Nvidia has recently made a significant announcement regarding its graphics card drivers that may affect users of older Windows 10 PCs. The company has confirmed that drivers released from version 555 onward will lead to blue screen crash loops on systems unable to execute the POPCNT (Population Count) CPU instruction. This change primarily impacts older computers equipped with CPUs that lack this specific capability.
As of Release 555, Nvidia’s drivers will no longer accommodate CPUs that do not support the POPCNT instruction. Consequently, users attempting to install these newer drivers on incompatible systems will encounter crashes during the Windows boot process. For those who possess a compatible Nvidia GPU but are using an unsupported CPU, it is advisable to refrain from installing any drivers from Release 555 or later. Instead, users should continue utilizing older driver versions, such as Release 550, to maintain system stability.
How to Check if You’re Affected
Nvidia has outlined the end of support for CPUs lacking POPCNT on their support page, noting that these CPUs are already unsupported on both Windows 10 and Windows 11. To determine if your CPU is affected, Nvidia recommends using Microsoft’s free Coreinfo tool. Here’s a straightforward guide to check your CPU’s compatibility:
- Download Coreinfo from the official Microsoft page.
- Extract the ZIP file, resulting in a folder named Coreinfo.
- Right-click on the Coreinfo folder and select
Open in Terminal to launch PowerShell with the Coreinfo folder as the current directory. - Type .coreinfo64 -f (including the leading period) and press Enter to run the Coreinfo tool.
Upon confirming the license rights, the Coreinfo tool will display a comprehensive list of your CPU’s details and supported instructions. Look for the entry labeled POPCNT; if it states
It’s worth noting that while this issue predominantly affects Windows 10 PCs, it can also arise on older Windows 11 systems. Installing Windows 11 24H2 on a CPU that does not support POPCNT may result in similar complications.
What is POPCNT, Anyway?
The POPCNT instruction made its debut in 2008 as part of Intel’s Nehalem architecture and was subsequently integrated into contemporary AMD CPUs. Short for Population Count, POPCNT is an instruction that counts the number of “set bits” (those with a value of 1) within a binary number. This functionality proves beneficial for various computations, including parity bit calculations, compression algorithms, and more recently, applications related to artificial intelligence.
In Intel’s Core processors, the instruction was introduced with the second-generation Sandy Bridge CPUs, which launched in 2011. Given the time elapsed since then, it is likely that even if your hardware is not the latest, your CPU supports the POPCNT instruction.
