PhysX and Gaming

[FreeKnight]

I'm pretty unfamiliar with nVidia's products, so I thought I'd brush up on them a bit and ran across lots of comments talking about PhysX. I'm still not quite sure what the big deal is over other Physics engines etc. Does anyone have any good links or explanations for what the big deal is regarding PhysX (or is it more hype?)

For example, I have a 4890 and am playing Dragon Age, max settings etc. If jumped to team green and played the game (since it can take advantage of PhysX), what's the difference I'll notice? Just speed and framerates or would enemies fall, move, etc differently.

Thanks for any help you guys can provide. This is definitely a subject I need to admit ignorance on.

[MrDiaz]

In a nutshell, you gain more realism in the game. Increased particles, effects and things like that. PhysX built into the cards allows developers to include more complex calculations to be executed on the GPU instead of the CPU (the GPU can do so many many times faster)

That being said, not every games have PhysX built into it, only a few titles (and hopefully more will come out in the future) support this feature.

Read this real quick: PHYSX

[martin_metal_88]

Most likely in game like dragon age you will notice some added texture...a good exemple here
YouTube - Mirrors Edge Nvidia Physx comparison
If you don't care about each single pointy details then Physx won't make a difference.

Personnally If you don't care about what I show you I would stay with the red side only because of color...I have use GTX260 4870 on the same computer this years and the difference was pretty big.

[rapmaster]

Here is a comparison of PhysX on and off for Batman : AA

YouTube - FULL - GPU PhysX in Batman Arkham Asylum

[FreeKnight]

Ahh, that makes a lot more sense now. Thanks guys. I do have another question now though:

If you're running a ATI card, do games that have PhysX still allow you to have the flowing capes, drapes, particles etc, but they're handled by the CPU instead, or do you just miss out on them completely as they only appear if you're running an nVidia card?

Thanks again everyone

[burebista]

If you put PhysX on CPU you'll hit hard your CPU. But a more elegant solution is a good ATI card for gaming and a cheap nVidia card for PhysX.
The only drawback is that you must search for some modified drivers for that because nVidia in their "wisdom" decided to not allow ATI for gaming and nVidia for PhysX. Probably they consider this situation humiliating for their cards.