You might be asking yourself, “How old of a graphics card should I buy?” The answer is actually pretty clear, and NVIDIA helps us out a lot by telling us when driver support will end for various graphics cards.
NVIDIA Still Supports GPUs Going Back to the 900-Series
While it might be a bit hard to believe in the age of planned obsolescence, NVIDIA is actually still supporting graphics cards going back to the 900-series (and even a few of the 700-series). The GeForce GTX 750 and 750 Ti GPUs came out back in February 2014, which is now over 11 years ago. Those graphics cards (and the entire 900-series) are still supported in NVIDIA’s 580.xx drivers.
The thing is, the 580.xx driver package will be the final NVIDIA driver to support these graphics cards. As of the next major revision (presumably 590.xx), NVIDIA is dropping all support for Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta graphics cards.
This means that those aging GTX 750/Ti cards, the entire GTX 900-series, and the Pascal-based GTX 10-series cards will be official marked as end-of-life soon. NVIDIA is also canning the TITAN V with the next driver revision.
However, what this means for you and me is, those decade-old graphics cards are still perfectly usable. In fact, I have a GTX 970 deployed in a PC at church that we use for our projectors and it works great.
Even when NVIDIA drops official support for these graphics cards, the 580.xx driver will still work well on modern systems for likely several months (maybe 6 to 12 or longer depending on the application you’re using it for).
These Cards Might Not Be Powerful, but They Get the Job Done
In 2025, the GTX 700-series, 900-series, and 10-series cards aren’t powerful by any stretch of the imagination. The RTX 3060 out-performs the GTX 980 Ti by nearly 30% in most tasks, with some people even saying that the RTX 3060 should deliver 50% to 80% more frames in game.
However, if you have one lying around, it’ll still be a fantastic card. As I said, I use my old GTX 970 (the very first graphics card I ever bought) at church for help with transcoding tasks.
The GTX 10-series can still even handle some gaming. The GTX 1060 actually still makes up 2.11% of all Steam users, and is the 12th most popular graphics card by percentage on Steam. That means there’s still a good bit of people using the GTX 10-series cards to game, so if you still have one, put it to use!
If You’re Purchasing a Card Today, I Wouldn’t Go Any Older Than a GTX 16-Series
While the older NVIDIA cards are definitely still usable, I wouldn’t really buy one unless you find a stellar deal on one. If you’re shopping for a new card today, go with a GTX 16-series GPU or newer.
The GTX 16-series (based on the Turing architecture) is newer, having been released in 2019. It’s still set to be supported for the foreseeable future (NVIDIA has shown no indication of sunsetting it) and the 16-series still has a decent bit of oomph for modern gaming.
You won’t be playing Battlefield 6 at 4K144 with a GTX 1650, but you could definitely get into the game and play it at an enjoyable frame rate at lower settings. Speaking of the GTX 1650, it’s the 4th most popular graphics card by percentage on Steam, clocking in with 3.3% of all users still using the infamous graphics card.
So, while I do still recommend using older cards, I wouldn’t buy one today. Stick to the cards that will still be supported in the 590.xx driver package. However, I wouldn’t buy a GTX 16-series card new today.
A quick look at Amazon shows an off-brand GTX 1660 Super going for $180, while an ASUS RTX 3050 is just $20 more. Definitely go with the RTX 30-series or newer if your budget permits, and absolutely don’t go older than RTX 30-series if buying new.
But, if you find a great deal on a used GTX 16-series card on Facebook Marketplace or eBay, then by all means, pick it up! It’ll serve you for years to come. Even when the official gaming drivers get sunset, that graphics card will still perform great for transcoding tasks and other workstation needs.
Buying used graphics cards doesn’t have to be scary. In fact, my RTX 3080 I picked up used for $275 back in November 2024. It was the deal of a lifetime, and I am so glad I kept an eye on Facebook Marketplace for the card.
Here’s a nice checklist to go through before buying your used graphics card. There’s several things to verify before purchasing a used card, so make sure you’re covered before completing the transaction. The best tip is to buy from a friend who recently upgraded, if that’s an option. Also, there are seven things you should do after buying a used graphics card, including cleaning it up and stress testing it.
If you’ve never built a gaming PC before, it’s actually not too hard! You can actually get away with far less than you think you can when building a modern gaming PC. In fact, an i5 is more than enough for most games these days.
