If you’re one of the many users still clinging to Windows 10 like it’s your favorite old sweater, Nvidia has a bit of welcome news. The tech giant announced that its Game Ready drivers will continue to support Windows 10 users for a year beyond its official end-of-life date in October 2025. So, you’ve got some extra time before you’re forced to ditch the comfort of familiarity and embrace the new outfit that is Windows 11.
Zooming In
In the patch notes for the 580.88 graphics driver, released on July 31, Nvidia discussed plans to keep Game Ready drivers available for Windows 10 users till 2026. For those with NVIDIA RTX cards, this means you’ll have day-one optimizations for games released in 2026. Why does this matter? Simple: Microsoft is pulling the plug on Windows 10 support on October 14, 2025, and not everyone is ready to upgrade to Windows 11 just yet.
Windows 11 has only recently managed to overtake Windows 10 in user adoption, despite the latter celebrating its 10-year anniversary. A significant reason behind this reluctance to upgrade is the hardware requirements of the newer OS. Millions of perfectly functional devices don’t meet those requirements and, let’s face it, not everyone wants to spend their hard-earned bucks on a new setup just so they can migrate to Windows 11.
Even without official support, Windows 10 systems will likely continue operating relatively smoothly for a while post-2025, though they might start resembling a vintage car: still beautiful but lacking in modern safety features. For instance, the fantasy realm of Square Enix’s MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV, will cease official support for Windows 10 after October. Sure, the game will still run, but don’t expect any customer service to help fix your Windows 10-related hiccups.
For the Maxwell, Volta, and Pascal card owners among us, Nvidia’s got your back with security updates through October 2025—two clicks worth of assurance that your GTX 1060 or 1080 Ti won’t be leaving you in the cyber-security lurch just yet. So, keep chugging along at 1080p because it looks like you’re covered until the end of the game.
