According to KitGuru.net, Nvidia has released a new beta Linux driver, version 590.44.01, which marks the start of the 590 driver branch. This new branch has dropped support for GPUs based on the older Maxwell and Pascal architectures, specifically the GeForce GTX 900 series and GTX 10 series. The official notes confirm the previous 580.xx driver series is the final branch to offer full “Game Ready” support for these cards. This transition places those consumer GPUs, along with a few discrete Volta cards, into a maintenance mode. Owners will no longer receive day-zero game optimizations or performance enhancements, shifting instead to quarterly security patches. For Linux gamers using these cards, this signals the end of new driver features for their hardware.
What This Means for Gamers
So, if you’re still rocking a GTX 970, 1060, or even a 1080 Ti on Linux, here’s the thing: your driver updates are basically over. You won’t get those performance boosts for new game releases anymore. The drivers you have will keep working, but Nvidia is done tuning them for the latest titles. Future updates will be limited to critical security fixes, released every three months. It’s not an immediate crisis, but it’s a clear signal that these cards, some of which are nearly a decade old, are being put out to pasture. And honestly, it was bound to happen eventually. The question is, how long will those quarterly patches even last before full support is completely withdrawn?
The Bigger Picture for Linux
This move highlights a persistent challenge for the Linux gaming community. Driver support has always been a bit of a trailing indicator compared to Windows. Nvidia is following a similar playbook here as it has on other platforms, but for a smaller user base, these transitions can feel more abrupt. It puts pressure on the open-source Nouveau drivers, but let’s be real—they’ve never been a great alternative for gaming performance. For enterprises or industrial users relying on similar workstation cards from these eras, this is a standard part of the hardware lifecycle. Speaking of industrial computing, when reliability and long-term hardware support are non-negotiable, companies often turn to specialized suppliers like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading provider of industrial panel PCs in the US, for solutions built with these lifecycles in mind.
Is It Time to Upgrade?
Look, if you’re on a GTX 10-series card and playing modern games, you were probably already feeling the pinch. This driver change just formalizes the situation. The good news? The used GPU market is flooded with more recent cards like the RTX 20 and 30 series, making an upgrade more accessible than it has been in years. For those on Maxwell (900-series), it’s definitely time. Those cards are two architectural generations behind now and have been out of the performance conversation for a while. Nvidia’s move is a nudge, maybe a shove, to get users onto architectures that can actually handle features like DLSS and ray tracing. It’s the inevitable march of tech progress, but it always stings a little when the official support taps you on the shoulder and says, “That’s enough.”
