For those who’re nonetheless utilizing an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, and the Steam Survey suggests a whole lot of avid gamers at present are, then it appears as if you are about to lose driver assist for this GPU. In accordance with Nvidia, the forthcoming 580-series of Nvidia GeForce drivers would be the final department that helps Maxwell and Pascal GPUs, which covers all GTX 900 and 1000 graphics playing cards, except the few GTX 1600-series playing cards that have been primarily based on the later Turing structure.
The GeForce GTX 1060 has proved to have a stunning quantity of endurance, and even now you will frequently see this Nvidia GPU listed within the minimal system necessities for the newest video games. It is also at present ranked twelfth on the Might 2025 Steam Survey out of all of the GPUs utilized by avid gamers who took half within the final survey, with 2.24% share of the market. As some extent of comparability, the highest-ranked RTX 5000-series GPU on the survey is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, with 0.71%. Actually, we ranked the getting older GTX card quantity 4 on our information to the very best PC gaming {hardware} ever.
It appears as if the time is up for this GPU now, nonetheless, not less than if you would like up to date drivers to play upcoming video games. In a submit on its developer boards, as noticed by X consumer Longhorn, Nvidia states that the “launch 580 collection would be the final to assist GPUs primarily based on the Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta architectures.”
The submit particularly refers to Unix drivers, however Nvidia’s drivers comply with the identical numbering schemes and {hardware} assist throughout all platforms, and it is very possible that Home windows driver assist for these GPUs may also stop after this level. We have reached out to Nvidia to make clear if that is certainly the case.
It would not be a shock if Home windows driver assist is about to be pulled for these GPUs, although. In any case, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1000-series first got here out in Might 2016, over 9 years in the past, and corporations normally cease offering driver assist for older merchandise after a sure period of time – the corporate’s earlier Fermi and Kepler GPUs have not had driver assist for a very long time now. AMD likewise does not assist any GPUs earlier than the Radeon RX 400-series vary from 2016 with its present drivers both.
The distinction this time is that, regardless of all of the advances in ray tracing and DLSS, a nine-year-old GPU that does not assist any of those options continues to be proving to be massively common, and now it appears as if it is not going to get any new drivers. Nvidia is at present on driver model 576.88, and Maxwell and Pascal GPUs are more likely to be supported by the entire of the 580 department, which means there’ll nonetheless be few months of driver assist left for these GPUs.
For those who assume it is likely to be time for an improve, although, then take a look at our information to purchasing the very best graphics card, which takes you thru all the very best choices proper now, primarily based on critiques with rigorous benchmarks. For those who’re trying to swap out a GTX 1060, then learn our AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT overview, as that is the very best GPU in that sector proper now.
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