Nvidia driver enables RTX 5000 GPU support on Intel Core 2 CPUs – with a catch

In context: Nvidia recently rolled out a GeForce driver update that quietly made older Intel processors, specifically the Core 2 family, technically compatible with the latest RTX 50-series GPUs. It initially sounded like a promising "loophole" for retro PC enthusiasts, but unfortunately, things haven't played out as expected. The key to this surprising development lies in a single instruction: POPCNT, or "Population Count." This CPU-level instruction is used to calculate the number of bits set in a binary value, which is vital for many low-level operations in modern software. Until now, Nvidia's drivers required this instruction, excluding older CPUs from using the latest GPUs. However, with the new driver dropping that requirement, users can now pair their powerful RTX cards with chips that date back over 15 years. Tinkerer Bob Pony quickly tested this on X using an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 with an RTX 5060 Ti. He found that it "works," at least in terms of getting the system to boo ... Read full article.