Glossary:PhysX
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Nvidia Corporation | |
Middleware used by many games for physics effects, and selected titles may special additional features like extra particles (dust, smoke, debris) or advanced cloth simulation.
Key points
- As of 2020, most games making use of PhysX run the physics effects exclusively on the CPU regardless of hardware. Hardware accelerated physics are limited to older games.[1]
- PhysX does not require hardware acceleration to run physics simulations,[Note 1] but was typically required to achieve a playable framerate.
General information
System Software versions
- These provide the PhysX runtime necessary for every pre-2.8.4 game, and the occasional title-specific update for those afterwards[3]
There are two releases of the PhysX driver that should be installed:
Version | Release Date | Operating Systems | SDK versions | Supported Products | Notes |
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9.19.0218[4] | 2019.03.08 | Windows 7 64-bit, Windows Vista 64-bit, Windows 8.1 32-bit, Windows 8.1 64-bit, Windows 8 64-bit, Windows 7 32-bit, Windows 10 64-bit, Windows XP 64-bit, Windows Vista, Windows 10 32-bit, Windows 8 32-bit, Windows XP | 2.7.1, 2.7.3, 2.7.4, 2.7.5, 2.7.6, 2.8.0, 2.8.1, 2.8.3, 2.8.4, and above | all GeForce 9‑series, 100‑series to 900‑series GPUs, and the new 1000 series GPUs with a minimum of 256MB dedicated graphics memory | |
9.13.0604[5] | 2013.07.18 | Windows 7 64-bit, Windows XP, Windows Vista 64-bit, Windows 8.1 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit, Windows Vista, Windows 7 32-bit | 2.7.0 and prior as well as 2.7.2 | all GeForce 8-series, 9-series, 100-series, 200-series, 300-series, 400-series, 500-series, and 600-series GPUs with a minimum of 256MB dedicated graphics memory | These SDKs run on the CPU only |
- NVIDIA PhysX System Software for games built on any runtime version that supports GPU acceleration[Note 2]
- PhysX Legacy System Software for all the others, generally found up to ~2008 (using version 2.7.2 or before 2.7.1)
If you are using an Nvidia graphics card the first package may be already included with the drivers.
PhysX v2.5.2 compatibility
- The NVIDIA PhysX Legacy System Software does not include v2.5.2; this is known to affect Infernal and The Void but there may be other affected games.
Download missing DLLs[citation needed] |
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Secondary PhysX card with an AMD/ATI video card
- Nvidia only allows a secondary Nvidia card to be used for PhysX if the primary card is also an Nvidia card (or since 372.70, if any monitor is reported attached to it[6]).
- Windows 7 or Windows XP/Windows 2003 are required (Windows Vista will not work)
Install necessary files[7] |
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Notes
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Issues fixed
"The program cannot start because PhysXLoader.dll is missing from your computer" error at launch
Install latest versions of the PhysX System Software |
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Games prefer private own libraries to system ones
Kill local hack[8] |
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Notes
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Delete/move/rename PhysXCore.dll , usually found in game executable directory
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Notes
References
- ↑ Verified by User:Aemony on 2023-08-31
- Hard to nail this down exactly, but as of 2023 there hasn't been any major games using GPU accelerated PhysX for almost close to a decade or so maybe? Meanwhile Unity games all used CPU accelerated PhysX for all of its physics.
- ↑ Geforce 8 or later cards that don't support PhysX? - PinoyPC Forums
- ↑ The Evolution of PhysX System Software | PhysXInfo.com (retrieved)
- ↑ https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/physx/physx-9-19-0218-driver/
- ↑ https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/physx/physx-9-13-0604-legacy-driver/
- ↑ Hybrid GPU-pairing is finally "legal" (aka Hybrid PhysX reloaded)
- ↑ Hybrid PhysX - PhysX Wiki (retrieved)
- ↑ PhsyX, Mirror's Edge, and You - Steam Users' Forums (retrieved)