NVIDIA is ending support for 32-bit operating systems for any GPU architecture.
In a support page, the company released a statement stating:
“After Release 390, NVIDIA will no longer release drivers for 32-bit operating systems for any GPU architecture. Later driver release versions will not operate, nor install, on 32-bit operating systems. Driver enhancements, driver optimizations, and operating system features in driver versions after Release 390 will not be incorporated back into Release 390 or earlier versions. This impacts the following operating systems:
- Microsoft Windows 7
- Microsoft Windows 8/8.1
- Microsoft Windows 10
- Linux
- FreeBSD
NVIDIA intends to support critical driver security fixes until January 2019.”
In a nutshell, NVIDIA isn’t quite pulling the plug just yet. While the company will be pushing out patches and fixes, that’s going to last for another year maximum. For consumers who updates their drivers regularly, they should be on 64 bit systems already anyway. The only concern would be for the many businesses and enterprise customers running on legacy systems, often relying on 16-bit programmes. That will present itself as vulnerability – just hope that businesses will learn from the wannacry debacle this year and start upgrading their drivers.
