The evolution cycle of NVIDIA graphics cards invariably follows its course as GeForce driver updates are released by the American company.
Back in March, NVIDIA kind of set the stage. The company founded and headed by Jen-Hsun "Jensen" Huang explained that support for the Kepler generation of graphics cards would soon be discontinued, even though such cards have not been produced for almost six years. NVIDIA even specified the version of the GeForce graphics drivers from which it would be discontinuing support for the Kepler generation: the 496.xx drivers.
Just a few days ago, the GeForce 496.13 drivers were released. Promises are made, promises are made, and NVIDIA is taking advantage of this change of branch to leave the Kepler architecture GPUs behind. These GPUs were officially released with the GeForce GTX 680. Afterwards, for more than two years, NVIDIA released new graphics cards based on this Kepler generation and even took the liberty of changing the name in the middle - a unique fact - with the launch of the GeForce GTX 780.
All in all, the list of Kepler-based cards that have been left out is impressive: GeForce GTX TITAN, GeForce GTX TITAN Black, GeForce GTX TITAN Z, GeForce GTX 780 Ti, GeForce GTX 780, GeForce GTX 770, GeForce GTX 760, GeForce GTX 760 Ti (OEM), GeForce GT 740, GeForce GT 730, GeForce GT 720, GeForce GT 710, GeForce GTX 690, GeForce GTX 680, GeForce GTX 670, GeForce GTX 660 Ti, GeForce GTX 660, GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST, GeForce GTX 650 Ti, GeForce GTX 645, GeForce GT 640, GeForce GT 635, GeForce GT 630 That's it!
However, it is interesting to note that three cards in the GeForce 7xx series use the next architecture - Maxwell - and are therefore not affected by this "end of service": these are the GeForce GTX 750 Ti, GTX 750 and GTX 745.
Of course, the GeForce 496.13 drivers are not just about ending the Kepler generation. It is also about bringing new features, especially in tracking the latest video games. NVIDIA has implemented DLSS on Back 4 Blood, Baldur's Gate III, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Chivalry II, Sword and Fairy 7, F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch, Swords of Legends Online or Crysis Remastered Trilogy. The latter is also distinguished by the support of ray tracing. NVIDIA takes this opportunity to point out that DLSS is now present on more than 120 games.
