Nvidia’s new 496.13 graphics driver removes support for Kepler-based graphics cards

Nvidia recently launched the new 496.13 graphics driver, bringing some considerable changes. Besides introducing DLSS to 10 new titles, Nvidia's latest driver also brings optimisations for Back 4 Blood, Crysis Remastered, Baldur's Gate 3 and a few more games. However, it also comes with its downsides, as it won't support Windows 8.1, Windows 8 and Windows 7, nor Kepler GPUs.

Nvidia announced it would end support for Kepler graphics cards back in June, and with this latest driver release, support has officially been dropped. This means that if you own a Kepler-Based Titan and/or a GeForce GTX 700/600 series card (except the GTX 750 Ti, 750 and 745), your graphics card won't receive any bug fixes, performance enhancements or new features from now on. Nvidia's 496.13 game-ready WHQL GeForce graphics driver also drops support for Windows 8.1, Windows 8 and Windows 7, so those running these operating systems will have to stay on the 472.12 graphics driver.

This is also the first GeForce driver to exclusively include the DCH (Declarative Componentized Hardware) driver. Starting now, as the DCH driver doesn't include the graphics control panel, users that want to keep using it will have to install the Nvidia control panel app through Microsoft Store.

As for gaming, the 496.13 graphics driver is the Game Ready driver for Back 4 Blood, Crysis Remastered Trilogy, Baldur's Gate 3, Chivalry 2, Riftbreaker, Rise of the Tomb Raider DLSS, Shadow of the Tomb Raider DLSS and Sword and Fairy 7. Moreover, it also introduced GeForce Experience settings support for:

• Alan Wake Remastered
• Diablo II: Resurrected
• Far Cry 6
• FIFA 22
• Hot Wheels Unleashed
• Industria
• Kena: Bridge of Spirits
• MIR4
• New World
• Sable
• Severed Steel
• Tales of Arise
• The Legend of Heroes: Hajimari No Kiseki
• Titan Quest: Anniversary Edition
• World War Z: Aftermath

Besides all the optimisations that come with it, the new driver also fixes some issues and introduces a Shader Cache size setting in the Nvidia control panel that allows you to set the maximum amount of disk space to use for storing shader compiles. Here are the lists of fixes included with the patch and all the known issues yet to be solved:

Fixed

• [GeForce RTX 3080]: The system does not boot with two Samsung Odyssey G70A 28″ monitors are connected to the GPU. [3359697]
• [GeForce GTX 960]: The primary monitor lost after resume from sleep or shutdown. [3340905]
• [Windows 11]: The screen flashes once after switching to the discrete GPU-only mode in the NVIDIA Control Panel. [3330077]
• [Multiple Apps][Ansel/Freestyle]: Depth of field filter shows blurry characters. [200749545]
• [Notebook]: Vulkan test applications run on the integrated graphics processor instead of the discrete GPU. [200770322]

Windows 10/11 Issues

• [Doom Eternal][HDR][FSR]: Eternal]: Texture across the game darkens and is unplayable after enabling HDR + FSR. [200776916]
• [Rise of the Tomb Raider]: Characters and background disappear and corruption is prominent when Anti-Aliasing is set to SSAA 2X and SSAA 4x. [200777463]
• [Deathloop][HDR]: TDR/corruption occurs in the game with Windows HDR enabled.
• If this issue occurs, toggle the Windows HDR setting.
• [YouTube]: Video playback stutters while scrolling down the YouTube page. [3129705]
• Tom Clancy's The Division 2 may display graphical artifacts. [200754013]
• Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed may crash on courses where players drive through water. [3338967]
• [HDR][G-Sync]: Mouse pointer gets stuck after turning on HDR from the Windows Control Panel or after toggling G-Sync from the NVIDIA control panel. [200762998]
• To work around, click the mouse (right or left button). The mouse cursor will be sluggish for a few seconds before returning to normal operation.
• [NVIDIA Control Panel]: After setting the display multiplexer type to “dGPU”, the setting is not preserved across a reboot or resume from S4. [200779758]
• [Windows 11]: Display goes blank when video is switched to full-screen with G-Sync enabled. [200778687]

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KitGuru says: Are you still running Windows 8.1, 8 or 7 on your system? Will you upgrade to Windows 10 now that the latest Nvidia graphics drivers won't support older Windows versions?

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