NVIDIA restores 32-bit PhysX support for GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics cards

When NVIDIA launched the RTX Blackwell-powered GeForce RTX 50 Series earlier this year, it was discovered that the company quietly dropped 32-bit support for CUDA. This meant that older titles that used the company's PhysX acceleration for in-game physics offloaded the physics calculations to the CPU, significantly impacting performance.

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Borderlands 2 on PC included support for NVIDIA PhysX for more realistic explosions and particle effects, image credit: 2K/Gearbox.

At the time, some users noted that playing a game like Borderlands 2 with PhysX enabled saw performance drop to below 60 FPS in 4K on the GeForce RTX 5090, when the RTX 4090 could easily push 120 FPS. Well, there's some good news on this front: NVIDIA has reinstated 32-bit GPU-accelerated PhysX support for select games on GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs with the latest GeForce Game Ready 591.44 WHQL driver release.

• Read more: NVIDIA's RTX 50 series slows down classic games after dropping PhysX support

"We heard the feedback from the community, and with the launch of our new driver today, we are adding custom support for GeForce gamers' most played PhysX-accelerated games, enabling full performance on GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs, in line with our existing PhysX support on prior-generation GPUs," NVIDIA writes, confirming that it's reinstating support one game at time, with a focus on the most enduring titles from the 32-bit PhysX era.

The first batch of nine games that will run at full speed again includes the following:

• Alice: Madness Returns
• Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
• Batman: Arkham City
• Batman: Arkham Origins
• Borderlands 2
• Mafia II
• Metro 2033
• Metro: Last Light
• Mirror's Edge

NVIDIA adds that support for Batman: Arkham Asylum will be available in early 2026. PhysX is one of NVIDIA's legacy technologies, with GPU hardware handling physics simulation like ragdoll effects, cloth, particles, fluids, and more.