NVIDIA's 32-Bit PhysX Waves Goodbye with GeForce RTX 50 Series Ending 32-Bit CUDA Software Support

[AleksandarK]

The days of 32-bit software support in NVIDIA's drivers are coming to an end, and with that, so does the support for the once iconic PhysX real-time physics engine. According to NVIDIA's engineers on GeForce forums, the lack of PhysX support has been quietly acknowledged, as NVIDIA's latest GeForce RTX 50 series of GPUs are phasing out support for 32-bit CUDA software, slowly transitioning the gaming world to the 64-bit software entirely. While older NVIDIA GPUs from the Maxwell through Ada generations will maintain 32-bit CUDA support, this update breaks backward compatibility for physics acceleration in legacy PC games on new GPUs. Users running these titles on RTX 50 series cards may need to rely on CPU-based PhysX processing, which could result in suboptimal performance compared to previous GPU generations.

A Reddit user reported frame rates dropping below 60 FPS in Borderlands 2 while using basic game mechanics with a 9800X3D CPU and RTX 5090 GPU, all because 32-bit CUDA application support on Blackwell architecture is depreciated. When another user booted up a 64-bit PhysX application, Batman Arkham Knight, PhysX worked perfectly, as expected. It is just that a massive list of older games, which gamers would sometimes prefer to play, is now running a lot slower on the most powerful consumer GPU due to the phase-out of 32-bit CUDA app support.




Here is a comprehensive list of games that use 32-bit PhysX, which will be runnin slower if the latest GeForce RTX 50 series is used, nicely compiled by a Resetera forum user: Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, Crazy Machines 2, Unreal Tournament 3, Warmonger: Operation Downtown Destruction, Hot Dance Party, QQ Dance, Hot Dance Party II, Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason, Mirror's Edge, Armageddon Riders, Darkest of Days, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Sacred 2: Ice & Blood, Shattered Horizon, Star Trek DAC, Metro 2033, Dark Void, Blur, Mafia II, Hydrophobia: Prophecy, Jianxia 3, Alice: Madness Returns, MStar, Batman: Arkham City, 7554, Depth Hunter, Deep Black, Gas Guzzlers: Combat Carnage, The Secret World, Continent of the Ninth (C9), Borderlands 2, Passion Leads Army, QQ Dance 2, Star Trek, Mars: War Logs, Metro: Last Light, Rise of the Triad, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, Batman: Arkham Origins, and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.

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[Chaitanya]

Wondering what will happen with GTA-4 which also had pretty good implementation of Physx.

 

[azrael]

Two things:

1. There might be a run now on whatever 40 series cards are still available.
2. Game studio execs are probably salivating at the thought of being able to sell you "remastered editions" that bring back lost functionality.

 

[_roman_]

Finally the official information topic for it while others were arguing over it already.

Other people claimed: you want hardware physx support get a 4000 nvidia gpu fast.

It seems it was a game from 2013 and not from the dosage. rott.exe from around year 1996. I highly doubt it had phsyx. The 2013 seems to be broken. I gave up looking.
Rise of the Triad

Game crashes both 32 and 64 bit versions due to Physx :: Rise of the Triad Bug/Performance Reporting

PC is updated with latest drivers from Nvidia, running on a GTX 970 Game crashes randomly on levels, error in event log Faulting application name: ROTT.exe, version: 1.0.10508.0, time stamp: 0x555d7241 Faulting module name: PhysXCore.dll, version: 2.8.4.6, time stamp: 0x500d62d4 Exception code...

steamcommunity.com

Is this game completely abandoned at this point? :: Rise of the Triad ROTT '13

I know it's from 2013... but still... No change of updates anymore? I mean.. PhysX is straight up broken and only causes the banners to look crazy and stretched out. Resolution options are limited and I had to go into config files to make it run in 4k, which is hardly anything new, but then the...

steamcommunity.com

Interesting statement there

it's exactly this, the 7xx series and up had some changes that handle old physx differently or something. I had to say goodbye to it when I upgraded to a 770

I assuem you most likely need a retro computer box with a nvidia 600 gpu or older. Good luck finding parts, the software, the games.

 

[Kirederf]

Just add an old, second GPU to your rig to run Physx? Just like in the old days with that PhysX add-in card

 

[Klemc]

Convert those few games to x64 without remaster, it's binaries only, not assets, should fix the NV drop.

 

[tommo1982]

Sepparate PhysX addon card for older games? I wonder how much it would cost. I saw once such card, but I don't even remember the year.

 

[Verpal]

Black Flag? Quick Ubisoft remaster the thing before you go bankrupt!

 

[azrael]

Convert those few games to x64 without remaster, it's binaries only, not assets, should fix the NV drop.

Much easier said than done. Upgrading code from 32 bit to 64 bit is not a trivial matter. I'm saying this as a systems developer.

 

[TheDeeGee]

Enjoy this kind of FPS on your 50-series now, thank you for buying our product!

Two things:

1. There might be a run now on whatever 40 series cards are still available.
2. Game studio execs are probably salivating at the thought of being able to sell you "remastered editions" that bring back lost functionality.

Sadly EA burried Alice on their graveyard, we'll never see a Alice: Madness Returns remaster, which also has very cool PhysX.

 

[Legacy-ZA]

Enjoy this kind of FPS on your 50-series now, thank you for buying our product!

Sadly EA burried Alice on their graveyard, we'll never see a Alice: Madness Returns remaster, which also has very cool PhysX.

The games that used it, still has some of the most stunning effects because of it, Assassins Creed IV - Black Flag, or Metro 2033 / Last light.

It is Open Source though, so I am sure we can just mod it in. That being said, to me it's a very stupid move on nVidias part, as many gamers still play those older titles and buy their GPUs for PhysX, me being one of them.

Anyways, curious to see what really happens, perhaps this is what is causing all the drive issues and they just temporarily removed it, but they really need to find a way to re-enable it, when there is a will, there is a way, people aren't happy about this at all,

 

[Shihab]

Convert those few games to x64 without remaster, it's binaries only, not assets, should fix the NV drop.

Building HelloWorld.cpp for 64bit is as easy as switching build target from some drop-down menu. Building a game with tonnes of libraries and other middlware - some might not even have 64bit builds and others probably with API/ABI breaking changes - is definitely not going to be fun...
And that's assuming no architecture-dependant code was used (which is a stretch for AA/AAA games).

I guess this could be circumvented by having multiple CUDA drivers? Dunno if it could be pulled on Windows tho.
Old PhysX games did go through some issues. Nvidia does have a seperate, "legacy" version of the driver for these cases. I guess someone could figure a way to keep old CUDA drivers around as well.

Or the simplest of all solutions (although not necessarily the wisest): Stick to old drivers.

 

[Frick]

RTX 50-Series GPUs have dropped support for 32-bit PhysX; many older PC games are impacted (Mirror's Edge, Borderlands, etc) PC

https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/1irs8xk/rtx_50_series_silently_removed_32bit_physx_support/ A user on Reddit tested Borderlands 2 with a 9800X3D and RTX 5090 and they said this...

www.resetera.com

 

[remekra]

Enjoy this kind of FPS on your 50-series now, thank you for buying our product!

Sadly EA burried Alice on their graveyard, we'll never see a Alice: Madness Returns remaster, which also has very cool PhysX.

120 FPS on 4090 in a 16 years old game to get mid looking smoke, wow what a loss.

 

[Legacy-ZA]

View attachment 385577

120 FPS on 4090 in a 16 years old game to get mid looking smoke, wow what a loss.

Yep, they are going to have to find a way, don't care how they do it.

 

[Aquilino]

Building HelloWorld.cpp for 64bit is as easy as switching build target from some drop-down menu. Building a game with tonnes of libraries and other middlware - some might not even have 64bit builds and others probably with API/ABI breaking changes - is definitely not going to be fun...
And that's assuming no architecture-dependant code was used (which is a stretch for AA/AAA games).

I guess this could be circumvented by having multiple CUDA drivers? Dunno if it could be pulled on Windows tho.
Old PhysX games did go through some issues. Nvidia does have a seperate, "legacy" version of the driver for these cases. I guess someone could figure a way to keep old CUDA drivers around as well.

Or the simplest of all solutions (although not necessarily the wisest): Stick to old drivers.

Ok, ok, no hay problema amigo.
You just have to rename the exe. From game.exe to game64.exe. Bam! Now it's compatible.
Y'all welcome.

 

[Shihab]

120 FPS on 4090 in a 16 years old game to get mid looking smoke, wow what a loss.

Physics simulations aren't about still shots looks tho. That's a shader thing, not PhysX's.

The fluid sim is mid (game's age notwithstanding), but interactive smoke? That's neat (and costly)!

Ok, ok, no hay problema amigo.
You just have to rename the exe. From game.exe to game64.exe. Bam! Now it's compatible.
Y'all welcome.

If this was AMD, I wouldn't have ruled out this as a valid workaround.

 

[Onasi]

The fluid sim is mid (game's age notwithstanding), but interactive smoke? That's neat (and costly)!

Granted, it could be argued that doing it via complex simulations like NV did is actually very inefficient and outdated, if we talk smoke. After seeing Valves volumetric based approach in Source 2 that seems like a better way forward.

 

[Assimilator]

Because I am not an animal like OP, here's the list of games ordered alphabetically.

7554
Alice: Madness Returns
Armageddon Riders
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Batman: Arkham City
Batman: Arkham Origins
Blur
Borderlands 2
Continent of the Ninth (C9)
Crazy Machines 2
Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason
Dark Void
Darkest of Days
Deep Black
Depth Hunter
Gas Guzzlers: Combat Carnage
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
Hot Dance Party
Hot Dance Party II
Hydrophobia: Prophecy
Jianxia 3
Mafia II
Mars: War Logs
Metro 2033
Metro: Last Light
Mirror's Edge
Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia
MStar
Passion Leads Army
QQ Dance
QQ Dance 2
Rise of the Triad
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel
Sacred 2: Ice & Blood
The Secret World
Shattered Horizon
Star Trek
Star Trek DAC
Unreal Tournament 3
Warmonger: Operation Downtown Destruction
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified

 

[Fouquin]

Reject modernity. Return to tradition.

 

[k0vasz]

The games that used it, still has some of the most stunning effects because of it, Assassins Creed IV - Black Flag, or Metro 2033 / Last light.

It is Open Source though, so I am sure we can just mod it in. That being said, to me it's a very stupid move on nVidias part, as many gamers still play those older titles and buy their GPUs for PhysX, me being one of them.

Anyways, curious to see what really happens, perhaps this is what is causing all the drive issues and they just temporarily removed it, but they really need to find a way to re-enable it, when there is a will, there is a way, people aren't happy about this at all,

I don't think "many" gamers bought nvidia because of physix. it was an even more niche feature than ray tracing, and there was even less games that implemented it

 

[remekra]

I don't think "many" gamers bought nvidia because of physix. it was an even more niche feature than ray tracing, and there was even less games that implemented it

Now it's going to be a most important feature.

 

[Legacy-ZA]

Reject modernity. Return to tradition.

View attachment 385584

I used to do this for Battlefield Bad Company 2 when I used my Radeon HD, well before they locked it.

I don't think "many" gamers bought nvidia because of physix. it was an even more niche feature than ray tracing, and there was even less games that implemented it

Okay.

 

[Carillon]

I don't think "many" gamers bought nvidia because of physix. it was an even more niche feature than ray tracing, and there was even less games that implemented it

i remember even hardcore AMD fanboys buying a geforce to play with physx, what killed it was nvidia making it incompatible with radeons.

 

[Klemc]

That's all games i'd loose access if i had a 50x :

Arkham Asylum
Arkham City
Arkham Origins
Alice: Madness Returns
Unreal Tournament 3

Not that much.