With the release of the RTX 50 series GPUs, Nvidia officially ended support for 32-bit PhysX. The real-time physics simulation engine acquired and developed by the company was used by some iconic games in the past to give players eye candy using various interactive and immersive elements. The retirement arrived as Nvidia dropped support for 32-bit CUDA applications.
However, there is a method to keep using PhysX on the newest hardware and not lose performance: pairing a previous generation Nvidia GPU to just run the PhysX elements. That's exactly what Reddit user "jerubedo" has opted for, letting an RTX 3050 run the proprietary physics effects while a 5090 runs the game.
The user posted on the Nvidia subreddit that they purchased the RTX 3050 for this use because they still play some classic games from time to time and clearly wanted the extra effects without the loss of performance.
Some useful benchmarks were provided by "jerubedo" from games running on this RTX 5090 and RTX 3050 machine too, featuring some massive jumps in performance on Mafia II classic, Batman Arkham Asylum, and others:
Mafia II Classic results:
- Benchmark run without the 3050 and max settings: 28.8 FPS
- Benchmark run with the 3050 and max settings: 157.1 FPS
Batman Arkham Asylum results:
- Benchmark run without the 3050 and max settings: 61 FPS (but with MANY of the scenes in the low 30s and 40s)
- Benchmark run with the 3050 and max settings: 390 FPS
Borderlands 2 results:
- 1 minute gameplay run in area with heavy PhysX without the 3050 and max settings: Could not enable PhysX at ALL. I tried everything including different legacy versions of PhysX and editing .ini files, all to no avail.
- 1 minute gameplay run in area with heavy PhysX with the 3050 and max settings: 122 FPS
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag results:
- Playthrough of intro without 3050 at max settings: 62 FPS (engine locked).
- Playthrough of intro with the 3050 at max settings: also 62 FPS (engine locked).
- It seemed PhysX wasn't dragging this title down when using the CPU for PhysX. I saw the effects working as pieces of the ship were splintering off into the air as it was being hit by cannon balls.
Jerubedo added later that the RTX 3050 usage stays around 40% to 50% while it's doing PhysX work, peaking at 60%, and expressed doubts about older cards being able to get the same level of performance.
For those who want to take the same route, the Nvidia Control Panel currently offers the option to set a card as the main PhysX processor. This setting can be found in the 3D Settings section of the panel, inside "Configure Surround, PhysX" category. Here, the PhysX settings box can be set to a specific GPU before ticking the "Dedicate to PhysX" box to complete the process.
While PhysX is still supported on Nvidia cards prior to the RTX 50 series, the RTX 3050 had been a good option for this use case because of its tiny form factor, depending on the variant. Some versions can run off the PCIe slot's power without external power cables as well, making it a low-profile option for those with extra PCIe slots.
For any RTX 50 series owners who are interested, here are a couple of single fan RTX 3050s that should work for this kind of PhysX-enabling project:
Amazon US: ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 3050
Amazon UK: Palit GeForce RTX 3050 StormX
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