Please help me with choosing either ATI 4850 512mb or Nvidia GTS 250 512mb

[matt445]

And can i use my current 8800gs as Physix card with an ATI card say 4850? will it work????

my mobo has 2 slots of PCi+e. 1 is 16X the other one is 4X

 

[Wile E]

Well your board supports Crossfire, so I say go for the 4850. It gives you more options for future upgrades. Like maybe picking up a second 4850 down the road, or even a different 48xx series card. Your board is only 16x + 4x in crossfire mode, so it wouldn't scale perfectly, but it would scale.

And Physx can work with ATI in XP sometimes, but it's hit and miss. I hear XP x64 allows it to happen as well. Doesn't work in Vista or the public builds of 7.

 

[Flibolito]

The Palit 4850 might be your best bet. As far as phys x goes its probably possible but might be a driver nightmare.
Plus its the cheapest.

 

[matt445]

Has anyone of you tried using an Nvidia card as a physix card with an ATI card on Windows Vista?

Are you sure that it wont work on Vista???

 

[matt445]

and Wile E, so can i Crossfire any 48XX series cards with a 4850??? is it possible???

 

[eidairaman1]

yes it is possible, Now Drivers Id recommend are Cat 8.10 or 8.11 thx to Wile E but make sure to update Direct X using the DX 9 Redist (has updates for DX10 aswell) last known redist was Nov 2008 (unless if they updated again). It maybe wise to use driver cleaning utilities such as Driver Cleaner Pro and Guru3Ds cleaning app both found at Guru3d, Drivercleaner.net which can be found at driverheaven, and a good way to remove drivers can be found at tweakguides.

Id also suggest updating mobo drivers if possible but that can be a hit and a miss so refer to Wile E and others here for assistance with that.

 

[matt445]

how do u update mobo driver? is it the chipset driver ?? i never done that.

and there is a cat 9.2 out that promised increase performance in some games. its on guru3d.com

So what do u think????

 

[eidairaman1]

Wile E said the good drivers are the 8.10/8.11s

Motherboard drivers as in Chipset Drivers.

I could probably look it up for you on Asus and Intel site.

 

[matt445]

thanks mate. that would be great. So you mean the Cat 9.1 or 9.2 are not good?

Why is that? how can i know which driver is good then? lol.

 

[Wile E]

thanks mate. that would be great. So you mean the Cat 9.1 or 9.2 are not good?

Why is that? how can i know which driver is good then? lol.

Only thru listening to other peoples' feedback. Anything past 8.11, and I can't get crossfire to work, it disables my second card in both Vista x64 and XP. (This is with a 4870 and a 4850. Haven't put the 4870 X2 in and taken out the 4850 yet.) 9.1 works in Win 7 x64 for me, but 9.2 won't install.

I have less issues using a single card, but there are still some bugs.

As far as Crossfire, yes, you can crossfire any 48xx series cards together.

 

[matt445]

oh thats cool. but please can you find out about using an nvidia card as physix card while using ATI card on windows Vista??????

I will be happy if it will work. cuz i can either use my 8500gt or 8800gs as physix card.

 

[Wile E]

oh thats cool. but please can you find out about using an nvidia card as physix card while using ATI card on windows Vista??????

I will be happy if it will work. cuz i can either use my 8500gt or 8800gs as physix card.

It doesn't work. Many here have tried repeatedly, myself included.

If Physx is that important to you, maybe the 250 would be the better card for you. If it's just something you wanted to experiment with, and not that important, the 4850 would be the better buy for you, imho.

 

[Binge]

Save your money, wait for the next series of cards.

 

[matt445]

so it would only work if u are on XP????

 

[Wile E]

so it would only work if u are on XP????

Yep, and even then it's not guaranteed to work. There can still be some conflicts. If physx are that important to you, buy the GTS250, and use you current card for Physx.

But, like I siad, if you are only wondering because you just wanted to experiment with Physx, just grab the 4850, and file Physx to the back of your mind.

 

[matt445]

Can you tell me why it only works on XP? why not vista? XP is old . why vista doesnt have this capability???

and with the recent Nvidia drivers, Nvidia control panel allows u to choose which card u want to do the physixs if u have 2 cards now. do u know about this feature????

 

[eidairaman1]

perhaps its the way Vista access the hardware or its just a total vista flaw or there is conspiracy to prevent you from using the opposites card for GPU processing and then theirs for physics processing only. but the way your asking these questions you sound hellbent on having physics you might aswell get the 9800GTX+.

 

[Wile E]

Can you tell me why it only works on XP? why not vista? XP is old . why vista doesnt have this capability???

and with the recent Nvidia drivers, Nvidia control panel allows u to choose which card u want to do the physixs if u have 2 cards now. do u know about this feature????

Yes, I know about that feature.

And Physx with ATI and nVidia does not work in Vista because Vista's driver model only allows one gfx driver to be initialized at a time. So every gfx card in your system must use the same driver in order for it to work. Unfortunately, nVidia made it so that you have to install the gfx drivers in order to enable Physx on their cards.

Look, if Physx is that important to you, get the 250.

 

[matt445]

well 9800GTX+ costs $370 in here. i dont think its worth it. considering it requires 2 6pin power connectors and its longer in size too.

 

[matt445]

well. I like the 4850 more. i think it has more potential. But cant you just install the Nvidia drivers as well as ATI drivers ?????

 

[eidairaman1]

as we said earlier matt, nope, not in Vista, if you want Physics with the 4850 you will need XP, if not then the 250 would work for you if your not going to go back to XP. Either take the 4850 or leave it, it's your choice, once you go with 4850 you wont look back on the 8800GS.

 

[Wile E]

well. I like the 4850 more. i think it has more potential. But cant you just install the Nvidia drivers as well as ATI drivers ?????

No. Vista disables the secondary driver. It will only run one gfx driver at a time, period. The nVidia card needs the gfx drivers operational to run Physx.

Please, just trust me on this. I tried for days to get an 8800GT to run Physx with my 4850 in Vista. It just does not work.

 

[matt445]

oh well. its sad actually. maybe i have to install XP alongside with my vista?? so that i can use the geforce card when i want to play a physix enabled game.

is it a good idea????

But i think a while ago some people managed to modify ATI driver so it can include nvidia physix as well....... and it worked.

 

[Wile E]

oh well. its sad actually. maybe i have to install XP alongside with my vista?? so that i can use the geforce card when i want to play a physix enabled game.

is it a good idea????

But i think a while ago some people managed to modify ATI driver so it can include nvidia physix as well....... and it worked.

They were hushed by ATI. They never publicly released any drivers.

And before you go thru the trouble of installing XP just to use Physx, make sure you actually have some games that support it.

 

[matt445]

actually i dont play any physix games now. I just play a game called Cryostasis which is using Nvidia Physix for water and stuff. and i finished the game. its a pretty game.
so yeah thats all. but i mean for the future Phyisx games.