The Dedicated PhysX card FAQ - Read this before asking any questions!

[xibeleli]

so gay , seems like no matter what i do it doesn't work, apart from gpuz showing that it's enabled

[theoneandonlymrk]

you tried driver 258.65? give it a go

[xibeleli]

I havent tried it yet, but will give it a go tommorow. The main problem i'm having is physx not actually working in reality. Absolutely zero load in the physx gpu when i run fluid mark. I also tested on the game alice:madness returns and notice no difference or fps improvement.

Gpuz detects physx however, and i was able to complete the instructions on this guide.

[xibeleli]

Lol working now, turns out all i had to do was delete the necessary physx.dll files to get the gpu to do the physx rendering instead of the cpu doing it.


Result is pretty alright 10fps gain in minimum fps which is a big deal during the lag scenes

[Blue-Tiger]

Originally Posted by theoneandonlymrk

possibly but possibly not much

and for all the last set of 100% working with mod1.04ff drivers are 258.65 Afaik they work solidly and you can still update physx, just re apply the mod each time also ive not met a game that wouldnt work with that combo of the few anyway

Yeah but you won't have to update PhysX drivers anyway Atleast, I haven't...

[xibeleli]

^ Actually now that it's working i can confirm that its working with the latest drivers 275.33

[Ahmad Rady]

The ATI 4870X2 runs well with the GTS250 and PhyX is running well without extra patch!
Just installed the ATI 4870X2 latest driver and the GTS250 with latest driver without PhysX and use an old PhysX software that doesn't support PhysX on CPU.

[Techjon]

I am trying to install a 9800gt as a dedicated physx. I have the 258.96 driver installed with the 1.04 mod. GPU-Z doesn't show physx as enabled. I have tried extending the monitor, I have removed all drivers and reinstalled several times with the same results. Can any tell me what I am doing wrong? I run Win 7 64 bit, i7 975, rampage iii extreme, 1100 watt psu.
Thanks for any help

[erocker]

Originally Posted by Techjon

GPU-Z doesn't show physx as enabled

Have you tested PhysX applications yet? Often GPU-Z and even in the Nvidia CP it will not show PhysX as being enabled yet it will work.

[Techjon]

Originally Posted by erocker

Have you tested PhysX applications yet? Often GPU-Z and even in the Nvidia CP it will not show PhysX as being enabled yet it will work.

No, net yet. Is there any particular application you would recommend?

[erocker]

3DMark Vantage.

[Techjon]

Is there anything in particular I should be paying attention to? Is the only way to test if the 9600gt is working would be to uninstall the 9800gt and run 3DMark Vantage again and compare?

[erocker]

Originally Posted by Techjon

Is there anything in particular I should be paying attention to? Is the only way to test if the 9600gt is working would be to uninstall the 9800gt and run 3DMark Vantage again and compare?

yes

or a PhysX game. I mean, you did installl a PhysX card to use it right?

[tigger]

Would a 9600 gso work as physx card with ati 6850 as main?

[Techjon]

Originally Posted by erocker

yes

or a PhysX game. I mean, you did installl a PhysX card to use it right?

I got it for Alice Madess Returns. I played the game and it does look better! I guess i was looking for cpu-z to confirm it for me! Thanks for your help!

[ad3k]

nice, very VERY creative
well, how about running a 250 gts in pci-e 1x? in previews posts i saw how people mod their pci-e 16x now there isint a strait answer for this one, since 1x works with 2.5gbps and 16x pushes 5gbps would this have a big effect on physx dedicated card?

[RyanL]

Couple of questions. I saw earlier in this thread that CUDA doesn't work when using a Nvidia/ATI hybrid setup. Can anyone confirm this because it was going to be one of the reasons for going with one of these configurations? I would like to go with a GT 520 (or something else very low powered, some of you guys are going way overboard with your dedicated Physx cards). I just discovered that you can open the card slot on a PCI-E on a motherboard, does anyone have any issues with doing this (especially with cards which draw their power from the PCI bus)?

[lucsem70]

I had an ASUS 9800GT 1GB and now i bought an MSI HD6950 TwinfrozerIII 2GB (unlocked), on a 1333 FSB MB, with 2GB of DDR3.
Do you believe i can get better performance from my 6950 using my 9800 as physx dedicated card?

[entropy13]

Originally Posted by lucsem70

I had an ASUS 9800GT 1GB and now i bought an MSI HD6950 TwinfrozerIII 2GB (unlocked), on a 1333 FSB MB, with 2GB of DDR3.
Do you believe i can get better performance from my 6950 using my 9800 as physx dedicated card?

Of course. But the "added" performance is not really quite significant (and there aren't that many games that use PhysX), but since you already have the 9800GT why not use it? Just make sure your PSU can handle it though, and that there's a free slot for a second card.

[kenkickr]

Originally Posted by RyanL

Couple of questions. I saw earlier in this thread that CUDA doesn't work when using a Nvidia/ATI hybrid setup. Can anyone confirm this because it was going to be one of the reasons for going with one of these configurations? I would like to go with a GT 520 (or something else very low powered, some of you guys are going way overboard with your dedicated Physx cards). I just discovered that you can open the card slot on a PCI-E on a motherboard, does anyone have any issues with doing this (especially with cards which draw their power from the PCI bus)?

The only experience I have is with Xilisoft but to answer your question I cannot enable Cuda after setting up a hybrid physx setup. As long as I enable ATI/AMD OpenCL before putting in the Nvidia card I'm atleast able to use OpenCL within Xilisoft.

[newtekie1]

Originally Posted by tigger

Would a 9600 gso work as physx card with ati 6850 as main?

Yes, though the 48 shader version might bog down.

[RyanL]

Originally Posted by kenkickr

The only experience I have is with Xilisoft but to answer your question I cannot enable Cuda after setting up a hybrid physx setup. As long as I enable ATI/AMD OpenCL before putting in the Nvidia card I'm atleast able to use OpenCL within Xilisoft.

Thanks. That's along the same lines as I want to use cudu for; converting videos to MKVs or whatever. It's litterally 10X faster using cuda rather than the CPU. I only wish that Handbrake (best program for that) would impliment cuda support. I kind of came to same conclusion about cuda with a hybrid settup just by looking around, but I thought that you have to do the opposite with the OpenCL; ditch the ATI one and use Nvidia's. I don't know, I'm finding so many conflicting ways on how to actually do this. I'm wondering if there's an actual decent write-up on the subject. Of course there's the developer's thread on NGOHQ (located here), but it is somewhat confusing. In one statement there's a statement that cuda isn't going to work and a little bit down from that it sounds like it could. He also mentions that you have to delete some PhysX files from Mirror's Edge to make this hybrid thing work. Is that the only game you need to do this for or was that just an example? If there's other games that require this, is there a list with instructions floating around somewhere?

Sorry for the long post and I was going to ask these questions over at the NGOHQ forum, but never received an email confirmation from them when I signed up.

[RyanL]

Originally Posted by entropy13

Of course. But the "added" performance is not really quite significant (and there aren't that many games that use PhysX), but since you already have the 9800GT why not use it? Just make sure your PSU can handle it though, and that there's a free slot for a second card.

I just recently came across this myself so I don't how valid it is, but couldn't he throw the 9800GT into a mini PCIe slot by cutting the end of it open with a dremmel tool or knife? I know that the 9800GT wouldn't operated at full speed but I don't think it would need to in this scenario and would be fine. I'm actually looking to do the exact same thing. The only thing that I can't figure out (like I mentioned a few posts up) is whether or not a low powered card which draws its power from the pci bus would work right in this configuration. I'm pretty sure that the 9800GT would be fine since it has a 6 pin power connector.

[lucsem70]

Originally Posted by entropy13

Of course. But the "added" performance is not really quite significant (and there aren't that many games that use PhysX), but since you already have the 9800GT why not use it? Just make sure your PSU can handle it though, and that there's a free slot for a second card.

Thanks
My doubt is that the 9800 support directX 10 and the 6950 support directX 11.
I believe my PSU can support 2 board, it's a th750W corsair, with 6, 6/8 pin for graphic card and 2 slot PCIe 16x is free on my motherboard.
I prepared the DVi-Vga adapter for simulate the 2 monitor (following the dedicated guide), and i'm almost ready to assebly all.

In the case like BF3 that is made with directX 10 (im my pc run low res with 9800 and medium with the 6950), the dedicated card could provide any benefit using the boards togheter?

Thanks again

PS: In a pair of days i'll have back my 6950, that i lent to a friend of mine to try the cross-fire with 2 same boards; then i will give you back the final verdict if there is an improve of performance or not.

[ramintjoo]

Previously couple of days I have seen lots of subjects appearing asking exactly the same questions regarding devoted PhysX cards, and so i figured I'd attempt to answer probably the most common ones here.

What devoted PhysX card must i get?

Most likely typically the most popular question about PhysX cards seen here.

In case your primary graphics card is definitely an nVidia card, the easy response is you do not need a devoted PhysX card, and should not purchase one. Here's why. Using the GTX400 series cards, they're already effective enough to handle PhysX information on their own. They don't have a performance hit in the PhysX information. That is not to express they will not have lower FPS when PhysX is enabled, however the lower FPS is triggered through the extra graphical rendering energy required to render all of the extra contaminants and fragments put into the scene by PhysX, not the PhysX information themselves. Now, if you work with something less than a GTX460 a devoted PhysX card may help try taking some load from the primary GPU. However, the cash could be better allocated to another GPU for SLi than you are on a devoted PhysX card.

In case your primary graphics card is definitely an ATi card, then something very weak is going to be adequate. Generally anything with 64 shaders is going to do the task all right. The GT240 appears to become a extremely popular card, out of the box the GT430. You do not need something more effective than that. PhysX really takes hardly any GPU energy to complete the information.

Will a devoted PhysX card boost performance in each and every game?

Definitely not! It's a common misunderstanding that because basically all the games uses some type of physics engine, that the devoted PhysX card will boost performance in each and every game. You should not confuse physics generally with PhysX. PhysX is simply another physics engine that's only utilized in certain games. Even though their email list of games which use PhysX is sort of large, their email list of games which use hardware faster PhysX is quite small, something similar to 15 games. So only 15 games really make use of the graphics card for PhysX to start with, as well as individuals 15 only something similar to five to six are really the well-known blockbuster games.

Can One play a PhysX game with no nVidia graphics card?

Obviously! However, you won't obtain the top end PhysX effects, which basically comes down to simply eye-chocolate anyway. I have performed each of the large PhysX game titles, and that i can appear at first sight just like enjoyable with no PhysX eye-chocolate just like. Additionally, you will have physic in the overall game. The reason why is PhysX provides a software option that is not as detailed because the hardware faster options, which choice is really what's utilized in the majority of the PhysX games available on the market. For this reason their email list of games which use PhysX is 40-50 games lengthy, however the listing of games which use hardware PhysX is just 15 games lengthy. Software PhysX is fairly on componen when it comes to capacity using the other software physic engines currently available, for example Havok. Which is available too to everybody, without necessity to have an nVidia graphics card within the system. For this reason it's more desirable to game designers compared to hardware faster PhysX.

Miracle traffic bot PhysX option shouldn't be wrongly identified as choice to run the hardware faster PhsyX around the CPU. Individuals are two completely different things. The program choice to PhysX runs the information around the CPU, it tones lower the quantity of information done significantly, having a decreased visual effect clearly. Running hardware accelerted PhysX around the CPU doesn't tone lower the quantity of information, and therefore works very poorly when operate on the CPU, making the overall game virtually unplayable.

Are you able to operate a devoted nVidia GPU with a principal ATi graphics card?

Yes. While not formally supported, there's an easy to use hack that enables this. Read how to get it done here:
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