NVIDIA
The time has finally come. NVIDIA recently announced that it will stop supporting its Kepler-based graphics cards on older Windows operating systems with its upcoming GeForce R470 driver. You certainly won't find any Kepler-based products in our guide to the best video cards, but many gamers still own one.The GeForce R470 driver, scheduled for August 31, will be the last to support Kepler graphics cards , which were introduced to the market in 2012. Owners of Kepler graphics cards will continue to receive critical security updates until September 2024. However, they will lose Game Ready driver updates, which include performance improvements, new features and / or bug fixes.
In addition, the GeForce R470 driver also marks the end of support for Microsoft's Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 operating systems. The same conditions apply to users of the aforementioned operating systems. They may receive critical security updates until September 2024, but will not be eligible for Game Ready driver updates.
Therefore, the future GeForce R495 driver, which will be released on October 4, will be the first to be free of the support for Kepler-based products and pre-Windows 10 operating systems.
Here is a list of graphics cards affected by this decision:
Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan Z Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan Black Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 Ti Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 Ti OEM Nvidia GeForce GT 740 Nvidia GeForce GT 730 Nvidia GeForce GT 720 Nvidia GeForce GT710 Nvidia GeForce GTX 690 Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 Nvidia GeForce GTX 670 Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 GTX 650 Ti Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Nvidia GeForce GTX 645 Nvidia GeForce GTX 640 Nvidia GeForce GTX 635 Nvidia GeForce GTX 630 an attractive price.
Qualcomm reportedly offers to invest in Arm as regulators threaten to block Nvidia's $40 billion acquisition
Cristiano Amon, president of Qualcomm and Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, responds to a question during a panel discussion on 5G wireless broadband technology during the 2018 CES in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. January 10, 2018.
Steve Marcus | Reuters
U.S. chip goliath Qualcomm has said it is open to the idea of investing in U.K. chip designer Arm if the company's $40 billion sale to Nvidia is blocked by regulators, according to The Telegraph newspaper.
Qualcomm's incoming CEO, Cristiano Amon, said Qualcomm would be willing to buy a stake in Arm alongside other industry investors if SoftBank, Arm's current owner, listed the company on the stock market instead of selling it to Nvidia, the newspaper reported Sunday.
'If Arm has an independent future, I think you will find there is a lot of interest from a lot of the companies within the ecosystem, including Qualcomm, to invest in Arm,' Amon said. 'If it moves out of SoftBank and it goes into a process of becoming a publicly-traded company, [with] a consortium of companies that invest, including many of its customers, I think those are great possibilities.'
Amon added that Qualcomm would 'definitely be open to it' and that the company has 'had discussions with other companies that feel the same way,' The Telegraph said.
Qualcomm declined to comment when contacted by CNBC, while Nvidia said an IPO wouldn't be enough to support Arm's growth.
A spokesperson for Arm told CNBC that the company is 'extremely confident' regulators worldwide will approve the deal. 'The combination of Arm and Nvidia will enable a stronger pipeline of advanced technology to support the ecosystem, while advancing market competition in the age of AI,' they said.
Arm was spun out of an early computing company called Acorn Computers in 1990. The company's energy-efficient chip architectures are used in 95% of the world's smartphones and 95% of the chips designed in China. The company licenses its chip designs to more than 500 companies, which use them to make their own chips.
An Nvidia spokesperson told CNBC that Arm needed more than an IPO if it is to achieve its full potential.
'Arm needs an infusion of new technology that it can provide to Arm licensees everywhere, which is why we stepped up and agreed to buy Arm,' the spokesperson said. 'Our technologies and Qualcomm's are highly complementary — we'd welcome Qualcomm's help in creating new technologies and products for the entire Arm ecosystem.'
Arm's takeover by Nvidia was announced by the companies last September and it was expected to take around 18 months. Since then, Qualcomm has been telling regulators around the world that it is against the deal, as have Microsoft and Google, according to Bloomberg.
The companies say they are opposed to the takeover because there's a risk that Nvidia could become a gatekeeper of Arm's technology and prevent other chipmakers from using the company's intellectual property. They question whether Nvidia will be able to fully capitalize on the acquisition without blocking access to Arm's chip designs.
Nvidia has repeatedly said it will maintain Arm's open licensing model and invest heavily in Arm's headquarters in Cambridge, U.K.
But the Federal Trade Commission, the European Commission, the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority and China's State Administration for Market Regulation are in the process of investigating the deal.
Arm has as a joint venture called 'Arm China' with Chinese private equity firm Hopu Investments. Arm China is headquartered in Shanghai, meaning China's Ministry of Commerce and China's State Administration for Market Regulation has the right to review the deal.
Nvidia has asked Chinese regulators to approve the deal in recent weeks, according to a report from The Financial Times earlier this month that cites sources familiar with the matter. Nvidia said the regulatory process was confidential, but it remains confident that it will receive approval and 'close in early 2022.'