Isaac Sim + Newton Physics on H100 GPU

Omniverse Isaac Sim
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GPU Information

  • Model: Nvidia H100 NVL
  • Driver Version: 550.163.01

Topic Description

Isaac Sim support on H100 GPU without RT Cores

Detailed Description

I am planning to use NVIDIA Isaac Sim with the Newton physics engine on an NVIDIA H100 GPU for the following robotics simulations:

🚤 Autonomous boat simulation
🤖 All-terrain autonomous mobile robot simulation

My primary focus is on:

  • ROS 2 integration

  • Navigation and autonomy stack testing

  • Physics simulation

  • Terrain interaction and mobility testing

While researching, I found that the NVIDIA H100 does not contain RT Cores, which are typically required for RTX-based sensors such as:

  • RTX LiDAR

  • RTX Radar

  • RTX Camera sensors

So before deploying my workloads, I wanted to clarify:

  1. Can Isaac Sim + Newton Physics run properly on H100 without RTX sensor support?

  2. Are there any non-RTX alternatives available for LiDAR/Radar simulation?

  3. Is H100 suitable mainly for physics, AI compute, and robotics autonomy workloads in Isaac Sim?

Expected Behavior

  • I expect Isaac Sim and Newton Physics to work correctly for robotics simulation workloads even if RTX sensor functionality is limited or unavailable.
  • I am also comfortable running Isaac Sim in headless mode if that is the recommended approach for H100-based deployments.

Actual Concern
Potential incompatibility or limited functionality of RTX-based sensors due to absence of RT Cores on H100 GPUs.

Additional Information

The simulations are intended for:

  • Autonomous Surface Vehicles (ASV)
  • Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV)
  • ROS 2 based autonomy stack testing
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“Potential incompatibility or limited functionality of RTX-based sensors due to absence of RT Cores on H100 GPUs” - So then you have your answer. Do not use a non RTX card. Why try to force it?

  1. Can Isaac Sim + Newton Physics run properly on H100 without RTX sensor support?
    No, this is not possible. You need an RTX Card to run Omniverse.

  2. Are there any non-RTX alternatives available for LiDAR/Radar simulation?
    But why? We require an RTX Card. Why can you not acquire access to an RTX card, if you can acquire access to an H100?

  3. Is H100 suitable mainly for physics, AI compute, and robotics autonomy workloads in Isaac Sim?
    An H100 is for compute ONLY. It is not suitable for anything Isaac Sim.

It sounds to me you have access to an H100 and you are trying to force it for use with Isaac Sim. This will not work. You need an A5000, A6000 or a L40/L40s.

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Okay, thank you for your prompt response