Nvidia drops support for Windows 7 and 8.1 later this year (with one exception)

Martin Brinkmann
Jun 12, 2021
Updated • Jun 14, 2021
Games
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21

If you are a gamer and play games on a PC that runs Microsoft's Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 operating system, you will soon miss out on new Game Ready Drivers for Nvidia video cards, as the company revealed that it won't release Game Ready Driver upgrades anymore for these operating systems starting October 2021.

The only exception to the rule, according to Nvidia's support plan, is that it will continue to release critical security updates for the operating systems until September 2024.

Effective October 2021, Game Ready Driver upgrades, including performance enhancements, new features, and bug fixes, will be exclusively available for systems utilizing Windows 10 as their operating system. Critical security updates will be available on systems utilizing Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1 through September 2024.

Game Ready Drivers include security updates but also performance enhancements, optimizations for games, bug fixes that are not security related, and other improvements and changes.

nvidia drops support windows 7 8.1

The final Game Ready Driver supporting Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 will be released on August 31, 2021. The next driver, to be released on October 4, 2021, will only support Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system and not the older versions of the Windows operating system.

Nvidia explains that the majority of its customers have migrated to Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system already and that all mentioned versions of Windows, with the exception of Windows 8.1, are not supported by Microsoft anymore officially. Microsoft will end support for its Windows 8.1 operating system on January 10, 2023.

Nvidia wants to focus development on Windows 10 because of that.

In order to ensure GeForce owners experience the best possible security, support, and functionality, NVIDIA will now focus on Windows 10 operating system.

The effect on Nvidia gamers on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1

Gamers may not see much of a difference initially when support for the operating systems is dropped by Nvidia. The latest driver will continue to work on the devices and all the latest games will run. The games may not run as good as on Windows 10, because of missing performance improvements, bug fixes and feature updates, but they will run for the foreseeable future.

Nvidia has a dominant position on the PC video card market. On Steam, 75% of devices are powered by Nvidia hardware, and over 92% of devices run Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system.

Now You: are you affected by the change?

Summary
Nvidia drops support for Windows 7 and 8.1 later this year (with one exception)
Article Name
Nvidia drops support for Windows 7 and 8.1 later this year (with one exception)
Description
If you are a gamer and play games on a PC that runs Microsoft's Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 operating system, you will soon miss out on new Game Ready Drivers for Nvidia video cards.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Jeremy said on June 20, 2021 at 5:53 am
    Reply

    Anyone remember when planned obsolescence wasn’t as much of a thing? #Nostalgia

  2. Vincent said on June 15, 2021 at 6:01 pm
    Reply

    I like this logic: “According to the Steam…..”. Sorry WHAT?!?!?!?! You made decision by looking at teenagers with games?! Are you total idiots?

    MILLIONS computers run Win7! All of ’em needs drivers and surprise, NOT ALL of them sit in your sh***ty “steam”!

    IT definitely goes in a sink. Big companies make decisions like monkeys hired for CEO. Hey, where is your common sense?!

    1. Anonymous said on June 17, 2021 at 3:17 am
      Reply

      Where did you get ‘According to the Steam’ made Nvidia stop support? Cite your quotation please.

      Normal computers just use onboard gpu, the drivers are already in the WIndows update.

  3. TelV said on June 14, 2021 at 1:18 pm
    Reply

    @ Martin,

    You mentioned in the article that support from Windows 8.1 will end on October 1, 2023.

    However in the link you provided it states that extended support will end on January 10, 2023.

    Which date is correct?

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on June 14, 2021 at 2:21 pm
      Reply

      It is January 10, 2023.Sorry about that!

  4. beemeup5 said on June 13, 2021 at 3:00 pm
    Reply

    I guess the Geforce 3xxx series will be the last series with support for Windows 7. Though I guess you could always run WIndows 7 in a virtual machine to get around that, since only the host OS needs to have compatible drivers.

  5. GoodMeasure said on June 13, 2021 at 7:58 am
    Reply

    Using both Windows 7 and 10 a lot, 7 is still fine. 10 works for me pretty well; I just hate how MS has taken much of the OPTION for user control away. Too bad companies are dropping support for 7, though its inevitable. Actually, Win 7 would have disappeared MUCH faster if MS hadn’t so badly mishandled Windows 10’s privacy, updating, and the aggressive forced upgrades from earlier versions.

    We will see what the soon to be announced next Windows version holds. Hopefully MS doesn’t repeat those mistakes again!

    And I’m surprised Martin didn’t do a write-up on the announcement of the announcement of “Win 11” yet. Its some of the biggest news of the year in the tech world.

    And yeah, Martin still needs a forum.

  6. Anonymous said on June 12, 2021 at 10:45 pm
    Reply

    nope

  7. nonqu said on June 12, 2021 at 9:27 pm
    Reply

    AMD has dropped Windows 8.1 in 2017 – google “AMD Halts Support for Windows 8.1 with Consumer Radeon drivers”.

    As always, nvidia has a vastly superior support policy.

  8. Anonymous said on June 12, 2021 at 7:26 pm
    Reply

    Good thing I don’t game anymore. All games feel the same to me now. They are so boring and always not good as demoed in E3.

  9. Stardelight said on June 12, 2021 at 6:33 pm
    Reply

    Good. The problem is people confuse “official support” with being able to use them. I am sure you will be able to load drivers to win7 somehow but they will not be officially supported, is like everything, expensive software that do the same where the minimal requirement is “win10”, but you can still use it by doing some small hacks to it.

    But the only way to push Nvidia technology is to forget about win7 and 8 and move on. Nvidia is the best, that’s why 3D software support their technology and they don’t really care about what AMD does, maybe that’s why I am biased to like Nvidia as well, since it is the one that would benefit me more.
    But look how many 3D software and 3D renders will support Nvidia technology vs AMD, of course, I am not talking about videogames, videogames is a waste of time, better to make money selling videogames to those people who love wasting their time rather than wasting my time playing other people’s creation.

  10. Shiva said on June 12, 2021 at 4:21 pm
    Reply

    Recently I have trouble viewing YouTube videos with Potplayer (and ‘Open With’ extension), but if I try to use ProtonVPN with a server out of EU the issue disappears. With or without VPN doesn’t affect downloading the same videos with JDownloader (and ‘Open With’ extension).

    1. Shiva said on June 13, 2021 at 5:01 pm
      Reply

      Ooops, Wrong post (YAFFplayer). After reading ‘Windows 11’ I panicked :-)

  11. John G. said on June 12, 2021 at 3:16 pm
    Reply

    I wonder what will happen with all drivers when Windows 11 will be released June 24th.

    1. beemeup5 said on June 12, 2021 at 7:52 pm
      Reply

      I’m praying to the PC gods that the driver framework remains the same as Win10 with perhaps only a trivial header change to the driver OS query.

      Praying hard!

    2. Dumbledalf said on June 12, 2021 at 6:43 pm
      Reply

      Are you joking? No Windows 11 is releasing on June 24.

    3. cryohellinc said on June 12, 2021 at 5:05 pm
      Reply

      Lol, it will be announced – not released.

  12. Anonymous said on June 12, 2021 at 1:16 pm
    Reply

    Windows 10 is the best possible environment for games to run now, just like NVIDIA once said: The way it’s meant to be played

    1. Get Real said on June 13, 2021 at 12:26 am
      Reply

      Nonsense about Windows 10 being the best gaming OS. That’s just repeating pure marketing bullarky.

  13. Game Player said on June 12, 2021 at 9:30 am
    Reply

    Thanks for posting this. I was about to buy a new Nvidia graphics card for a Windows 7 game box. Now I know to not to buy an Nvidia card and instead buy one from another brand.

    I find that most games run better on Windows 7 (and 8.1) as compared to Windows 10, and when you only have games on a box, that’s what matters most.

    1. Anonymous said on June 13, 2021 at 2:08 am
      Reply

      AMD will follow Nvidia, all hardware makers will.
      No one makes drivers for Windows XP anymore right?

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