above maybe a GT 1010.

 

[Legacy-ZA]

They could have at least held it off until the GPU shortage was gone.

 

[newtekie1]

If they aren't going to update the driver then they won't produce anymore and eventually the existing new stock will run out. They must be getting ready to replace it with something else, as mentioned above maybe a GT 1010.

They are going to continue to update drivers for the GT 710 until 2024 though.

They could have at least held it off until the GPU shortage was gone.

You think the shortage will continue through 2024?

 

[qubit]

They are going to continue to update drivers for the GT 710 until 2024 though.

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.

 

[Ruru]

Pretty non exciting news, very long support time for their products.

I wonder if the download package will finally see a size reduction because of it?

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

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.

I think the same, if they're going to drop the support for the whole architecture, why they would keep the crappiest one still supported? I mean, does a card like GT 710 need the newest drivers all the time..