CUDA programming: How to get my Legacy GPU to work with CUDA 7.5 toolkits?

2
votes

Layman here trying to learn something new. It's too boring to just ask the question. If you don't want to read, just skip to the last line. Here is the story:

Believe it or not. I have a working GeForce 8800 GTS in my current desktop, which is put together just for work and not for gaming at all. It is right now connected to my HDTV using DVI-to-HDMI cable as I type. The more I think about it, the more it amazes me that it works.

A few days ago a notification popped to prompt for a driver update for my GPU. I was pleasantly surprised that this legacy piece was still supported in 2016 on Windows 10. Nice job NVIDIA. And then I thought, "Can I actually do CUDA programming with this baby?"

I have lived with it for years on different motherboards, and have thought of multiple times upgrading it. But I was not gaming anymore, so I didn't feel the need. Now, if it will in the next few months support and motivate my learning and research in CUDA programming, that's like an infinite amount of gain in values (normalized by zero current value :D) So I decided to venture a bit on NVIDIA's website.

There was hope in this perfect world. I found the toolkit that supports my baby at the world, but it was the second release of CUDA 1.1 toolkits in 2007. Looking back from the modern 19th release (CUDA 7.5 toolkits) in 2016, you may ask: why not just install the most recent one?

Because apparently CUDA 7.5 toolkits installer doesn't recognize GeForce 8800 GTS, for which no one blames it. It complains that

This graphic driver could not find compatible graphics hardware. You may continue installation, but you may not be able to run CUDA applications with this driver. This may occur with graphics hardware that is newer than this toolkit. In this case, it is suggested that you keep your existing driver and install the remaining portions of the CUDA toolkit.

Well, my current graphic driver is GeForce 341.95 Driver, which was released in March 2016. It is working with my GPU to resize my over-scanned desktop on HDTV, so I think it is working quite well. The only catch is that my hardware is not too new, but too old.

I am trying to get the first generation CUDA-enabled GPU Geforce 8800 GTS to work with CUDA 7.5 toolkit on Windows 10. Any suggestions?

Many many thanks.

1
windowscudadrivergpu

1 Answers

5
votes

I am trying to get the first generation CUDA-enabled GPU Geforce 8800 GTS to work with CUDA 7.5 toolkit on Windows 10. Any suggestions?

It is not possible.

CUDA 7.5 (and CUDA 7.0) requires a compute capability 2.0 or higher GPU.

Your GeForce 8800 GTS does not meet this requirement.

Another way of stating the requirement is that CUDA 7.5 requires a GPU driver from the NVIDIA r352 branch or newer (352.xx or higher, numerically). There are no such drivers that support the GeForce 8800 GTS.

Your options for CUDA support would be to switch to a newer GPU (a supported GPU can be had at retail for less than $100 new), or else install CUDA 6.5 on your machine. Note that CUDA 6.5 did not officially support win10 as a platform, so this may have issues/challenges/incompatibilities also.