The ZLUDA project, which runs software for NVIDIA CUDA on graphics cards from other manufacturers, has received update v6 with support for NVIDIA PhysX (32-bit CUDA) on AMD Radeon.
Now Radeon owners can run old games with hardware PhysX effects without an additional NVIDIA graphics card. Previously, this often required a second GPU.
As an example, a Mafia II test on a PC with AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Radeon RX 9070 XT is cited: — before ZLUDA PhysX: 26.2 FPS (rating D); — after ZLUDA PhysX: 80.2 FPS (rating A).
The developers noted an almost threefold performance increase, which allows turning a "slideshow" into a comfortable gaming experience.
The update also improves ZLUDA's operation in Windows: texture support has been added, stability in Blender and games has been improved, compatibility with Windows ML and diagnostics for missing ROCm libraries have been enhanced.
The project remains open source and is being developed as a hobby. Users report rare visual artifacts in fluid simulation and issues with loading libraries in some Steam games. The author promises to continue developing ZLUDA, although updates will be released less frequently.