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If you're an NVIDIA user still on 32bit, you might want to think about finally updating as this month NVIDIA will be moving to only providing critical security updates for 32bit systems.

Not exactly surprising, as everything is gradually going 64bit. Our own user survey suggests a minuscule amount of people still on 32bit, with only 3 out of 2493 people telling us they're still lingering on 32bit.

In regards to security updates for their drivers, you have until January 2019.

See the official note from NVIDIA here.

On top of that, NVIDIA is also dropping their support for the Fermi series (GeForce 400/500) this month, with security updates also going on until January 2019. More on that here. This means, eventually, those on Fermi cards will be depending on the Nouveau open source drivers.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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pete910 Apr 9, 2018
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To be honest I think most of the linux users are on 64bit, hell I switched to 64 bit 2004/5 irrc.

I am one of those that think that 32bit should haven passed long ago.

As for dropping fermi support, they need to draw line somewhere .
Mountain Man Apr 9, 2018
Anybody running a 32-bit OS in 2018 probably doesn't have the hardware capable of running any game released in the past few years anyway.
serge Apr 9, 2018
Fermi support will be moved to the legacy branch and not totally drop by Nvidia.

There are much older cards on the 304 legacy branch.
buckysrevenge Apr 9, 2018
Quoting: Mountain ManAnybody running a 32-bit OS in 2018 probably doesn't have the hardware capable of running any game released in the past few years anyway.

I have a 6-7 yo netbook as a media server which theoretically should be able to run 64-bit, but the xubuntu USB install kept locking up on boot, so I stuck to 32 rather than bother investigating. Regardless, I don't think it could decently run some 2D games from its own time even. And it's an Intel graphics chip anyway.


Last edited by buckysrevenge on 9 April 2018 at 4:49 pm UTC
Purple Library Guy Apr 9, 2018
Quoting: GuestThough I would be very curious if anyone is running a 32bit (hardware) system with nvidia graphics, what are the reasons they're doing so.
My laptop is 64-bit and currently my main computer. But my desktop is still 32-bit.
The reason is simple: No money.
Or rather, the household always seems to have a higher priority money-wise. Sigh. I have a number of games that are sort of sitting there in Steamspace waiting for me to be able to get a more current computer.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 9 April 2018 at 6:08 pm UTC
ElectricPrism Apr 9, 2018
Quotesecurity updates

It's difficult to wrap my brain around the idea that graphics are a serious entry point for security issues.

This is also another reason why closed-source video drivers are shitty -- because if the code was open then users could build it themselves.
AzP Apr 9, 2018
The most insane thing is that Steam is still 32-bits and a lot of games as well. That was a hard realization when I had to build all the 32 bit libraries that they depended on when disabling STEAM_RUNTIME on Gentoo.
TheSHEEEP Apr 9, 2018
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Quoting: AzPThe most insane thing is that Steam is still 32-bits and a lot of games as well. That was a hard realization when I had to build all the 32 bit libraries that they depended on when disabling STEAM_RUNTIME on Gentoo.
Yeah, though I doubt it will remain like that for very long.
Dunc Apr 9, 2018
Quoting: Mountain ManAnybody running a 32-bit OS in 2018 probably doesn't have the hardware capable of running any game released in the past few years anyway.
Exactly. I'm less bothered by this than distros dropping 32-bit support. An old 32-bit machine can still be perfectly servicable for some uses, but none of them involves a recent video card running on the latest proprietary drivers.
stretch611 Apr 9, 2018
I have a 12 year old linux system. It has an old Single Core AMD Sempron Processor and integrated graphics. Even it is running mint18-64 bit. With 2GB of total memory, it still has the power to run the latest version of Kodi even with 1080p resolution. (admittedly, that is all I have it do.)

Even a cheap 12 year old processor can do 64-bit... Very little reason not to be on 64-bit on linux.
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