The document states that "architecture support for Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta is considered feature-complete and will be frozen in an upcoming release."

For those not in the know, this move represents the beginning of the end for all remaining GTX-era Nvidia architectures. While CUDA support for Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta remains, the legacy GPUs will not receive any new features Nvidia might provide.

Tom’s notes that Maxwell and Pascal continue to be on the support list for the GeForce RTX series driver, unlike Kepler. Nvidia didn't detail whether or when it'll drop support for Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta GPUs for the gaming driver.

Team Green has not said precisely when full support for these three GPU architectures will end, but it will soon. The CUDA toolkit still supports the three affected architectures but won't receive future updates.

Once the change is made, the only remaining GTX-series GPUs with full support will be the GTX 16-series, which is based on the RTX 20-series' Turing architecture.

In the ever-evolving world of GPUs, few have left as substantial a mark as Nvidia’s Maxwell architecture. As the oldest outgoing consumer GPU still supported by Nvidia, Maxwell has had a commendable run, bringing remarkable performance-per-watt improvements over its predecessor, Kepler.

Maxwell was Nvidia’s inaugural architecture tailored around mobile GPUs, using TSMC’s 28nm process to its maximum potential. Nvidia's GTX 900 series, equipped with Maxwell, led the market in power efficiency— with the GTX 980 and 970 reaching unprecedented efficiency heights for their time.

After Maxwell, Pascal took the stage, marking one of Nvidia’s paramount architectural leaps in the 2010s. Pascal introduced TSMC’s 16nm FinFET technology, doubling the density offered by Maxwell’s 28nm node. The GTX 1080 outshone the GTX 980 by an impressive 60-65 per cent, and the GTX 1080 Ti boasted 60 per cent higher performance than the GTX 980 Ti—all for a price tag of just $700.

Volta ushered in the era of AI-focused GPUs, featuring AI-specific Tensor cores for superior compute capabilities. Although focused primarily on the enterprise sector and bypassing GeForce-branded GPUs, Volta’s flagship GV100 made significant strides, paving the way with its 12nm FFN process.

While an exclusive Titan V variant allowed desktop PC users a taste of Volta’s prowess, the spotlight remained firmly on its groundbreaking AI capabilities.