Having an 8 Series & a 200 Series Card on the Same System

[Flava0ne]

Can I have an 8 series video card, like my old 8800 Ultra as a secondary GPU along with the MSI GTX 275 Lighning video card that I just purchased from TheGoat Eater in my system but not run them in SLI? Because wouldn't the secondary GPU just act like the PPU?

 

[newtekie1]

Yes, you can. Though it would be a total waste.

For the extremely few games(3-4 good ones) that would actually use it, having an 8800Ultra wouldn't be worth the power used. Not to mention the performance improvement over just using the GTX275 for PhysX would be minimal.

 

[Flava0ne]

Yes, you can. Though it would be a total waste.

LOL I guess it would be. But wouldn't it be better than just having the 1 GTX 275 Lightning?

EDIT: Yeah that makes sense. My 8800 Ultra does use up a lot of power.

 

[newtekie1]

LOL I guess it would be. But wouldn't it be better than just having the 1 GTX 275 Lightning?

Not really. The GTX275 is plenty powerful enough to run PhysX by itself while doing the graphics also.

If you really want a dedicated PPU, sell that 8800Ultra which should catch a very nice price and get something like a 9600GT Low Power edition.

 

[Flava0ne]

Not really. The GTX275 is plenty powerful enough to run PhysX by itself while doing the graphics also.

If you really want a dedicated PPU, sell that 8800Ultra which should catch a very nice price and get something like a 9600GT Low Power edition.

How bout an 8800 GT 512MB? Because I got a friend who would love to trade his for one of my 8800 Ultra's plus a little bit of cash on top of it.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

The GTX275 takes quite a big performance hit if you use it for PhysX, as does every other pre-Fermi card. This happens because the schedulers cannot switch efficiently between physX and shading calculations.

That said, keep the 8800 Ultra (or switch to the 8800GT which should consume a lot less and provide the same PhysX performance) while you wan't to play PhysX games -> Mirror's Edge, Metro 2033, Batman AA, and a couple more.

Afterwards, just sell it.

 

[Zubasa]

Just get rid of the the 8800Ultra and forget about Physx.
The Fermi still takes a massive perfromance hit running Physx.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

Just get rid of the the 8800Ultra and forget about Physx.
The Fermi still takes a massive perfromance hit running Physx.

Why don't you guys want him to even try the PhysX in recent games?
I really don't see the harm in trying for himself. He already has the cards, so it's not like he'll be spending money on it.

 

[Flava0ne]

Well, I'm going to go ahead with it either way just because I have the the extra card.

So by default, the secondary GPU will act like a dedicated PPU, correct?

 

[OnBoard]

So by default, the secondary GPU will act like a dedicated PPU, correct?

You select from the NVIDIA options which one to use. I doubt it's that smart to default to it
Used to have GTX 280 + 8500GT combo but that was too weak for PhysX. Yours should be fine and provide performance boost compared to mine where I got a loss

 

[Flava0ne]

You select from the NVIDIA options which one to use. I doubt it's that smart to default to it
Used to have GTX 280 + 8500GT combo but that was too weak for PhysX. Yours should be fine and provide performance boost compared to mine where I got a loss

Cool, thanks for the heads up!

 

[ToTTenTranz]

Well, I'm going to go ahead with it either way just because I have the the extra card.

So by default, the secondary GPU will act like a dedicated PPU, correct?

Nope, you'll have to configure the 8800 as a PhysX dedicated card in the nvidia control panel, AFAIK. That option is easy to find, though.

 

[Flava0ne]

Nope, you'll have to configure the 8800 as a PhysX dedicated card in the nvidia control panel, AFAIK. That option is easy to find, though.

Yeah, I'm guessing most likely in the same section in the nVidia control panel where you can enable PhysX and SLI??? Well, I won't know until I receive my new MSI GTX 275 Lightning from TheGoat Eater

 

[D007]

Screw Physx, tends to cause more problems than anything.
You can disable it in most, if not all games that even have physx and 99.9% of the time you won't even notice it's off.
Like batman and mirrors edge, both of which i played with physx off and disabled in nvidia.
You wouldn't even notice it.
All physx does is cause lag for the most part, for the exchange of some minor cosmetic details that are virtually unnoticeable.
Physx has never been a fair trade off for the performance hit IMO.
I keep it disabled in nvidia and keep my fps high.

 

[newtekie1]

Why don't you guys want him to even try the PhysX in recent games?
I really don't see the harm in trying for himself. He already has the cards, so it's not like he'll be spending money on it.

Because there are maybe 4 good games that use it, and no new ones coming out. And of those 4, Mirror's Edge and UT3 get nothing of value from it, and Batman:AA and Metro2033 also get nothing more than some eye candy that really goes pretty unnoticed. Hell, when I put the 9600GT in my main rig to run PhysX in Batman, I played for about 30 Minutes before I realized what had changed...the papers on the desks were actually papers instead of reams of paper and when I knocked over a trash can there were some cans in it...cool!

 

[Flava0ne]

Screw Physx, tends to cause more problems than anything.
You can disable it in most, if not all games that even have physx and 99.9% of the time you won't even notice it's off.
Like batman and mirrors edge, both of which i played with physx off and disabled in nvidia.
You wouldn't even notice it.
All physx does is cause lag for the most part, for the exchange of some minor cosmetic details that are virtually unnoticeable.
Physx has never been a fair trade off for the performance hit IMO.
I keep it disabled in nvidia and keep my fps high.

To each their own.

I, on the other hand wouldn't mind the minor cosmetic details, even if they're virtually unnoticeable. The only PC games I'm playing at the moment is GTA IV and GTA Episodes From Liberty City and with my current 8800 Ultra SLI setup, I can't even max it out graphically. So I when I get my new MSI GTX 275 Lightning installed along with one of my 8800 Ulltra's as a dedicated PPU, I think I'll notice, not a huge, but certainly noticeable difference in the game graphics. With my 8800 Ultra's in SLI, I can barely go over 35 FPS in GTA IV and it even drops as low as 12 FPS when there's a bunch a cars blowing up!

Because there are maybe 4 good games that use it, and no new ones coming out. And of those 4, Mirror's Edge and UT3 get nothing of value from it, and Batman:AA and Metro2033 also get nothing more than some eye candy that really goes pretty unnoticed. Hell, when I put the 9600GT in my main rig to run PhysX in Batman, I played for about 30 Minutes before I realized what had changed...the papers on the desks were actually papers instead of reams of paper and when I knocked over a trash can there were some cans in it...cool!

Well, if the difference is really not that much more noticeable, then at least I can try it out first. Then if I don't like it for some reason, then I'll sell my 8800 Ultra. But trying something like this shouldn't hurt at all, I mean, I have the card on hand, it's not like I'm going out and spending more money on it.

 

[newtekie1]

I hope you realize that the 8800Ultra will not act as a dedicated PPU in every game. So GTA:IV will not recieve any benefit from the 8800Ultra being in the computer along with the GTX275.

 

[Flava0ne]

So would I really not benifit from my graphic performance if I were to use one of my 8800 Ultra's or a 9600 GT or my friends 8800 GT 512MB as a PPU?

 

[ToTTenTranz]

So would I really not benifit from my graphic performance if I were to use one of my 8800 Ultra's or a 9600 GT or my friends 8800 GT 512MB as a PPU?

Not "graphic performance", but your system will be substantially faster (you'll get more frames per second) if you max out the PhysX option in:

- Mirror's Edge
- Batman: Arkham Asylum
- Dark Void
- Cryostasis
- Metro 2033
(these are the only games worth mentioning ATM)


Assuming you try out 2 or 3 of these games and decide to stick with them to the end, the PhysX will give you a more enrichening experience.

Don't mind all the talk about PhysX degrading your performance. If you use a 8800GT or 8800 Ultra you won't loose any noticeable performance -> the performance complaints come from those using 8500GT to 9600GT, cards with poor shader power.

 

[Flava0ne]

Not "graphic performance", but your system will be substantially faster (you'll get more frames per second) if you max out the PhysX option in:

- Mirror's Edge
- Batman: Arkham Asylum
- Dark Void
- Cryostasis
- Metro 2033
(these are the only games worth mentioning ATM)


Assuming you try out 2 or 3 of these games and decide to stick with them to the end, the PhysX will give you a more enrichening experience.

Don't mind all the talk about PhysX degrading your performance. If you use a 8800GT or 8800 Ultra you won't loose any noticeable performance -> the performance complaints come from those using 8500GT to 9600GT, cards with poor shader power.

The only game that you mentioned above that I actually want to play is Batman: Arkham Asylum. Other than that, GTA IV and GTA Episodes from Liberty City can hold me down until the next GTA comes out. That's why I purchased the MSI GTX 275 Lightning from TheGoat Eater to be able to max out the graphics on it. But if GTA IV doesn't use PhysX at all then I'll just sell my 8800 Ultra's and put the money I get from them towards an SSD.

 

[Flava0ne]

Okay, so I got my new MSI GTX 275 Lightning video card from TheGoat Eater and I just installed it. I was able to max out the graphical settings on GTA IV with still a considerable amount of video memory left to spare. But the gameplay FPS is pretty bad, I'm getting between 15-22 FPS.

Can I use a regualr reference GTX 275 video card, overclock it to the same stock clocks as my MSI GTX 275 Lightning and run it in SLI or will having the regualr reference GTX 275 896MB memory also limit my Lightning to 896MB? Because I would grab another Lightning if only I can find one for sale. But looked everywhere, even on eBay and didn't come up with anything. OR should I just scrap the whole SLI idea and just get a GTX 480?

EDIT: Nevermind, I just found a used EVGA GTX 275 1792MB video card up for sale on eBay.

 

[newtekie1]

Not "graphic performance", but your system will be substantially faster (you'll get more frames per second) if you max out the PhysX option in:

- Mirror's Edge
- Batman: Arkham Asylum
- Dark Void
- Cryostasis
- Metro 2033
(these are the only games worth mentioning ATM)


Assuming you try out 2 or 3 of these games and decide to stick with them to the end, the PhysX will give you a more enrichening experience.

Don't mind all the talk about PhysX degrading your performance. If you use a 8800GT or 8800 Ultra you won't loose any noticeable performance -> the performance complaints come from those using 8500GT to 9600GT, cards with poor shader power.

The performance complaints are becuase of the extra graphics horsepower needed to render all the extra particles/debris. This does take a noticeable impact in performance. For me it meant Batman:AA dropped from 60FPS without PhysX to 30FPS with PhysX using a dedicated 9600GT as a PPU w/ vsync on. And before you say it was because the 9600GT isn't powerful enough, I got the same results when I used my GTX260 as the PPU, I wanted to specifically test if it was the weaker PPU causing the lower FPS or actually the graphics rendering, it was the graphics rendering.

 

[Flava0ne]

The performance complaints are becuase of the extra graphics horsepower needed to render all the extra particles/debris. This does take a noticeable impact in performance. For me it meant Batman:AA dropped from 60FPS without PhysX to 30FPS with PhysX using a dedicated 9600GT as a PPU. And before you say it was because the 9600GT isn't powerful enough, I got the same results when I used my GTX260 as the PPU, I wanted to specifically test if it was the weaker PPU causing the lower FPS or actually the graphics rendering, it was the graphics rendering.

I too also tried my 8800 Ultra as a PPU before I sold it and I saw no difference in FPS at all in GTA IV.

 

[newtekie1]

I too also tried my 8800 Ultra as a PPU before I sold it and I saw no difference in FPS at all in GTA IV.

Again, that is because the 8800Ultra doesn't do anything with GTA:IV because GTA:IV doesn't support PhysX. The 8800Ultra was just sitting in your case doing absolution nothing but suck up power and spinning the fan.

 

[Flava0ne]

Again, that is because the 8800Ultra doesn't do anything with GTA:IV because GTA:IV doesn't support PhysX. The 8800Ultra was just sitting in your case doing absolution nothing but suck up power and spinning the fan.

So, so true. I just put the money I got from the 8800 Ultra into another GTX 275 1792MB GPU that I just purchased off of eBay. Hopefully running two GTX 275 1792MB GPU's in SLI gives me better FPS on max graphical settings for GTA IV running at 1920x1200.