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

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

xibeleli

New Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2011
Messages
6 (0.00/day)
so gay , seems like no matter what i do it doesn't work, apart from gpuz showing that it's enabled
 
Joined
Mar 10, 2010
Messages
11,878 (2.31/day)
Location
Manchester uk
System Name RyzenGtEvo/ Asus strix scar II
Processor Amd R5 5900X/ Intel 8750H
Motherboard Crosshair hero8 impact/Asus
Cooling 360EK extreme rad+ 360$EK slim all push, cpu ek suprim Gpu full cover all EK
Memory Corsair Vengeance Rgb pro 3600cas14 16Gb in four sticks./16Gb/16GB
Video Card(s) Powercolour RX7900XT Reference/Rtx 2060
Storage Silicon power 2TB nvme/8Tb external/1Tb samsung Evo nvme 2Tb sata ssd/1Tb nvme
Display(s) Samsung UAE28"850R 4k freesync.dell shiter
Case Lianli 011 dynamic/strix scar2
Audio Device(s) Xfi creative 7.1 on board ,Yamaha dts av setup, corsair void pro headset
Power Supply corsair 1200Hxi/Asus stock
Mouse Roccat Kova/ Logitech G wireless
Keyboard Roccat Aimo 120
VR HMD Oculus rift
Software Win 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores 8726 vega 3dmark timespy/ laptop Timespy 6506
you tried driver 258.65? give it a go
 

xibeleli

New Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2011
Messages
6 (0.00/day)
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

New Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2011
Messages
6 (0.00/day)
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

New Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
42 (0.01/day)
Location
Houten, the Netherlands
System Name Cabless
Processor Intel Core i5-750
Motherboard MSI Big Bang Trinergy
Cooling Prolimatech Megahalems + 2x Prolimatech MK-13
Memory GEIL 1333MHz 4GB DDR3 RAM @ Arctic Cooling RC
Video Card(s) XFX HD6950 2GB (HD6970 Flash) + XFX 9800GTX
Storage OCZ Vertex 2 + Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
Display(s) Samsung Syncmaster T200HD
Case Cabless
Audio Device(s) ASUS Xonar DX
Power Supply Corsair HX-750W
Software Windows Se7en Ultimate 64-bits UK
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

New Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2011
Messages
6 (0.00/day)
^ Actually now that it's working i can confirm that its working with the latest drivers 275.33
 
Joined
Nov 8, 2009
Messages
8 (0.00/day)
Processor Intel 2500K @4.5GHz @1.2V
Motherboard Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3
Memory 2 * 4GB G.Skill @1600 8.8.8.24 1T
Video Card(s) Sapphire 6950 1GB Fual Fan 850/1350
Storage Intel Series 320 160GB SATA2 + 2TB WD Green
Display(s) AOC 23"
Case HEC Cougar Evolution
Audio Device(s) Integrated
Power Supply Thermaltake 700W TR2
Software MacOS 10.8.2 + Windows 7 SP1 64bit
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

New Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2011
Messages
4 (0.00/day)
Location
Missouri
Processor i7 975x
Motherboard Rampage iii Extreme
Cooling Zalman
Memory 12 GB GSkill
Video Card(s) Sapphire HD 5970 & Nvidia 9800gt
Storage WD raptor 150Gb and 2 2Tb sata iii drives
Display(s) 2 24' samsung
Case Antec 900
Power Supply Apevia Warlock 1100w
Software Win 7 64bit
HD 5970 + 9800gt

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
 
Joined
Jul 19, 2006
Messages
43,585 (6.74/day)
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard ASUS TUF x670e
Cooling EK AIO 360. Phantek T30 fans.
Memory 32GB G.Skill 6000Mhz
Video Card(s) Asus RTX 4090
Storage WD m.2
Display(s) LG C2 Evo OLED 42"
Case Lian Li PC 011 Dynamic Evo
Audio Device(s) Topping E70 DAC, SMSL SP200 Headphone Amp.
Power Supply FSP Hydro Ti PRO 1000W
Mouse Razer Basilisk V3 Pro
Keyboard Tester84
Software Windows 11
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

New Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2011
Messages
4 (0.00/day)
Location
Missouri
Processor i7 975x
Motherboard Rampage iii Extreme
Cooling Zalman
Memory 12 GB GSkill
Video Card(s) Sapphire HD 5970 & Nvidia 9800gt
Storage WD raptor 150Gb and 2 2Tb sata iii drives
Display(s) 2 24' samsung
Case Antec 900
Power Supply Apevia Warlock 1100w
Software Win 7 64bit
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?
 
Joined
Jul 19, 2006
Messages
43,585 (6.74/day)
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard ASUS TUF x670e
Cooling EK AIO 360. Phantek T30 fans.
Memory 32GB G.Skill 6000Mhz
Video Card(s) Asus RTX 4090
Storage WD m.2
Display(s) LG C2 Evo OLED 42"
Case Lian Li PC 011 Dynamic Evo
Audio Device(s) Topping E70 DAC, SMSL SP200 Headphone Amp.
Power Supply FSP Hydro Ti PRO 1000W
Mouse Razer Basilisk V3 Pro
Keyboard Tester84
Software Windows 11
3DMark Vantage.:)
 

Techjon

New Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2011
Messages
4 (0.00/day)
Location
Missouri
Processor i7 975x
Motherboard Rampage iii Extreme
Cooling Zalman
Memory 12 GB GSkill
Video Card(s) Sapphire HD 5970 & Nvidia 9800gt
Storage WD raptor 150Gb and 2 2Tb sata iii drives
Display(s) 2 24' samsung
Case Antec 900
Power Supply Apevia Warlock 1100w
Software Win 7 64bit
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?
 
Joined
Jul 19, 2006
Messages
43,585 (6.74/day)
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard ASUS TUF x670e
Cooling EK AIO 360. Phantek T30 fans.
Memory 32GB G.Skill 6000Mhz
Video Card(s) Asus RTX 4090
Storage WD m.2
Display(s) LG C2 Evo OLED 42"
Case Lian Li PC 011 Dynamic Evo
Audio Device(s) Topping E70 DAC, SMSL SP200 Headphone Amp.
Power Supply FSP Hydro Ti PRO 1000W
Mouse Razer Basilisk V3 Pro
Keyboard Tester84
Software Windows 11
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?
 
D

Deleted member 24505

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

Techjon

New Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2011
Messages
4 (0.00/day)
Location
Missouri
Processor i7 975x
Motherboard Rampage iii Extreme
Cooling Zalman
Memory 12 GB GSkill
Video Card(s) Sapphire HD 5970 & Nvidia 9800gt
Storage WD raptor 150Gb and 2 2Tb sata iii drives
Display(s) 2 24' samsung
Case Antec 900
Power Supply Apevia Warlock 1100w
Software Win 7 64bit
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!
 
Joined
Sep 26, 2011
Messages
31 (0.01/day)
System Name Sexy Goblin
Processor Intel i7 4770
Motherboard Gigabyte G1.Sniper B6-CF
Cooling DEEPCOOL Gamer Storm CAPTAIN 360
Memory G.SKILL TridentX Series 32GB 2133
Video Card(s) Zotac GTZ 970
Storage Samsung 850 256GB
Display(s) VIZIO M60-C3 60"
Case Thermaltake Core X5 ATX Cube Chassis
Power Supply Thermaltake Gold 750W
Software Windows 10, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, MAC OS 10.9 Mavericks
Benchmark Scores 3DMark Firestike 11944
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 :twitch: 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?
 
Joined
Sep 24, 2010
Messages
13 (0.00/day)
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

New Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2011
Messages
2 (0.00/day)
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?
 
Joined
Mar 2, 2009
Messages
5,061 (0.92/day)
Processor AMD Ryzen 5 7600
Motherboard Gigabyte B650 Aorus Elite AX
Cooling Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE
Memory Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-5600 16GBx2
Video Card(s) Gigabyte Gaming OC AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT 16GB
Storage TEAMGROUP T-Force Z440 2TB, SPower A60 2TB, SPower A55 2TB, Seagate 4TBx2, Samsung 870 2TB
Display(s) AOC 24G2 + Xitrix WFP-2415
Case Montech Air X
Audio Device(s) Realtek onboard
Power Supply Be Quiet! Pure Power 11 FM 750W 80+ Gold
Mouse Logitech G304
Keyboard Redragon K557 KAIA RGB Mechanical Keyboard
Software Windows 10
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.
 
Joined
Dec 5, 2007
Messages
5,207 (0.87/day)
System Name Addison Clark
Processor Ryzen 9 7950x3D
Motherboard Asus Strix X670E-I Gaming
Cooling Custom Bykski loop CPU and GPU
Memory G.Skill DDR5-6000 64GB CL30
Video Card(s) Gigabyte 4090 Aorus Master
Storage Kingston Fury 2TB and 4TB NVME
Display(s) LG 32" 1440p
Case Lian Li O11 mini
Audio Device(s) Asus Hive
Power Supply Thermaltake 1000w SFX-L
Mouse Corsair Dark Core RGB SE
Keyboard Corsair K95 Platnium
Software Win 11 Pro
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

Semi-Retired Folder
Joined
Nov 22, 2005
Messages
28,472 (4.25/day)
Location
Indiana, USA
Processor Intel Core i7 10850K@5.2GHz
Motherboard AsRock Z470 Taichi
Cooling Corsair H115i Pro w/ Noctua NF-A14 Fans
Memory 32GB DDR4-3600
Video Card(s) RTX 2070 Super
Storage 500GB SX8200 Pro + 8TB with 1TB SSD Cache
Display(s) Acer Nitro VG280K 4K 28"
Case Fractal Design Define S
Audio Device(s) Onboard is good enough for me
Power Supply eVGA SuperNOVA 1000w G3
Software Windows 10 Pro x64
Joined
Sep 24, 2010
Messages
13 (0.00/day)
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.
 
Joined
Sep 24, 2010
Messages
13 (0.00/day)
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.
 
Last edited:

lucsem70

New Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2011
Messages
2 (0.00/day)
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.
 
Last edited:

ramintjoo

New Member
Joined
Nov 24, 2011
Messages
6 (0.00/day)
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:
__________________________________
 
Top