We are coming to the end of another era. from various industry sources information Apparently, the production of GTX 16 series graphics cards has stopped completely. NVIDIA has sent the last remaining Turing architecture GPUs for the 16 series to its manufacturing partners and they will not be replaced.
End of 19 Year Era: Farewell to GTX
What does it mean? When the last stocks on the shelves run out, low-budget computer users will have to turn to other options. Partners will continue to assemble and sell GTX 16 graphics cards with custom cooling designs until stocks last. However, according to estimates, stocks will be exhausted within a few months. Thus, we will have come to the end of a period of almost a quarter of a century, 19 years.
Currently, GTX 1630 and GTX 1650 remain from the GTX 16 series. The GTX 1660 family has already been retired along with all its Super variants. NVIDIA continues to support its GPUs with their latest drivers, and it will probably continue for a few more years.
When the last GTX 1630 and GTX 1650 cards are sold out, only the recently introduced RTX 3050 6 GB will remain at low cost. Maybe the green team followed such a path because they thought about ending the production of the GTX 16 series. This is also an indication that more low-end RTX graphics cards may arrive. Maybe a GPU like RTX 4050 will come to the market soon.
What Happens Now?
If you check the support list of GTX GPUs, you can see that even the GTX 900 series is still supported. However, we can now say that we are slowly approaching the end of the road. The GTX 1000 series will most likely be supported until 2026, while the GTX 16 series maybe a little longer.
Frankly, all of these do not indicate that your graphics card will become unusable. Even if you cannot get the latest updates, you can continue playing the games. On the other hand, when it comes to new games or games that receive constant updates, you will be likely to encounter compatibility, performance and stability problems.
Aside from the eventual performance issues due to lack of driver support, there are also some long-term downsides to sticking with GTX. First, you may experience lower fidelity in newer games. For example, Forza Motorsport, which was released in 2023, is largely based on light tracking. Many players have complained about how bad the textures look because they require Light tracking to look good. Even though there is evidence of older car models being used in the game, ray tracing makes them look good enough at first glance.
Another important factor is DLSS technology. As you know, “GTX series” graphics cards lack Tensor and Ray Tracing cores. Therefore, it is not possible to use DLSS and Ray Tracing technologies. All new games are now more suitable for beam viewing and also come with DLSS support.
What about Prices?
Used GTX graphics cards will also have unstable prices. Whether you are a seller or a buyer, it will be difficult to get the timing right. Limited stock may push the prices up a bit, but eventually these cards will start to be referred to as “old”. Naturally, the price of an old thing will move downwards.
RTX on NVIDIA Side, Intel and AMD on the Other Side
Even if production is coming to an end, you don’t need to quickly switch to a new card if the card you have is enough for you and you don’t have the budget. Even if driver support is cut off, you can continue to use the card you have. As we said, when the support is stopped, you cannot only benefit from the updated drivers, which is not the case at the moment.
However, if you are thinking of buying a new graphics card or upgrading, it is time to look at more up-to-date options. If you want an NVIDIA branded card, there are many different models in the RTX 2000 or RTX 3000 series: such as RTX 2060 series, RTX 3060 series, RTX 4060 series and RTX 3050.
As for other options, if NVIDIA’s extra features and software are not a priority for you, there are also AMD and Intel on the other hand. There are many entry-level models that can be preferred in the red team’s RX 6000 and RX 7000 series. Also, pricing is not bad due to competition.
When it comes to Intel, models such as Arc A770 and Arc A750 have received discounts many times. These cards are quite successful in terms of price/performance. Intel also continues to work on the Battlemage architecture and we will see new generation graphics cards soon.
No Need for a New Card Immediately
If you do not play the latest and graphically heavy games, your GTX card will serve you for many years, continuing to turn its propellers for you. However, many generations have passed over the GTX 16 series and we have seen big jumps in performance. In this context, you can achieve serious performance gains when you upgrade. It all depends on your needs, intended use and budget.
For example, when you switch from GTX 1660 Ti to RTX 4060, the performance will increase. Don’t be surprised if FPS increases 2-3 times when you activate DLSS.
Brief History of GTX
The GTX brand first appeared in 2005 with NVIDIA’s GeForce 7800 GTX model. At that time it was in the suffix of the model, then it became the main brand in 2008 with the GTX 280. About 10 years later, the RTX 2000 series was released, and until this period, many graphics card models with the name “GTX” were released.
GTX was still not dead. It resurfaced in 2019 with the budget-focused GTX 16 series, which lacks extra RTX features like Tensor and Ray Tracing Cores. The GTX 16 series and RTX 20 series used the same Turing architecture, but the silicon was trimmed: the largest chips shrank to just 284 mm², while the smallest RTX chips were 445 mm² size. While the most powerful model GTX 1660 Ti had only 24 SMs, the slowest RTX 2060 had 30 SMs.
NVIDIA chose to stay away from the lower segment with the Ampere architecture and RTX 3000 series and chose to continue with the budget-oriented GTX 16 series. The cheapest model was RTX 3050 8 GB, but it was recently replaced by RTX 3050 6 GB. The introduction came after all RTX 4000 series cards were introduced.
It is unknown what the green team will do. However, assuming these rumors about the end of TU117 production are true, we have come to the end of an era. We hope that low-budget gamers will be introduced to more powerful RTX cards. You have contributed a lot to the gaming and computer world, goodbye GTX!
