diff --git a/INSTALL.md b/INSTALL.md
index 879eb2cd..40747ab0 100644
--- a/INSTALL.md
+++ b/INSTALL.md
@@ -46,7 +46,8 @@ NEW or CHANGED dependencies since the last major release are **bold**.
 
 * (optional) For GPU rendering on NVIDIA GPUs:
     * [OptiX](https://developer.nvidia.com/rtx/ray-tracing/optix) 7.0 or higher.
-    * [Cuda](https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-downloads) 8.0 or higher.
+    * [Cuda](https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-downloads) 9.0 or higher. It is
+      recommended that you use 11.0 or higher.
 
 * [Boost](https://www.boost.org) 1.55 or newer (tested through boost 1.81)
 * [Ilmbase or Imath](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/openexr) 2.3
diff --git a/src/cmake/externalpackages.cmake b/src/cmake/externalpackages.cmake
index 6ac0afe7..416dd8ab 100644
--- a/src/cmake/externalpackages.cmake
+++ b/src/cmake/externalpackages.cmake
@@ -211,8 +211,11 @@ if (OSL_USE_OPTIX)
         endif ()
 
         checked_find_package (CUDA REQUIRED
-                            VERSION_MIN 8.0
-                            PRINT CUDA_INCLUDES)
+                             VERSION_MIN 9.0
+                             RECOMMEND_MIN 11.0
+                             RECOMMEND_MIN_REASON
+                                "We don't actively test CUDA older than 11"
+                             PRINT CUDA_INCLUDES)
         set (CUDA_INCLUDES ${CUDA_TOOLKIT_ROOT_DIR}/include)
         include_directories (BEFORE "${CUDA_INCLUDES}")