Arch Linux kills off Nvidia Pascal GPU support — users still running GTX 10-series graphics cards will have to manually install older drivers
Arch Linux is one of the first Linux distros to officially axe Pascal GPU support after Nvidia cancelled support in July. Arch is now using the 590 Nvidia Linux driver as its default Nvidia driver, which lacks Pascal support.
Arch Linux is among the first Linux distributions to officially discontinue support for the GTX 10-series GPUs, following Nvidia's July announcement that it would discontinue default support for the lineup. In an update on the Arch Linux website, the Linux distro is officially switching to Nvidia driver version 590 as the default driver for Nvidia graphics cards. It lacks Pascal support.
The good news is that users who still want to use Pascal or older GPUs with Arch Linux are not left with zero options. Arch users can continue using older Nvidia Linux drivers that support these GPUs by uninstalling the official Nvidia packages and installing the older "Nvidia-580xx-dkms" package.
(Image credit: archlinux.org)
It was inevitable that Arch would drop default support for Pascal. In July, Nvidia cancelled Game Ready driver support for Maxwell (900 series) and Pascal (10 series) graphics cards, limiting these consumer GPUs to quarterly security updates until October 2028.
Nvidia axing support for Pascal will eventually filter down to all Linux distros. Arch is simply the first distro to announce support discontinuation and is likely one of the first to switch to the 590 driver as its default. Arch is known for using a rolling-release model that provides the most bleeding-edge hardware support updates compared to other distros. Arch's update model is so extreme that some updates are known to impact system stability.
Unlike Linux support on the AMD side, Nvidia users don't have many options for extended support from the open-source community specifically. Nouveau, a reverse-engineered, fully open-source Nvidia driver developed by the Linux community, has struggled to optimize its code for Pascal because firmware restrictions prevent the GPUs from reaching their default clock speeds.
Meanwhile, AMD GPUs made well before the GTX 10-series don't have any of these restrictions and are currently enjoying excellent support from the open-source community, with a recent update giving GPUs such as the HD 7000 series a whopping 30% performance boost in Linux.
Older Nvidia cards might not have the same level of open-source support as AMD's, but that doesn't mean they will be made immediately obsolete. Older Nvidia drivers will still deliver competent GPU performance in older titles and will likely deliver capable performance in future games. Generally, Nvidia GPU drivers can play newer games that they might not support, but this isn't guaranteed.
