Nvidia has quietly removed support for 32-bit PhysX hardware acceleration in its latest RTX 50 gaming GPUs, including the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090. This means older games that relied on PhysX for physics simulations will now run calculations on the CPU, resulting in significant performance drops.
PhysX was once a major feature in PC gaming, offering realistic physics simulations and enhanced visuals. However, with its latest RTX 50 GPUs, Nvidia has removed support for this technology, returning complex calculations to being done on the CPU. This change affects games like Mirror’s Edge, Borderlands 2, and Batman: Arkham Asylum.
The impact of this change is significant, with some tests showing frame rates dropping from around 400fps without PhysX to just 40fps with PhysX. Even when PhysX acceleration is enabled on the GPU, performance can still be severely impacted.
This decision follows a decline in game developers featuring PhysX due to its performance-reducing effects and the availability of more modern physics engines like Unreal Engine 5. As such, Nvidia has removed support for older games that relied on this technology, leaving gamers with limited options for playing these titles.
While Nvidia hasn’t explicitly stated why it dropped support for 32-bit PhysX, it’s clear that performance concerns played a significant role. The company’s response to one gamer’s question on its support website confirmed this, stating that 32-bit CUDA applications are deprecated on GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs.
The news may be disappointing to some gamers, but Nvidia has assured that support remains for all older GPUs and that 64-bit versions of affected games should still run fine.
Source: https://www.pcgamesn.com/nvidia/geforce-rtx-50-series-cards-physx-support