Nvidia ends support for Fermi GPUs and 32-bit drivers

Discussion in 'Frontpage news' started by Hilbert Hagedoorn, Apr 8, 2018.

  1. Netherwind

    Netherwind Ancient Guru

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    I remember my old 286 being gray and my CRT monitor even more so :) But everyone to their own taste.

    I understand nostalgic reasons though but not much more, but from a business perspective it's simply not worth putting money into something that a fraction still uses.
     
  2. anthos

    anthos Guest

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    Nothing more grayish than expecting companies to support something you bought a few decades ago until the ends of time.
     
  3. Fox2232

    Fox2232 Guest

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    Don't want to break it to you, but AMD did not drop 32bit support. List of supported cards in newest 32bit driver is same as usual.

    You look at it from wrong side of the fence. Your card is one which breaks functionality on 32bit system as any card with higher amounts of VRAM. Because VRAM is allocated 1st before System memory and it causes quite some troubles unless you have PAE in place.
    And if AMD is to support high amounts of VRAM on 32bit OSes, they would have to take responsibility for it. On 32bit OS they should have not allowed even for R9-290 4GB.
    I do not even want to know all possible issues with WDDM 2.0 virtual memory addressing for VRAM. And other things connected.

    It is surely easier and performing better to have W10 64bit even for your 32bit applications.
     
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  4. RzrTrek

    RzrTrek Guest

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    End 32-bits driver support, fine, but not Fermi...
     

  5. vbetts

    vbetts Don Vincenzo Staff Member

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    Not all their devices though? I can only find 32-bit Windows drivers for r9 2xx series and older cards?

    One thing I will say is Fermi came out in 2010, 8 years of support from Nvidia. That's not bad at all, and Nvidia did well in still giving Windows 10 support and finally dx12 support for Fermi.

    But Fermi also not worth it anymore. The fastest Fermi single gpu is the GTX 580, which yeah there was a 3gb variant of it but the gpu itself is slow still, only 512 cuda cores, and uses a crap ton of power. The 1050 is faster and puts out better performance, and compared to the 580 it sips power. The 590 wouldn't be so bad, but there is no 3gb(Per GPU) variant like there is the 580, and then you have to rely on SLI and we know how that's going.
     
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2018
  6. -Tj-

    -Tj- Ancient Guru

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    In other words 3 pages of whining? :D

    So what if fermi dropped, its had its time, bye.
     
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  7. Fox2232

    Fox2232 Guest

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    As I wrote, I am even surprised R9-290(x) is there. AMD could have limited 32bit support of newer GPUs with GCN1.0.
    nVidia could have done same. For me Sufficient reason is memory allocation.
    Older cards with 1GB VRAM and less, there it is to be expected that 32bit OS support will stay. But soon MS may drop 32bit too.
     
  8. f14dude

    f14dude Member Guru

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    It's true that there is still a need for 32bit OS to be running but that doesn't mean you need to have the latest device driver for that computer. I'm sure as long as there is a device driver still work on that old PC/OS then it's all matter. At my company we have just upgraded a few old XP machines to Windows 7 Professional in 32bit because they are hooked up to some industry machines that won't work on 64bit but they didn't really need the latest driver for that machine to function so it's not really a big deal.

    PS, I too like to work with old machines - just rebuild an old Macintosh IIsi with OS 7 to my collection of vintage computer. For me it's more of a museum piece (need to be on and bootable and come with at least one game.)
     
  9. Yxskaft

    Yxskaft Maha Guru

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    At this point it's mostly about fixing bugs and security vulnerabilities. The obvious long-term worry would be if a major Windows update yields compatibility issues when running older drivers.

    Fermi has been rebranded alot of times, it was still featured in the low-end for the Geforce 800M series, so there could still be alot of not too old systems using Fermi.
     
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2018
  10. vbetts

    vbetts Don Vincenzo Staff Member

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    All the lower 8XXM series are Fermi, and the 6XXM series are Fermi as well. I doubt though power wise they overtake the 580.
     

  11. zipper

    zipper Maha Guru

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    675MX and 680M are Kepler as well as 7.xx and 870/880M. 850/860M is Maxwell.
     
  12. droopy_ro

    droopy_ro Member Guru

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    So a 2GB card should not be supported, because the system memory is limited to 3.5GB ?
    Why dose my 6GB 980Ti have support for 32 bit OS then ? What about support for old cards like HD5xxx/6xxx series, that have not got a WHQL driver since 2015. Meanwhile nVidia still supports GTX5xx series in WHQL.
     
  13. Agonist

    Agonist Ancient Guru

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    Yawn, Fermi is 8 years old. Its time was long ago anyways. Kepler is close to not being very relevant either for anything under GTX 680/70 GTX Titan,780ti/770/760

    You dont need bleeding edge drivers for WIn XP 32bit retro rig, and anyone gaming on 32BIt after 2006 is an idiot IMHO that isnt a retro/compatibility style rig.
     
  14. alanm

    alanm Ancient Guru

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    You will still be able to use fermi for a long time with the current drivers. Just no new games support. If you're interested in new games support, then you probably shouldnt still be using a fermi.
     
  15. Fox2232

    Fox2232 Guest

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    There is practically no difference between removing code paths from driver and keeping them there without ever changing them.
    What you talk about is placebo.
     

  16. droopy_ro

    droopy_ro Member Guru

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    So me, needing to install that RX560 on Windows 10 x86 and having no driver support of any kind is placebo ?
     
  17. vbetts

    vbetts Don Vincenzo Staff Member

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  18. anthos

    anthos Guest

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    or maybe... just maybe you could install a 64bit windows..
     
  19. zipper

    zipper Maha Guru

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  20. alanm

    alanm Ancient Guru

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    I believe the longest supported GPUs had drivers 11 years after release (NV40, 6 series). Released in 2004, last driver was in 2015 for win 7 x64. Surprised driver support lasted that long. With fermi, it was 8 years. I guess windows 10 maybe a more difficult OS to maintain driver support than previous OSs.
     

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