• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

Recommended PhysX card for 5xxx series? [Is vRAM relevant?]

I wonder where that info is from, I'm using a K2200 (that I had lying around) as a dedicated PhysX card along my AMD GPU, and both nvidia-smi and GPU-Z report the board power to be 39W. (Idles at 1W, which is nice.)
I thought nvidia locked such feature years ago via drivers, i mean amd gpu for graphics paired with nvidia gpu as dedicated physx graphics.

Never bothered to test it myself as i didn't see a point in buying extra gpu for a 50/50 chance of this working.
 
I wonder where that info is from, I'm using a K2200 (that I had lying around) as a dedicated PhysX card along my AMD GPU, and both nvidia-smi and GPU-Z report the board power to be 39W. (Idles at 1W, which is nice.)
Well I might have to grab one of these if I cant find a 1-slot 1030...
 
If it has Cuda, it does physx. 8800 would work for physx, but probably not as well as a GT 710 or something small and low power I'd imagine.

I have both a Quadro FX 5600 (1.5GB 8800GTX) and a GT 710. The 710 is slower under just about every single conceivable situation vs G80. Neither can be paired with a modern GPU, though.

Is good 'ole G92 still supported at all for CUDA/PhysX? The cooler on that PPU2 brought me back.

No, not possible to do so because G92 can't be paired with anything newer than GK110, and you need to use the 340.52 driver from July 2014.

I thought nvidia locked such feature years ago via drivers, i mean amd gpu for graphics paired with nvidia gpu as dedicated physx graphics.

Yes, they did.
 
I have both a Quadro FX 5600 (1.5GB 8800GTX) and a GT 710. The 710 is slower under just about every single conceivable situation vs G80. Neither can be paired with a modern GPU, though.
You've utilized both of these cards for physx?

I stand corrected then!!
 
So it seems I was mistaken, I thought for sure this type of config would work. So as you rightly pointed out the driver have to support both cards, so nVreedia and Micro$haft could not place nice in the futere and remove all support for anything older than 1-2 generations. I just tried a GT710 and my RTX4080 and no matter what I tried, I could not have 2 different drivers.
I think it mostly an issue with the windows driver init system btw. For reference I have an Intel Arc pro A40 and I cannot run it at the same time as any of my Axxx or Bxxx cards because the pro and consumer drivers do not overlap.
 
I have both a Quadro FX 5600 (1.5GB 8800GTX) and a GT 710. The 710 is slower under just about every single conceivable situation vs G80. Neither can be paired with a modern GPU, though.
Also, the GT 710 supports DX 11 and 12. GD 80 does not. So, it's is not possible an 8800 Ultra can do all the same or better than a Gt 710. Figured I'd mention that small detail.

Besides the power usage to run physx, you wouldn't want to run an 8800 for it. :)
 
Also, the GT 710 supports DX 11 and 12. GD 80 does not. So, it's is not possible an 8800 Ultra can do all the same or better than a Gt 710. Figured I'd mention that small detail.

Besides the power usage to run physx, you wouldn't want to run an 8800 for it. :)

PhysX relies exclusively on CUDA, the DirectX feature level doesn't have any bearing in the card's compute capability and is not inextricably linked to its performance, though. You should be able to use a DirectX 10 card for PhysX in a DirectX 11 game, as long as the game is being rendered in the DirectX 11 capable GPU.
 
PhysX relies exclusively on CUDA, the DirectX feature level doesn't have any bearing in the card's compute capability and is not inextricably linked to its performance, though. You should be able to use a DirectX 10 card for PhysX in a DirectX 11 game, as long as the game is being rendered in the DirectX 11 capable GPU.
I was speaking to what you wrote about the G80 being better than the GT 710 in "everything" which is very subjective and simply not true. When you agree to that, we could continue.

If you want to count cuda cores, the GT 710 has more of them.

So again. I have to just keep backing my statement, the GT 710 would be better for physx.
 
I was speaking to what you wrote about the G80 being better than the GT 710 in "everything" which is very subjective and simply not true. When you agree to that, we could continue.

If you want to count cuda cores, the GT 710 has more of them.

So again. I have to just keep backing my statement, the GT 710 would be better for physx.

It doesn't have more CUDA cores, ROPs or SM partitions either, even setting the generational improvements aside. There are some noteworthy additions, such as the 1st gen NVDEC (although it has no NVENC), but overall, I'm fairly confident that the G80 wins the brawl at every round otherwise :)

As for PhysX itself... I'm unsure, don't think the 710 actually has enough performance for high settings in these games, I'd have to test but I've no Kepler card that could be paired with these anymore. The 8800 should at least be equivalent to G92 there.
 
It doesn't have more CUDA cores, ROPs or SM partitions either, even setting the generational improvements aside. There are some noteworthy additions, such as the 1st gen NVDEC (although it has no NVENC), but overall, I'm fairly confident that the G80 wins the brawl at every round otherwise :)

As for PhysX itself... I'm unsure, don't think the 710 actually has enough performance for high settings in these games, I'd have to test but I've no Kepler card that could be paired with these anymore. The 8800 should at least be equivalent to G92 there.
Gt 710 has 192 cudas.

8800Ultra (the biggest card 8800 series, which I've had all these cards spoken of) is 128 cuda cores.

Using only the card for physx, the 710 would be a better choice. In my opinion of course.
 
Gt 710 has 192 cudas.

8800Ultra (the biggest card 8800 series, which I've had all these cards spoken of) is 128 cuda cores.

Using only the card for physx, the 710 would be a better choice. In my opinion of course.

Mhm, true, but at the same time it's not really the same architecture so it can't be compared I guess. GK208 version of the 710 has 1 SM, 8 ROPs, 16 TMUs, 14.4 GB/s bandwidth, the 8800U's got 16 SMs, 24 ROPs, 32 TMUs, 103.7 GB/s... it's a pretty sizable gap there.

I'd be happy to benchmark them, if I could... but the 710 isn't powerful enough to run any game at all, really, and Ampere cards are too new to run alongside a Tesla arch GPU.
 
Mhm, true, but at the same time it's not really the same architecture so it can't be compared I guess. GK208 version of the 710 has 1 SM, 8 ROPs, 16 TMUs, 14.4 GB/s bandwidth, the 8800U's got 16 SMs, 24 ROPs, 32 TMUs, 103.7 GB/s... it's a pretty sizable gap there.

I'd be happy to benchmark them, if I could... but the 710 isn't powerful enough to run any game at all, really, and Ampere cards are too new to run alongside a Tesla arch GPU.
That's the nice thing about physx. Just need some cuda cores to make it happen.

Perhaps the GPU/s (cuda) should be compared to at least Ageia physx PPU (first version)

That was only a 1ghz card with ddr3. I can't remember directly the exact specs, but it doesn't take much to render physx.

I really enjoyed physx destruction used with Hawken. Looked really good, played extremely well. I've run it both on the original PPU and NVidia cards. Can hardly tell the difference. But back then, there wasn't today's modern hardware to compare with.

Really, any modern GPU shouldn't need an extra GPU to render physx.
 
Short version of 8800 GTX vs. GT 710 (G5) :
1) Both are 100% useless as modern card's PhysX acceleration (driver for Kepler doesn't support 40/50 series, and Tesla ones can't do anything over Kepler),
2) If game/program requires DX11/12/Vulkan - GT 710 wins by default, same goes for video decode, power usage, and video outs support.
3) Any game/program for DX9-10.0 will run better under 8800 GTX with significant margin.

Example, GT 710 2GB G5 :
Heaven 3.0 DX9 High FHD AFx16.PNG

vs. 8800 GTX :
Heaven 3.0 DX9 High FHD AFx16.PNG
 
Last edited:
Running WinXP on a 5800X3D :rockout:
:laugh:
The mere mention, makes me want to put 7 on my 5800X3D. 'Had a Win7 Ryzen 5600 rig built, for awhile.
Ended up re-purposing its parts, sadly.

BTW,
GeForce 342.01 Driver - WHQL
Driver Version: 342.01 - Release Date: Wed Dec 14, 2016
is the last driver listed on GeForce.com that supports the 8800GTX. It has Win10x64 support.
 
I think it mostly an issue with the windows driver init system btw. For reference I have an Intel Arc pro A40 and I cannot run it at the same time as any of my Axxx or Bxxx cards because the pro and consumer drivers do not overlap.
So at a guess running a quadro in the same system as a geforce might have the same issue then I would guess.

Short version of 8800 GTX vs. GT 710 (G5) :
Er the elephant in that room is that THE 8800gtx was a high end card just below the flagship of its time. Of course its going to run rings around a bottem card, even if its 8x generations newer.

- 8800GTX, 2006 - 575cores, @1350mhz, on a 384bit bus @84GB/s
- GT710, 2016 - 192cores, @954mhz, on a 64bit bus @6-7GB/s
 
Last edited:
Nvidia G80 was a big beast. I have a few cards with that gpu (Quadro FX4600 and two FX5600)
139440_flnyxgsjworhkcnd_20240823_191025.jpg139440_xdwovxl9iuggzr2g_20240823_191214.jpg
(no sli yet)
The 1.5GB vram was a lot when the average was 256-512MB.
It was a very big step from the 7900GTX. (Quadro FX5500)
139440_wff3axra5iw7xoj9_20240215_155535.jpg

But sadly a lot of 8800GTS/GTX are dead now. Quadros are much more durable (lower clocks, higher quality parts).
 
Short version of 8800 GTX vs. GT 710 (G5) :
1) Both are 100% useless as modern card's PhysX acceleration (driver for Kepler doesn't support 40/50 series, and Tesla ones can't do anything over Kepler),
2) If game/program requires DX11/12/Vulkan - GT 710 wins by default, same goes for video decode, power usage, and video outs support.
3) Any game/program for DX9-10.0 will run better under 8800 GTX with significant margin.

Example, GT 710 2GB G5 :
View attachment 391056

vs. 8800 GTX :
View attachment 391057
I appreciate that 3D comparison rendering a benchmark. My point was the 710 would be better to run physx on. Did nobody catch that part?

Could you use either card as a physx card, then do some benchmarks??

The benchmark that will directly utilize Agiea or NV physx is 3DMark Vantage. Early Vantage release has Physx enabled by default.

At least then, we'd still be on topic. :)
 
My personal experience with a dedicated Physx card was when I had in my main rig a hd6950 and discovered that with some modded drivers I could use a nvidia GPU for Physx and I used my 9800 GT 512mb model and was doing great for Batman Arkham Asylum and Metro 2033.
Until those modded drivers did not work anymore.
That was my only experience with a dedicated GPU for Physx.
So I think you can go with anything from the Gtx 400 to 500 series without even going on the 1000 series for a GPU just for Physx.
Unless is an issue using something too old to have driver support even for just Physx.
 
I appreciate that 3D comparison rendering a benchmark. My point was the 710 would be better to run physx on. Did nobody catch that part?

Could you use either card as a physx card, then do some benchmarks??

The benchmark that will directly utilize Agiea or NV physx is 3DMark Vantage. Early Vantage release has Physx enabled by default.

At least then, we'd still be on topic. :)
I don't like the idea of testing PhysX speed in old Vantage... that version was a mess IIRC.

From practical point of view though, regardless of how much faster G80 actually is, I'd say GT 710 is the better PhysX accelerator of the two.
1) Smaller (single slot/half height usually)
2) No additional power plugs (and less heat dumped into your case)
3) Newer driver support (not sure if newest standalone PhysX can run on G80, OR if is/isn't nerfed vs. old versions due to lack of optimization)
4) It shouldn't die as easily due to... suboptimal manufacturing techniques of the time.

@b1k3rdude Here's GPU-z for both cards :
gpuz.gif
gpuz.gif
 
I don't like the idea of testing PhysX speed in old Vantage... that version was a mess IIRC.

From practical point of view though, regardless of how much faster G80 actually is, I'd say GT 710 is the better PhysX accelerator of the two.
1) Smaller (single slot/half height usually)
2) No additional power plugs (and less heat dumped into your case)
3) Newer driver support (not sure if newest standalone PhysX can run on G80, OR if is/isn't nerfed vs. old versions due to lack of optimization)
4) It shouldn't die as easily due to... suboptimal manufacturing techniques of the time.

@b1k3rdude Here's GPU-z for both cards :
View attachment 391734View attachment 391735
I metioned Vantage because it strictly benchmarks Physx. If not installed correctly, will run on the cpu.

Utilizing that instead of a game because it's pretty straight forward measurement. But I'm not entirely sure if it needs to be an actual physx card (ageia) and not a GPU. That much I am not sure of.

Yes the 710 should be better just for physx for all the reasons we have both mentioned in this thread.

Maybe if I can get a chance, break out some physx stuff to share. Will be a pain like it always is. But may be next week, I have stuff going on this weekend.

Can compare PPU2 to some NV gpus I have, but the game or benchmark needs to support NVidia Physx and Ageia Physx, which the drivers are different between the two.
 
I don't like the idea of testing PhysX speed in old Vantage... that version was a mess IIRC.

From practical point of view though, regardless of how much faster G80 actually is, I'd say GT 710 is the better PhysX accelerator of the two.
1) Smaller (single slot/half height usually)
2) No additional power plugs (and less heat dumped into your case)
3) Newer driver support (not sure if newest standalone PhysX can run on G80, OR if is/isn't nerfed vs. old versions due to lack of optimization)
4) It shouldn't die as easily due to... suboptimal manufacturing techniques of the time.

@b1k3rdude Here's GPU-z for both cards :
View attachment 391734View attachment 391735

Nice... Your 710 is gonna run circles on mine, lol. Mine's particularly bad, even amongst 710's. It's physically x1, DDR3 card, I only use it for troubleshooting

 
Here's something off our forums I'd like to share with you all. Hopefully it can help if you get into a jam.
This is for having an Agiea PPU installed but have the NV physx driver installed and the PPU is inop.

Quoted, this originated from EVGA forums. Thanks to them guys, we'll never forget, and some of us saved stuff many years ago just in case.

This would be aimed at XP/7, but will probably work the same on W8/9/10/11 as well.

Enjoy
If you're reading this, then you have an Ageia PhysX card and your frustrated with Nvidia for abandoning THE Relic of Dedicated Physics Processors with their latest PhysX drivers.
However, there is something you can do to fix that and restore support to that PPU, and all it requires is a little copy/paste and some registry editing. I'll be going through, step by step, what specifically you need to do to restore PPU support with the latest PhysX drivers for both 32 and 64 bit systems.

You will need 3 things to start with:

1) An old Ageia PhysX System Software (doesn't matter which one, as long as it's Ageia. You can Google it or look for it on PhysXFiles)
2) Nvidia PhysX System Software 8.09.04 (which can be picked up from the Nvidia website)
3) Newest Nvidia PhysX System Software (9.10.0513 or higher)

Once you have all three downloaded and ready, you can begin...

* Uninstall Nvidia PhysX (since we're rolling back drivers)
* Install the Ageia PhysX Driver
* Now go to C:\Program Files\AGEIA Technologies (or C:\Program Files (x86)\AGEIA Technologies if you're using a 64 bit system.)
* Copy the bin folder
* Create a new folder elsewhere (I put it on a separate hard drive) on your system
* Rename the new folder AGEIA Technologies
* Paste the bin folder under the new AGEIA Technologies you just created

Note: the bin folder contains demos and an application extension which allows you to play older Ageia PhysX games like Switchball and Stoked Rider.

* Now install the Nvidia PhysX 8.09.04 drivers
* After installing, return to C:\Program Files\AGEIA Technologies.
* Copy everything under AGEIA Technologies.
* Paste the copied files under your created folder, AGEIA Technologies.
* Go to C:\Windows\System32 (and/or C:\Windows\SysWOW64 if you're using 64 bit).
* Sort everything by name.
* Scroll down to P and find anything starting with the word PhysX.
* Copy those files with the word "PhysX" in it's name.
* Return to the folder you created, AGEIA Technologies.
* Create a new folder under the copied AGEIA Technologies.
* Rename the folder Windows.
* Enter the new Windows folder and create a new folder.
* Rename the new folder System32.
* If you're using 64bit, create another folder here and rename it SysWOW64
* Paste the files you copied into the System32 folder you created.

Note: When using 64bit be sure to differentiate the files you copied between System32 and SysWOW64, so anything from C:\Windows\System32 will go into the AGEIA Technologies\Windows\System32 folder you created, and anything from C:\Windows\SysWOW64 will go into the AGEIA Technologies\Windows\SysWOW64 folder you created.

* Now return to C:\Windows\System32.
* Enter the drivers folder.
* Sort files by name and scroll down under the names beginning with P.
* Copy a PhysX.sys related file. (physX64.sys on 64bit)
* Return to AGEIA Technologies\Windows\System32 and create a new folder.
* Rename the new folder "drivers".
* Paste the file in drivers.
* Now return to C:\Windows\System32 (or C:\Windows\SysWOW64 for 64 bit)
* Find the AGEIA folder and copy it.
* Return to AGEIA Technologies\Windows and paste it in the folder you pulled it from.
* Now press Window Key + R, then type in regedit under the Run window.
* Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\
* Export the AGEIA Technologies Key (in 64bit, you can find it under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node
* Save the registry key in your created AGEIA Technologies\Windows folder or wherever else you prefer
* Now install the newest Nvidia PhysX Drivers; 9.10.0513 or higher.
* After the installation has finished, find C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Engine. (C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Engine for 64bit.)
* Copy the 4 newest folders (v2.8.3, v2.8.1, v2.8.0, v2.7.6)
* Return to the AGEIA Technologies folder you created
* Paste the folders, say yes when prompted to overwrite.

Note: The v2.7.6 and higher PhysX engines have been updated since version 8.09.04, hence why you need to copy and replace them.

* Now copy all contents of the AGEIA Technologies folder you created, spare for the Windows folder.
* Return to C:\Program Files\AGEIA Technologies (C:\Program Files (x86)\AGEIA Technologies for 64bit)

Note: C:\Program Files\AGEIA Technologies should be empty, or the AGEIA Technologies folder may not exist at all, under C:\Program Files. If there is no AGEIA Technologies folder, then create one.

* Paste the copied contents of AGEIA Technologies to C:\Program Files\AGEIA Technologies.
* Now return to the AGEIA Technologies\Windows folder you created.
* Copy the contents, minus the registry entry.
* Paste them under C:\Windows, say yes when prompted to overwrite.
* Now return to the AGEIA Technologies\Windows folder you created.
* Open the registry key you exported and add it back in to the registry.

At this point you are officially done, all that needs to be done now is the configuration of your PhysX settings by opening C:\Windows\System32\PhysXCplUI.exe (or C:\Windows\SysWOW64\PhysXCplUI.exe for 64 bit).
Even if you do have a dedicated GPU for PhysX, go ahead and set the Hardware Device Selection to AGEIA PhysX, the GPU will still engage with GPU heavy PhysX games and the Ageia PhysX card will only engage for PPU and CPU PhysX games.

Now there are some games that can use either a GPU or PPU for PhysX (Mirror's Edge, UT3, GRAW2); these games will use the GPU by default. If you want the PPU to be used for these games, open the Nvidia Control Panel and go to Manage 3D Settings. Go to the Program Settings tab and look for those specific games that can use either PhysX accelerator. Once you found the specific game, scroll down under feature, to "CUDA - GPUs" and disable all other GPUs besides the main Video Card.

After following these steps, you now can play every PhysX game in history, with out having the need to uninstall and reinstall PhysX drivers.

Certainly hope this helps for all you PPU owners out there. If something didn't work or wasn't clear, let me know; and if you prefer to see a video tutorial on how to do this, comment "I request a video tutorial" with any other questions or comments you may have. If I receive enough video requests, then I'll get to production right away.

mohawkade

1/29/2011mohawkade

The above is a elongated step-by-step list of what to do.
The 2 main things you have to worry about is:

1. Pasting the files from a previously installed PhysX driver back into the Ageia Technologies folder in Program Files.
2. Restoring an AGEIA folder from a previous PhysX driver(which contains the PPU hardware drivers) back into C:\Windows\System32 (or C:\Windows\SysWOW64 for 64 bit.)
 
Back
Top