NVIDIA's latest driver branch, 590, currently available only on Linux, introduces new features along with some deprecations. It seems that the GeForce GTX 900 "Maxwell" and GTX 10 "Pascal" series are nearing the end of their driver support. NVIDIA previously stated that the 580 driver series would be the last to fully support these older architectures, and reports from community members testing the v590.44.01 beta indicate that several Pascal-era cards are no longer recognized. Notably, users have reported that cards like the GTX 1050 Ti do not function with this Linux driver, even though the published release notes still list legacy support. This confirms that the official notes are wrong, and that future stable driver releases should carry correct notes of deprecation.

Game Ready updates for Maxwell and Pascal were scheduled to end in October and were extended briefly until the 581.80 Windows driver released in late November. The Linux 590 branch, however, seems to implement the promised change sooner, creating a gap between Linux and Windows support timelines. NVIDIA has also scaled back discrete Volta support, but since Volta had limited consumer discrete releases, the impact on most users is minimal. As this driver branch v590 for Linux is ahead of the current Windows OS drivers— 581.80 WHQL and 581.94 Beta —we expect a similar update for Windows drivers soon.