Should you’re nonetheless utilizing an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, and the Steam Survey suggests a whole lot of avid gamers at the moment are, then it appears to be like as if you are about to lose driver assist for this GPU. In keeping 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, apart from the few GTX 1600-series playing cards that have been based mostly on the later Turing structure.
The GeForce GTX 1060 has proved to have a stunning quantity of endurance, and even now you may frequently see this Nvidia GPU listed within the minimal system necessities for the newest video games. It is also at the moment ranked twelfth on the Could 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 a degree of comparability, the highest-ranked RTX 5000-series GPU on the survey is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, with 0.71%. The truth is, we ranked the growing older GTX card quantity 4 on our information to the most effective PC gaming {hardware} ever.
It appears to be like as if the time is up for this GPU now, nevertheless, no less than if you need up to date drivers to play upcoming video games. In a publish on its developer boards, as noticed by X person Longhorn, Nvidia states that the “launch 580 collection would be the final to assist GPUs based mostly on the Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta architectures.”
The publish particularly refers to Unix drivers, however Nvidia’s drivers observe the identical numbering schemes and {hardware} assist throughout all platforms, and it is very doubtless that Home windows driver assist for these GPUs may even 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 spite of everything, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1000-series first got here out in Could 2016, over 9 years in the past, and firms often 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 would 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 fashionable, and now it appears to be like as if it isn’t going to get any new drivers. Nvidia is at the moment on driver model 576.88, and Maxwell and Pascal GPUs are prone to be supported by the entire of the 580 department, that means there’ll nonetheless be an excellent few months of driver assist left for these GPUs.
Should you assume it could be time for an improve, although, then try our information to purchasing the most effective graphics card, which takes you thru all the most effective choices proper now, based mostly on evaluations with rigorous benchmarks. Should you’re seeking to swap out a GTX 1060, then learn our AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT overview, as that is the most effective GPU in that sector proper now.
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