PhysX old game test: GTX 980Ti beats RTX 5080

2025-02-25 22:48:26|Myriagame |source：minecraft skins

Nvidia recently canceled support for 32-bit CUDA applications in its latest RTX 50 series GPUs, meaning many older games that rely on 32-bit PhysX won't run the PhysX effects properly on such new GPUs.Although PhysX technology is not completely abandoned by Nvidia (for example, it can still be used properly in the 64-bit application Batman: Arkham Knight), most of the old games containing PhysX are based on 32-bit CUDA for historical reasons.library compiled, and the RTX 50 series no longer supports these legacy environments.This is mainly a software limitation. Although maintaining compatibility with old systems sounds simple, it is quite challenging to operate.

Problems and solutions for 32-bit PhysX games

When running 32-bit PhysX games on RTX 50 series GPUs, enabling PhysX may cause game crashes, or PhysX calculations will fall back to CPU processing, seriously affecting performance.To solve this problem, some users choose to buy a separate old model of GPU (such as the RTX 3050) and use it with the main RTX 5090.Through the Nvidia control panel, users can transfer PhysX calculations to this separate old GPU, so that they can continue to enjoy PhysX effects in 32-bit games without affecting the performance of 64-bit games (64-bit games will still use the main GPU.Such as RTX 5090).

Performance comparison: The performance of new and old GPUs in PhysX games

Some benchmarks show that in old games that rely on 32-bit PhysX, the new generation of RTX 50 series GPUs are far less likely than the older model GPUs.For example:

In "Edge of Mirror", the frame rate of the RTX 5080 even dropped to less than 10 FPS in some scenarios, while the GTX 980 Ti can stabilize at close to 150 FPS.

In Borderlands 2, the GTX 980 Ti performs almost twice as much as the RTX 5080.

These performance differences mainly stem from the specific implementation of PhysX by the game.It should be noted that the GTX 980 Ti was paired with the older Core i5-4690K processor in the test, while the RTX 5080 was paired with the more modern Ryzen 7 9800X3D, but this did not change the old GPU in 32-bit PhysX gamessignificant advantages.

The History and Future of PhysX

PhysX technology was once an important part of the physical effects of games. As early as 20 years ago, processors (PPUs, physical processing units) specifically used for physical computing were quite popular.Ageia once produced such equipment and was later acquired by Nvidia.However, over time, support for PhysX has gradually decreased, especially in a 32-bit environment, which has now completely withdrawn from the stage of history.

For modern gaming, a few 64-bit applications that still use PhysX should still work properly on RTX 50 series GPUs.But for older games that rely on 32-bit PhysX, Nvidia seems unlikely to restore compatibility to legacy CUDA applications.

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