Unofficial driver brings Nvidia Pascal cards to Windows XP

A GitHub user named SupraGSX has created an unofficial driver for Nvidia GPUs to work on Windows XP, adding support for Maxwell and Pascal desktop cards, including models like the GTX 1080 Ti and the TITAN Xp. The driver, called Forceware 382.69, is based on Nvidia's 368.81 driver but has been customized to add support for these newer cards. The project, first released on September 27 and updated on October 4, includes entries for various Nvidia GPUs but does not guarantee full functionality for every model.

The author has tested the driver with a GTX 1080 Ti, confirming that it can handle OpenGL initialization and rendering tasks. However, other GPUs, particularly those based on the GP107 chipset, remain unverified. The driver also includes several improvements, such as DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 support, as well as fixes for the Nvidia Control Panel.

The project is still experimental, with the author advising users to keep a backup of their Windows XP system before installing the driver. The repository, which is under a GPL-3.0 license, has gained some traction, with 115 stars and five forks as of October 5. Despite these efforts, Nvidia itself does not support these GPUs on Windows XP, which Microsoft stopped supporting in 2014.

Users interested in trying this driver should be aware that it is a third-party project and not an official Nvidia release. The author has emphasized that while some features have been tested, others may still have issues.