NVIDIA Shuts the Door on Pascal, Maxwell, and Volta GPUs
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 900 and 1000 series are still remembered as some of the most reliable and popular graphics cards in modern PC gaming history. Despite being nearly a decade old — with the Pascal-based GTX 10-series launching back in 2016 — many users continue to rely on GPUs like the GTX 1060, 1070 , and even the mighty 1080 Ti to run modern games smoothly.
However, there’s now official news that should concern long-time owners of these cards: NVIDIA has confirmed that driver support for Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta-based GPUs is coming to an end .
In an update to its official Unix graphics feature deprecation schedule, NVIDIA stated that driver version 580 will be the last to support these architectures . Since this driver branch is shared across both Linux and Windows systems, the change affects users on all major platforms.
For those less familiar with NVIDIA’s naming scheme:
- Volta powers the TITAN V.
- Pascal is the architecture behind the entire GeForce GTX 10-series .
- Maxwell drives older cards like the GTX 750 Ti and the GTX 900-series .
Importantly, this decision does not affect the newer GTX 16-series , which uses the Turing architecture and will continue receiving updates and optimizations.
📅 What Does This Mean for Users?
At the moment, it’s unclear exactly when NVIDIA will release driver version 580 — the current stable build is 576.80 — so users don’t need to rush into action just yet.
Even once support officially ends, your GPU won’t suddenly stop working. Games and applications already installed will still function normally. The main impact will be the lack of future security patches, bug fixes, and compatibility improvements with new software or operating system updates.
Also worth noting: recent driver updates have mostly focused on optimizing performance for newer RTX generations, meaning older users haven’t been getting much benefit from updating anyway.
💭 Upgrade or Stay? That’s the Question
If you’re still using a GTX 10-series card , this announcement might serve as a wake-up call. While the end of driver support isn’t an immediate reason to panic, it could be a sign that it’s time to consider upgrading — especially if you want to keep up with the latest games and features.
So, what do you think?
Are you planning to upgrade soon?
Or will you stick with your trusted GTX card until it no longer keeps up with your favorite games?
Let us know in the comments!
