myne wrote on 2025-03-14, 09:43:

Pretty sure windows deals with different drivers for different cards fine if you manually set it

Yes, BUT only IF said cards use chips from different companies (like Intel/AMD + NV).
In other words :
You can have AMD and NV card at the same time in one PC (even throwing Intel one into the mix SHOULD be fine). However Windows driver stack will drop the ball the moment two Nvidia drivers "see" each other.
NV cards require one driver to support ALL NV cards, otherwise one of them fails to work. You MIGHT be able to get away with super old driver (pre-DX10) to work alongside RTX 50 modern one, but there is no much point in testing that.

agent_x007 wrote on 2025-03-14, 10:17:

Yes, BUT only IF said cards use chips from different companies (like Intel/AMD + NV). In other words : You can have AMD and NV […]
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Yes, BUT only IF said cards use chips from different companies (like Intel/AMD + NV).
In other words :
You can have AMD and NV card at the same time in one PC (even throwing Intel one into the mix SHOULD be fine). However Windows driver stack will drop the ball the moment two Nvidia drivers "see" each other.
NV cards require one driver to support ALL NV cards, otherwise one of them fails to work. You MIGHT be able to get away with super old driver (pre-DX10) to work alongside RTX 50 modern one, but there is no much point in testing that.

Sooooo... It may be easier to run one of those older nVidia cards alongside a Radeon 9070XT?

The topic of "hardware Physx" is already exactly 15 years old, and it managed to die before it even began.
https://list.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_games_wi … d_PhysX_support
Given your genre preferences, you will play about 5 games from the list and only once.
It's easier to get a GTX560 and not suffer.

You can try running Hybrid Physics.
I did it 10 years ago for Metro 2033. (HD6950+GT8600)
This requires the ForceWare 257.15 Beta driver
All other drivers block the use of physx on a card that does not runing the game.
And a GT240 type card.
I'm not sure that this driver will work on Windows 10 or 11.
And I'm not at all sure that the GT240 has a GOP driver in the video BIOS to run under UEFI for modern system.

It's easier to get a GTX560 😀
But the owners of 5090 probably have a different view of the problem.

Here's a list of Nvidia PhysX games where the end of support really doesn't matter in the long run, because they are DRM free or not only exclusively tied to online DRMs like Steam, so you can launch them on any old system:

• Unreal Tournament 3
• Sacred 2
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
• Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason
• Mirror's Edge
• Batman: Arkham Asylum
• Batman: Arkham City
• Batman: Arkham Origins
• Dark Void (SecuROM version)
• Mafia II Classic
• Rise of the Triad 2013 (supposedly has some GPU acceleration)
• The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
• Darkest of Days
• Hawken (officially dead, but reverse engineered by the community, probably works on Windows 7)

And here are games which will have long term issues (unless DRM is not addressed):

• Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
• Borderlands 2
• Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!
• Metro 2033 (not an issue if you prefer Redux)
• Metro Last Light (not an issue if you prefer Redux)
• Star Trek DAC

Maybe a few more obscure game titles that I've missed. Keep in mind that so far Steam still works on Windows 7, so only Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag could be a problem. Ageia PPU is another can of worms, but it was that way for a long time.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2025-03-16, 17:08:

Darkest of Days

I have to wonder how bad that title will run, I saw a video by MandaloreGaming about it and the graphics seemed rather glitchy.

Don't rely on Steam to play YOUR games. If you choose to buy games on Steam instead of elsewhere then only buy games where the DRM can be bypassed or removed then you have one less problem.

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vogonsorg/O … es_03052025.txt

Ali uPlay Emulator (Ubishit)
Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag

nEOS (Epic)
Borderlands 2 (Unknown if works on newer versions)
Borderlands 2 The Pre-Sequel

Codex Steam Emu (Steam) (Vista)
Borderlands 2
Borderlands 2 The Pre-Sequel

Skidrow Steam Emu + CEG (Steam) (XP)
Borderlands 2

SSE or Goldberg (Steam) (XP)
Borderlands 2 The Pre-Sequel

SSE (Steam) (XP)
Metro 2033

Goldberg Steam Emu (Steam)(Linux)
Metro Last Light

Steamless (Steam) (Vista)
Metro Last Light

DosFreak wrote on 2025-03-16, 18:50:

Ali uPlay Emulator (Ubishit)

Slightly off topic, can this be used for Splinter Cell: Conviction as well?

I have it on Steam, but I can't be bothered to deal with that uPlay crap. Which I why I now also have the Xbox360 version, but that runs at 720p of course. If possible, I'd like to un-DRM my Steam version.

For Conviction I had to use the Skidrow crack.

Here's another PhysX comparison video, this time featuring Mirror's Edge and Borderlands 2.

Have fun watching a 9800X3D + RTX 5080 get 7 FPS in Mirror's Edge. 😁

I don't know anything about this stuff, but wouldn't a wrapper or thunker of some kind be a possible workaround to this ?

Granted, someone with the motivation and talent would need to write one, assuming it is even possible and not disallowed by Nvidia through some licensing restriction.

darry wrote on 2025-03-20, 20:15:

I don't know anything about this stuff, but wouldn't a wrapper or thunker of some kind be a possible workaround to this ?

Granted, someone with the motivation and talent would need to write one, assuming it is even possible and not disallowed by Nvidia through some licensing restriction.

But for what?

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-03-20, 17:57:

Here's another PhysX comparison video, this time featuring Mirror's Edge and Borderlands 2.

Have fun watching a 9800X3D + RTX 5080 get 7 FPS in Mirror's Edge. 😁

OMG, a 2009 game runs slow on modern hardware.
How can we live with this? 😀

shevalier wrote on 2025-03-21, 05:01:

But for what?

For this: GPU PhysX in Mirror's Edge. To me, that looks impressive even by today's standards, especially the cloth physics.

OMG, a 2009 game runs slow on modern hardware.
How can we live with this? 😀

That would have been a fair point, if Mirror's Edge didn't run perfectly on a 4090 card. So it's not a simple "game is too old" issue.

As for the Ageia, they went down because no one wanted to buy their $299 dedicated PPU back in 2005. Games barely used this tech until Nvidia acquired Ageia in 2008 and started running PhysX on the GPU.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-03-21, 06:41:

That would have been a fair point, if Mirror's Edge didn't run perfectly on a 4090 card. So it's not a simple "game is too old" issue.

Real problems with Nvidia 50 series video cards:
-cost
-power consumption
-lack of video cards for sale
-burning connectors.

Not supporting 10 games that were released 15 years ago is a hype.
With the cost of 5090 being 2-5 k$, is it a problem to buy 750Ti for PhysX for 30 bucks?
When these games were relevant, even a dedicated GT250 graphics card was enough for PhysX.

shevalier wrote on 2025-03-21, 12:06:

When these games were relevant, even a dedicated GT250 graphics card was enough for PhysX.

I would have to disagree on this.

I got myself a laptop in 2013, a nice ASUS N56VZ, with an i7 3630qm and a GT650m.
A card fast enough to run every 7th gen game at 1080p with, at minimum, 30 fps.

Yet, enabling PhysX in either Batman game would result in performances tanking to the low 10s.

To have a nice high res experience in PhysX games you would need, IMHO, at least a GTX970.
I'm planning in getting either a 1060 or a 1070 for my Win7 retrobox.

A separate G92 card (GeForce 8800/9800 or GTS 240/250) is enough for early PhysX games like Mirror's Edge, but somewhat weak for stable framerate in Mafia 2 and Borderlands 2, which throw a LOT of particles.

shevalier wrote on 2025-03-21, 12:06:

Not supporting 10 games that were released 15 years ago is a hype.
With the cost of 5090 being 2-5 k$, is it a problem to buy 750Ti for PhysX for 30 bucks?

The RTX 5090 doesn't leave much room for a second video card, especially on recent motherboards.

GemCookie wrote on 2025-03-21, 16:04:

The RTX 5090 doesn't leave much room for a second video card, especially on recent motherboards.

So it's time to do as Mondodimotori does 😀

Mondodimotori wrote on 2025-03-21, 15:22:

I'm planning in getting either a 1060 or a 1070 for my Win7 retrobox.

shevalier wrote on 2025-03-21, 12:06:

Real problems with Nvidia 50 series video cards: -cost -power consumption -lack of video cards for sale -burning connectors. […]
Show full quote

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-03-21, 06:41:

That would have been a fair point, if Mirror's Edge didn't run perfectly on a 4090 card. So it's not a simple "game is too old" issue.

Real problems with Nvidia 50 series video cards:
-cost
-power consumption
-lack of video cards for sale
-burning connectors.

Not supporting 10 games that were released 15 years ago is a hype.
With the cost of 5090 being 2-5 k$, is it a problem to buy 750Ti for PhysX for 30 bucks?
When these games were relevant, even a dedicated GT250 graphics card was enough for PhysX.

The problem is not the 5090, it's the whole 50 series and everything that will come after it. i.e. 60 series, etc

Granted, the issue does not affect that many games and there are workarounds (a secondary older GPU along with the main one), but that will not always be practical as newer generations (60 series +) will require newer drivers and said drivers will eventually drop older 32-bit CUDA enabled GPUs.

darry wrote on 2025-03-22, 02:00:

The problem is not the 5090, it's the whole 50 series

The release date of 5060 and 5050 has been postponed until summer, or forever)))
It is more interesting to sell AI accelerators than video cards.
5070/Ti - cost the same as 1080 at the time of release - and 2 times more than the recommended price.
And they are also not really available.
Against this background, the minimally supported by driver 750TI does not look like the most expensive part of the computer.

darry wrote on 2025-03-22, 02:00:

and everything that will come after it. i.e. 60 series, etc

This event was bound to happen sooner or later.
Well, no one is complaining that Microsoft doesn't make more 32-bit systems.
The real problem is the 10 games (I'm sure you, like me, haven't heard of or played the rest of the list) that were released 15 years ago.

shevalier wrote on 2025-03-22, 04:44:

The release date of 5060 and 5050 has been postponed until summer, or forever))) It is more interesting to sell AI accelerators […]
Show full quote

darry wrote on 2025-03-22, 02:00:

The problem is not the 5090, it's the whole 50 series

The release date of 5060 and 5050 has been postponed until summer, or forever)))
It is more interesting to sell AI accelerators than video cards.
5070/Ti - cost the same as 1080 at the time of release - and 2 times more than the recommended price.
And they are also not really available.
Against this background, the minimally supported by driver 750TI does not look like the most expensive part of the computer.

darry wrote on 2025-03-22, 02:00:

and everything that will come after it. i.e. 60 series, etc

Well, no one is complaining that Microsoft doesn't make more 32-bit systems.
The real problem is the 10 games (I'm sure you, like me, haven't heard of or played the rest of the list) that were released 15 years ago.

I don't disagree, but I'm still hoping for a wrapper, eventually. I tend to play AAA games 5 to 15 years after release, so yeah, I'll probably be getting into some of those soon-ish. 😀