Cuda 12.6 Minimum Driver Version [patched] -

If you are on an even older driver (e.g., a 470.x driver from the CUDA 11 era) but need to run CUDA 12.6, you can sometimes use the package ( cuda-compat-12-6 ).

sudo reboot

While these are the absolute minimums to get the runtime to "wake up," NVIDIA typically recommends the R565 or R570 driver branches for full feature support and optimal performance with CUDA 12.6. 2. Understanding Compatibility Models cuda 12.6 minimum driver version

It is important to note the distinction between and compatible drivers:

The version number generally applies across supported operating systems: If you are on an even older driver (e

: At least 8GB is recommended for standard tasks, though 16GB+ is better for large machine learning datasets.

cat /proc/driver/nvidia/version

| CUDA Version | Min Linux Driver | Min Windows Driver | |--------------|------------------|--------------------| | 12.6 | 550.54.15 | 552.22 | | 12.5 | 545.23.08 | 546.12 | | 12.4 | 545.23.08 | 546.12 | | 12.3 | 535.43.18 | 537.13 | | 12.2 | 535.43.18 | 537.13 | | 12.1 | 530.30.02 | 531.14 | | 12.0 | 525.60.13 | 527.41 |

You might not be able to use brand-new features introduced in 12.6 if your driver is from the 12.0 era (like 525.x). Understanding Compatibility Models It is important to note