Nvidia has quietly ended support for 32-bit PhysX on its new RTX 50-series, so games like Batman: Arkham City might look and run better on older GPUs

Nvidia RTX 5090 Founders Edition graphics card on different backgrounds — (Image credit: Future)

32-bit implementations of PhysX, Nvidia's physics engine, will finally lose support in RTX 50 series cards, in a move to remove 32-bit CUDA application support on its latest graphics cards. Removing PhysX support means that some games from the 2000s and early 2010s will lose part of the way they implement particle and clothing effects. This will hit titles like Mirror's Edge, Mafia II, and Batman: Arkham City, but the quickest solution right now is to simply disable PhysX the first time you boot them up.

As originally spotted on the Nvidia forums (via PCGamesN), one user noticed that PhysX was attempting to use hardware acceleration via their CPU instead of their brand-new RTX 5090 when they forced their rig to run PhysX, affecting game performance. In response, Nvidia staff responded, saying: "This is expected behavior as 32-bit CUDA applications are deprecated on GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs".

Over on ResetEra, a big list of 32-bit PhysX-supported games was posted, including some big titles Metro: Last Light, Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2. Though there are notable implementations of this technology, it is still fairly niche as it not only requires a lot of work and can only work in PhysX-enabled Nvidia cards, but it also had questionable performance.

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James is a more recent PC gaming convert, often admiring graphics cards, cases, and motherboards from afar. It was not until 2019, after just finishing a degree in law and media, that they decided to throw out the last few years of education, build their PC, and start writing about gaming instead. In that time, he has covered the latest doodads, contraptions, and gismos, and loved every second of it. Hey, it’s better than writing case briefs.