Nvidia Ends Support For Kepler GPUs, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1 On August 31

[Blademaster91]

14 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

Windows 10 is not heavy. I'm using it on frigging ASUS Transformer with Atom Z8300 series quad core, 2GB RAM and 64GB eMMC SSD and it's perfectly usable for casual use. It's only really slow because of crap eMMC storage. Laptops with regular quad core of any sort, 4GB RAM and any kind of SSD, even DRAM-less if it's not absolute junk will run flawlessly.

 

And while I'm privacy concerned, people don't seem to differentiate telemetry from spyware and data hoarding. Google's data mining is pretty much purely for making money which makes it much more evil than actual telemetry used by Microsoft. Sure, they might collect things you don't want them to, but Windows is a very big and complex OS, it'll eventually happen one way or the other. But they can have a huge insight on what's happening with systems using telemetry. I mean, if large number of systems install an update and then suddenly start to spew bunch of errors, Microsoft can react to the situation proactively. Instead of waiting for word to come around from tech support, forums to MVP's and news sites to tip them off about problems. That's real telemetry. Reason they made it mandatory is because they sacked 3/4 of their QA department. Only way to compensate for that is to rely heavily on telemetry.

 

If you still don't like it, there are means to disable it. Either by hacks or simply using DNS blocking like I'm using.

So telemetry is bad when Google does it, but fine when Microsoft does? uh,what?

I would be fine with the telemetry Microsoft collects if they actually fixed things or made their UI consistent, but nope theres a weird mix up of modern windows 10 UI and the old UI from Windows 7. And windows update still forces buggy updates and doesn't let me choose what drivers to install even though I usually have the latest ones I installed myself.

[WolframaticAlpha]

7 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

Windows 10 is not heavy. I'm using it on frigging ASUS Transformer with Atom Z8300 series quad core, 2GB RAM and 64GB eMMC SSD and it's perfectly usable for casual use. It's only really slow because of crap eMMC storage. Laptops with regular quad core of any sort, 4GB RAM and any kind of SSD, even DRAM-less if it's not absolute junk will run flawlessly.

You are not getting my point. Most people are not going to be using their PC for checking email, browsing the web etc. The phone can very well do that. I would be quite surprised if your computer manages to write 200 page books and research papers. For those tasks, windows seven is much better. You can do that on windows 10, but I'm pretty sure that opening 6-7 word windows and 9-10 pdfs with a browser can be accomplished on your laptop with windows 10. Windows 7 works like magic for that stuff.

 

11 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

f you still don't like it, there are means to disable it. Either by hacks or simply using DNS blocking like I'm using.

Most tech savvy people are going to be using a modern OS. Windows seven is being used by the normie, who thinks they know about their PC. They can upgrade to 10, but they choose not to. Similarly, they can't setup a dns filter, but they can very well create ballyhoo about privacy and that shtick. That may seem idiotic to someone like you, and you would be right. Most users are dumb. 

[WolframaticAlpha]

5 minutes ago, Blademaster91 said:

So telemetry is bad when Google does it, but fine when Microsoft does? uh,what?

I would be fine with the telemetry Microsoft collects if they actually fixed things or made their UI consistent, but nope theres a weird mix up of modern windows 10 UI and the old UI from Windows 7. And windows update still forces buggy updates and doesn't let me choose what drivers to install even though I usually have the latest ones I installed myself.

The meaning of telemetry has changed.

 

Google doesn't do modern telemetry on windows or osx or linux. Modern Telemetry is continued invasion of privacy. Like what ms does on windows and google on android. Google invades your privacy on chrome. You can very well stop google from invading your privacy by just closing chrome services. Since trackers are caked into windows, you cannot stop it, unless you stop using windows.

[WolframaticAlpha]

3 hours ago, RejZoR said:

What gets delivered via Windows Update is another thing. You can't judge reliability of Windows Update by thinking it's bad because the updates it delivers cause problems.

So windows update is good in concept, but bad in implementation.

[WolframaticAlpha]

6 hours ago, J-from-Nucleon said:

Summary

Nvidia announced earlier today that it would stop supporting its Kepler-based graphics cards on older Windows operating systems with its next GeForce R470 driver.

Image credit: nVIDIA

Quotes

 

My thoughts

This news was to be expected, Kepler is already almost a decade old but this may have positive imapct as well. I could very well be wrong, but this might help with the inflation of GPU Prices since, in my thinking, Kepler based GPUs will now likely flood the market due to driver support being thrown out. As for Windows 7, this should've come a long time ago, seriously people just move to win10 or Linux. And support for windows 8/8.1, a little puzzling as it is still supported my microsoft (afaik), but understandable as well, veryfew people use it.

Sources

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-end-support-kepler-gpu-windows7-windows-8-august-31
https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5201
https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5202

Will the 470 driver be the last driver or be unsupported? Also will it be supported on Linux, as many kepler users(of which there are MANY), may miss Wayland support?

[RejZoR]

56 minutes ago, Blademaster91 said:

So telemetry is bad when Google does it, but fine when Microsoft does? uh,what?

I would be fine with the telemetry Microsoft collects if they actually fixed things or made their UI consistent, but nope theres a weird mix up of modern windows 10 UI and the old UI from Windows 7. And windows update still forces buggy updates and doesn't let me choose what drivers to install even though I usually have the latest ones I installed myself.

What's Microsoft's primary income? Selling OS licenses. What's Google's primary business? Selling user data. You can't just call everything telemetry when it's not. In Microsoft's case, huge portion of it is actual telemetry.

[Kisai]

2 hours ago, Arika S said:

Nvidia: "we're finally stopping support for kepler GPUs on windows after 9 years"

 

LTT forum: "THREAD MENTIONED WINDOWS?????? Time to shit on Windows!!!!"

 

 

14 replies, 0.5 addressing the actual topic. Seems about right...

Nothing wrong with using Windows. At least it comes with the PC and can be reasonably expected to work without the user having to fiddle and tweak things.

 

nvidia discontinued mobile kepler support 2 years ago with the end of Windows 7, so really this was expected.

 

[SolarNova]

1 hour ago, WolframaticAlpha said:

Windows seven is being used by the normie, who thinks they know about their PC

Thats one arrogant statement.

 

People who disagree with you cant possible be well informed tech enthusiasts eh.

[WolframaticAlpha]

27 minutes ago, SolarNova said:

Thats one arrogant statement.

 

People who disagree with you cant possible be well informed tech enthusiasts eh.

> Thats one arrogant statement.

What can I say, my arrogance knows no bounds.

> People who disagree with you cant possible be well informed tech enthusiasts eh.

I am not saying that is the entire userbase. But a large number of windows 7 users will fall into that category. 

 

But seriously, I apologize. I made the rookie mistake of classifying an entire platform's userbase under one category. I also hate it when people say that all linux users are neckbeards, so I can see why my comment would be disliked.  Again, I am sorry

[SolarNova]

25 minutes ago, WolframaticAlpha said:

> Thats one arrogant statement.

What can I say, my arrogance knows no bounds.

> People who disagree with you cant possible be well informed tech enthusiasts eh.

I am not saying that is the entire userbase. But a large number of windows 7 users will fall into that category. 

 

But seriously, I apologize. I made the rookie mistake of classifying an entire platform's userbase under one category. I also hate it when people say that all linux users are neckbeards, so I can see why my comment would be disliked.  Again, I am sorry

Fair play .. all good

[aisle9]

9 hours ago, J-from-Nucleon said:

I could very well be wrong, but this might help with the inflation of GPU Prices since, in my thinking, Kepler based GPUs will now likely flood the market due to driver support being thrown out.

This didn't happen with Fermi, and I think it's even less likely to happen with Kepler. When Fermi was retired, it was easy as pie to go out and get a GTX 1050 Ti to replace your GTX 5anything. With Kepler's retirement happening right now when it's impossible to find anything good and even GT 710s cost $65 to buy new, the people still running Kepler either can't afford a better replacement than what they have, or they don't feel like upgrading is important enough to pay the premium for it. The flood gates will remain tightly closed.

[Dabombinable]

I just hope it doesn't end up being a Fermi situation, with Kepler cards having issues even launching newer games (or launching with major artifacting). My 650ti is still my spare graphics card after all. Though it is barely able to play newer AAA (or AA) games at even 720p 60fps.

[Avocado Diaboli]

5 hours ago, StDragon said:

Now I'm not suggesting indentured servitude by one vendor (Nvidia) to another (Microsoft). But if Nvidia stated their GPU is compatible with Windows 10, and Microsoft decides to stretch out Windows 10 to Oct 14, 2025 as reported prior, then shouldn't Nvidia be on the hook for ensuring at the least their driver supports WDDM in whatever changes Microsoft decides to implement in the last version of Windows 10 in 2025? 

If I read the source correctly, support is only ending for pre-Windows 10 OSs, so my assumption would be that these cards are still supported on Windows 10 with future driver updates. Which is basically what you're asking for here. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised here if this was a nudge from Microsoft to convince gamers who are still on an older OS to finally move to Windows 10 for good if they want continued support of their hardware. 

[Ydfhlx]

On the main topic: Honestly I'm surprised they supported almost a decade old GPU on OS that is no longer supported. It's also worth mentioning that security fixes will be delivered for 3 more years. And Win 8 guys? Well, if anybody uses that crap OS it's on them.

 

On Windows topic: I remember Win 7 randomly shutting my PC down while I was gaming to install update. Win 10 updating process is much better overall. While I agree forcing updates isn't really the best way to do it, if they were optional most non-techy people wouldn't do it at all, even security updates. And maintaining a couple of separate version of Windows 10 is something any developer would rather avoid.

 

Also, should there be a patch breaking something, you can stop updates for 14 days (which usually is enough for fixes) or rollback if you did update. I also think you can set your Internet to tariff and turn off windows update that way, don't quote me on that tho.

 

Also, Win 7 isn't supported, so it's not really a safe option, you should be using Linux if you can't stand Win 10. But IMO it doesn't matter anyways because Google knows 10x more about you than Microsoft ever could even without changing (hidden or not) privacy/telemetry settings in Windows.

[LAwLz]

9 hours ago, RejZoR said:

I've been using Windows since Win98 as my actual own machine, but have been with Microsoft since Win3.1 and MS-DOS days. Windows 10 had it's bulk of nonsense in the beginning, but it shaped into most reliable OS. It's the only version that can actually run for months without any issues where all versions prior always had just random dumb problems where you had to reinstall entire OS clean every few months just to have it working. It was so bad I had an image backup to roll back over because I had to do it so regularly and whole install process took ages. Win10 installs clean in 15 minutes and half an hour extra to install all the apps and drivers back. And even that I usually do very very rarely now.

 

I wouldn't know how it runs on HDD because I haven't seen or used any system on HDD only in last 10 years. Had all my home systems on SSD's since Intel X25-M was a thing. I stuffed that thing into ACER Aspire One, replacing 160GB HDD with 80GB SSD. And never looked back. Even cheap laptops have SSD's now.

 

As for tracking, just use NextDNS and just select Windows tracking block list.

I like how you having constant issues with your computer to the point where you apparently couldn't keep a Windows install working for more than a couple of months "proves" that Windows versions before 10 were bad.

Sounds to me like you just bad with computers and constantly made them break, not that it was anything wrong with Windows.

 

You: "I couldn't keep my PC working for more than a couple of months, therefore Windows 7 was bad! Issues with Windows 7 were so common!"

Someone else: "But my Windows 10 PC has issues now so clearly not all issues are solved".

You: "Just because you have issues doesn't mean they were common".

 

Do you not realize how silly you sound right now? Do you honestly believe that Windows 7 was so bad that everyone had to do a complete reinstall every couple of months because it was so unstable? Besides, you are actually saying you do have to constantly reinstall Windows 10 as well, just "very rarely", and considering Windows 10 is only ~6 years old and it sounds like you have had to do it multiple times, you still somehow manage to break your OS like every couple of years.

 

To me it just sounds like you're terrible at handling computers and break them, then blame the machine rather than yourself. Might sound harsh but that's what it sounds like to me.

I ran Vista for 2 years on a terrible HP laptop and never had to reinstall it. I ran Windows 7 from almost day 1 on my PC up until 2015 when 10 was released, and I had to reinstall it twice. Not because my Windows 7 install was broken, but because I upgraded my boot drive and wanted a fresh install so that things like TRIM and the sectors would be properly enabled and aligned. I could probably have had the same Windows 7 install for 6 years if I wanted to, without any issues. The fact that you had to reinstall it like 5 times a year doesn't mean it was bad. It means you were bad.

 

 

  

4 hours ago, RejZoR said:

What's Microsoft's primary income? Selling OS licenses. 

Not even close.

It is estimated that Windows was roughly 16% of Microsoft's revenue in 2020.

"More personal computing", which is their segment where Windows sales is included, isn't even their biggest segment despite being bundled with several other things such as all their Xbox revenues, all their surface and other PC accessories and Bing.

I strongly recommend you actually do a bit of research before saying things. What you said might have been true in the Windows 7 era, but not anymore. Hasn't been that way for many years.

 

 

On topic:
I think people are misreading what this announcement is. This is really nothing special.

If you want to keep using your Kepler GPU with some Windows version then you can go ahead and do that. It's just that you won't get the latest optimizations for new games. Nothing will stop working. It's just that you won't get any updates.

[Sauron]

11 hours ago, J-from-Nucleon said:

Kepler is already almost a decade old

Woah there, Kepler is only *checks wikipedia*

 

...now I feel old 

[DildorTheDecent]

Rip in peace Kepler. You will be missed.

 

>tfw Maxwell is next on the death list. Novideo pls.

[thechinchinsong]

I'm gonna hope my GTX 760 keeps on chugging for another 7 years.

[lostcattears]

Crap they killed my card

[aisle9]

3 hours ago, Dabombinable said:

I just hope it doesn't end up being a Fermi situation, with Kepler cards having issues even launching newer games (or launching with major artifacting). My 650ti is still my spare graphics card after all. Though it is barely able to play newer AAA (or AA) games at even 720p 60fps.

Didn’t that have more to do with a bad DX12 implementation on Fermi than anything else?

 

1 hour ago, thechinchinsong said:

I'm gonna hope my GTX 760 keeps on chugging for another 7 years.

It will. IMO, Kepler cards were (and are) rock solid.

 

39 minutes ago, lostcattears said:

Crap they killed my card

No they didn’t. You can still use it forever, it just won’t get driver updates.

[WhitetailAni]

To all the people panicking about Kepler cards being dead they are not. Kepler cards just keep going.

Also, discontinued driver support =/= all the drivers stop working. Your Kepler cards will still work, just not with newer drivers.

 

I kinda wish that they had waited for R500 to drop support. Having the final version be 499.99 would have been fun.

[PineyCreek]

It makes no sense to continue to spend man-hours coding for outdated hardware...you have to EOL at some point...but I think it would depend on how many people telemetry/reporting/etc. say are still using the cards...but also it annoys more than it should due to their recent tone-deaf behavior and the GPU market as a whole (shortages, scalping, etc.).

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Most Kepler cards being kept online today are the ones still being actively used. Not a good idea to end support for them especially in the current situation. It would be a good gesture to keep them supported until gtx 16x cards can be purchased for msrp in most parts of the world. 

[Dabombinable]

2 hours ago, aisle9 said:

Didn’t that have more to do with a bad DX12 implementation on Fermi than anything else?

Even newer DX11 games are known to artifact on it, mainly due to lack of up-to-date drivers. Performance is still pretty decent even with the artifacting.

[Brooksie359]

16 hours ago, SorryClaire said:

Frankly i dont agree, and this is coming from a long time windows user. W10 chugs hard without SSD, the amount of data logging needed without any explicit/transparent reason for it beyond the all encompassing, super vague "bug detection" and the push for microsoft to their mediocre and sparsely featured store  just leave off-taste to me.

Tbh windows kinda sucks without a ssd even when using windows 7. Not having a ssd boot drive in a pc at this point is dumb. Ssd prices are way cheaper now and you can easily get a small ssd for windows for fairly cheap. Not getting one is just asking for a bad time.