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Context: Nvidia has recently rolled out a GeForce Driver update that quietly made older Intel Processors, specifically the Core 2 Family, technically compatible with latest RTX-50-series GPUs. It was initially thought that retro PC enthusiasts would be excited by the “loophole” but things didn’t turn out as expected.
This surprising development is due to a single instruction, POPCNT or “Population Count.” . This CPU-level instructions is used to calculate how many bits are set in a binary number, which is crucial for many low-level software operations. Nvidia’s driver required this instruction until now, which prevented older CPUs from being able to use the latest GPUs.
With the new driver, this requirement has been removed, allowing users to pair their powerful RTX card with chips dating back more than 15 years. Bob Pony tested this out on X with an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 and an RTX5060 Ti. He found it “works,” – at least as far as getting the system boot into Windows 11 is concerned.
Pic.twitter.com/XcwZFxhHXS”https://t.co/XcwZFxhHXS”- BobPony.com (@TheBobPony) May 17, 2025
Unfortunately, things became frustrating as Pony dug deeper. pic.twitter.com/XcwZFxhHXS”https://twitter.com/TheBobPony/status/1923836138160103470?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”- BobPony.com (@TheBobPony) May 17, 2025
Sadly, things became frustrating as Pony dug deeper. The setup looked good on paper but the performance in real-world gaming was not as good. When trying to run ray traced games such as Quake II, errors and crashes occurred. Pony said that “majority of games” games that use ray-tracing would not run because the processor lacked the required instructions. Screenshots confirmed that the failure.
At the moment, modern games – especially those that support ray tracing – rely on much more than a powerful GPU. Even if the drivers no longer require POPCNT, some games still do. This prevents them from running correctly.
This isn’t a first-time POPCNT issue for older systems. Microsoft quietly added POPCNT to the list of required hardware features for Windows 11 24H2 when it began previewing the OS. This was alongside Secure Boot and TPMS. This alone disqualified older processors even if they could install the OS unofficially.
But all is not lost. While raytraced games are out, pairing a modern GPU and an older CPU is still a good idea for classic or mid level games. It might be possible for the community build a database of compatibility by highlighting which games continue play well on quirky configurations like these.
