NVIDIA has announced a time frame for ceasing Windows 10 driver support. The company is planning to discontinue Game Ready Driver releases for Microsoft's operating system by October 2026. This actually aligns with Microsoft's own support lifecycle for Windows 10, which will have an extra year of extended support for consumers that use OneDrive.
Windows 10, which Microsoft will officially stop supporting in October 2025, requires graphics drivers from the video card maker to enable optimal performance for gaming and professional applications. Graphics drivers serve as essential software components that allow communication between the operating system and graphics hardware. They ensure proper functionality of visual processing tasks.
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Graphics cards require regular driver updates to maintain compatibility with evolving operating systems, security patches, and new software applications. The lack of actual driver support typically results in reduced performance, security vulnerabilities, and potential compatibility problems with newer software releases.
NVIDIA provides such drivers to maximize the performance of their graphics cards across all supported platforms, which include Windows, Mac, and Linux. The company's Game Ready Drivers are special software packages optimized gaming performance.
The company's announcement also lists some lines of products as not supported any longer. Those include graphics processors utilizing Pascal, Maxwell, and Volta architectures. This category contains cards like GeForce GTX 700 series, GTX 900 series, GTX 1000 series, and Titan V video cards. These hardware generations will receive their final feature updates during the fall of 2025.
Following this final update, NVIDIA will transition these older graphics cards to a maintenance-only support model. Under this model, the company will only address critical software bugs and security vulnerabilities rather than introducing new features or performance enhancements. This limited support phase will continue till the autumn of 2028.
NVIDIA's extended timeline beyond Microsoft's official Windows 10 end-of-support date provides users with additional time to migrate to newer operating systems and upgrade their hardware infrastructure. This ensures that customers can transition smoothly without experiencing immediate compatibility issues or performance degradation.
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