Nvidia's discontinuation of driver support for the Pascal series has created challenges for users relying on older GPUs like the GTX 1080. This graphics card, which features 8GB of VRAM but lacks tensor cores, is now being repurposed for tasks such as hosting large language models (LLMs) in home lab environments.
The GTX 1080, previously praised for its performance in gaming, is now utilized with software like Ollama, running inside a Proxmox LXC that allows for GPU passthrough. The user reports that despite the card's limitations, it serves as a functional workstation for AI experimentation.
Benchmark results for various models show varied performance. For instance, the total duration for processing models like Qwen3 and GPT-OSS spans from just under 19 seconds to nearly 19 minutes. Despite the inefficiencies noted with Ollama, the user plans to explore alternatives like Llama.cpp in the future to enhance their LLM-hosting capabilities.