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Nvidia To Cease Producing New Drivers For 32-Bit Systems (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: While most people have probably made the switch by now, yet another reason to drop 32-bit operating systems and move to 64-bits is coming. Version 390 of Nvidia's graphics drivers, likely to arrive in January, will be the last to contain support for 32-bit versions of Windows (7, 8/8.1, and 10), Linux, and FreeBSD. There will be another year of security updates for 32-bit drivers, but all new features, performance enhancements, and support for new hardware will require the use of a 64-bit operating system and 64-bit drivers. Reasons to stick with 32-bit Windows are at this point few and far between. 64-bit Windows has superior security to 32-bit, and while it varies with workload, 64-bit applications can run somewhat faster than 32-bit counterparts; for workloads that won't fit within the constraints of 32-bit software, the difference is of course enormous. Generally, those who continue to use the 32-bit operating system tend to be subject to some kind of legacy constraint. 32-bit drivers won't work in 64-bit Windows, so obscure but mission critical hardware can extend the life of 32-bit systems.
not me
I feel this statement is wrong 99% of the times except maybe when you need more than 32 bit addressing or doing computation using very large numbers. I think most application are faster on 32bit than 64bit.
This is one if those awesome non-stories that makes slashdot great...
noted: if you need legacy support don't buy nvidia
Come on, let me squeeze a little more life out of this pentium before I upgrade.
same key works for 32 and 64 just reinstall windows!
When will the hardware stop supporting 32-bit (and 16-bit) modes?
I talk about AMD and Intel CPUs.
I mean, there could always be one model that does (support 16/32 natively). But most models could be pure 64 bit. It would be easier for everyone, wouldnt it?
"Generally, those who continue to use the 32-bit operating system tend to be subject to some kind of legacy constraint." This, EXACTLY this. Even on 64bit hardware, switching from 32bit Windows to 64bit Windows is a serious fucking pain in the ass. I just switched a company using 64bit hardware over from Windows 7 to Windows 10. I figured since it was Microsoft's own upgrade tool and it could easily detect hardware, it would simply upgrade to a 64bit version of Windows 10, since it is a full OS replacement anyways. FUCKIN NOPE! It went 32bit still. Now to switch, literally every machine will need to be entirely reformatted just to switch over. This is going to take a great deal of time, *JUST* for the sake of maintaining security patches in video drivers. These are 100% fully PCI compliant machines due to the work we do (as in, things are REQUIRED to be patched to ass audits), so it is going to be a non-trivial process thanks to a goddamn driver.
I.e. somebody was stupid or cheap or likely both. Why else would anybody run any mission-critical hardware on Windows in the first place? Because developers are cheaper. Stupid.
The right way to do this is to use a proper embedded OS with long-term support or to do it with Linux or one of the xBSDs and, and that is the important thing, with a fully documented and open driver. Tell the vendor to **** off if they cannot provide that. If it just costs more, _pay_ it!
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
AMD dropped RV6xx/RV7xx driver support before the WiiU came out... coincidentally running a mostly unmodified RV7xx graphics processor inside.
One of the reasons the XBone/PS4 were so much better than the WiiU was the latter lacking OpenCL support in hardware, with only emulated OCL1.0 possible via programmable shaders.
Having said that, AMD has kept dropping driver support basically every generation. If you are lucky you might still be able to get up to date GCN 1.0 drivers, but AFAIK 6xxx, 5xxx and anything older have all stopped recieving driver updates years ago, and dropped XP x64 and Vista support ASAP. I haven't run windows in quite a while so I am not sure if 7 has been dropped yet.
Nvidia on the other hand, has at least continued to provide legacy driver updates going all the way back to Tesla, with Windows XP and XP x64 support, plus packages for Vista, 7-10, etc. Plus, unlike AMD, Nvidia, at least until recently, still had working /3GIG driver support on Windows XP, for the rare case of people who actually needed it. It wasn't 100 percent stable, in that over time Windows buffers would fill up and interfere with the GL subsystem reinitializing, forcing a reboot. But it didn't crash and it would operating fine until you triggered a condition that caused that, usually not until an application itself was quit/or crashed.
Nvidia has been by far the better developer as far as driver support goes. AMD may have provided more free documentation, but it was in large part because they have never really bothered to fully staff their driver development team, whether since the ATI days or just since AMD taking management of them.
At this point in time, thanks to firmware signing both companies are off the table for me in regards to future graphics cards sales, but due to consumerist whores buying whatever looks cheap/fast without any thoughts past next week, we are getting screwed with fewer and fewer choices and less and less control every generation.
This is a prime example for the necessity of libre drivers.
The good news is, libre drivers for Nvidia GPUs exist, and they continue to work on 32-bit Linux.
AMD Radeon GPUs have much better open source compatibility, though.
I can think of a few:
1.) You have a critical SW which is 16bit (either the whole SW, or a library referenced through trunking). As, by AMD's design, once in 64 bit mode, you can run 32bit Sw but NOT 16bit SW.
2.) You machine can not take more than 4GB of RAM (32bit OSs and SW tend to take less memory than their 64bit counterparts). Yes, in many cases 64bit apps run faster than 32bit ones, but that does you no good if you exhaust your caches, or if you need to swap.
3.) You have some HW that only has 32bit drivers.
4.) You have an ISA/EISA/VESA Hardware. (is a special case of #3)
5.) You have no money to replace the machine.
I live in LatAm, and while is not my case, I can perfectly undestand that it happens, and seen it first hand).
6.) If it works: Why replace it?
My parents were poor and from a small town, again I can understand the sentiment. Actualy, I would encourage it. If you keep using the machine, it does not end in a landfill, and we need no new raw material and energy to build a replacement.
For #1, emulation/virtualization may be an option. If your app is 16bits, it was designed for a long gone era, and even with all virtualization overhead, it will run faster than when it was new. Also, there are some programs that hang when run too fast (I am looking at you foxpro!), so, a virtualized machine can help by regulating speed.
For #3, virtualization again, with PCI passthrough could help.
For #2 and #4 I have no idea.
If someone else can think of other reasons to stick with 32bit OSs/machines, please let me know.
PS: I still have one 32bit machine. Nowadays, the only thing it does is send stuff from plex and VideoStream to my chromecast. And sometimes use Powerpoint Viewer and act as a Decoy for thughs in the public transport.
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
IMHO NVIDIA cards only make sense for things like gaming, video editing or many VMs which also require high-end hardware with >= 8GB of ram. For web surfing and document editing 4GB, x86_32 and Intel Graphics are fine.
May old hardware still serves a purpose, but I guess it's time to send it to be recycled.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
We need cheaper 64-bit products for Merry Christmas and to extinct the obsolete 32-bit products as unusable due to bigger software applications nowadays.
noted: if you need legacy support don't buy nvidia
if you need legacy support for your old system you can most certainly find used video cards on ebay
What stupid idiot puts a fancy new graphics card in a crappy old 32-bit system?
I guess that would be you.
See subject: I ship both 32 & 64 bit versions of APK Hosts File Engine 10++ https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=&bih=&q=%22APK+Hosts+File+Engine%22+and+%22start64%22&btnG=Google+Search&gbv=1/
* I considered dropping 32-bit but as 64-bit OS run 32-bit & 32 bit ones do 32/16 I didn't want to leave anyone out.
64 bit version, for DATASIZE of hosts = unnecesary @ this point really!
Data for hosts isn't THAT big it crosses 4gb yet (2gb actually, as 2gb is for OS overhead & mgt. (can be raised to 3/1 split though).
What's in my ps below is why I did a 64-bit one.
APK
P.S.=> On security = 'better': Unsure of that but performance CAN be argued for in NOT loading a 32-bit emulation on 64-bit (less memory & messagepass overhead minus emulation (not as bad as a kernelmode to usermode context switch though))... apk
Is that how winblows operates, you reinstall it now and then... Why not just shove a dildo up your ass.
Only when you want to carry out a once in two decades switch, like the switch from 32bit to 64 bit.
Also, I call BS on Dell shipping a high end laptop with 32bit Win installed.
Their drivers have included spyware, malware or what ever you want to call it for sometime now so you privacy is compromised by another company, what was considered criminal in the past is now part of the terms and conditions by too many companies including Microsoft. Telemetry is the new name for this and it should be illegal and they should disclose every bit of data they steal from usðY
The compression scheme you describe is equivalent to 35-bit addressing, At the trend of 18 months per density doubling associated with Gordon Moore, it buys you four and a half years. Which common types of workload are larger than 4 GB but smaller than 32 GB?