ATI PhysX hybrid

[FreeKnight]

Hey everyone,

I'm thinking of throwing a small (single slot only!) nvidia card into my rig for a little bit so I can see the difference PhysX makes. My 5870 will be the main GPU and I'll run strictly PhysX from the card (or however the hybrid thing works).

Do you think a 9500 GT will be enough to do the PhysX calculations (unless hybriding allows the ATI to do it). I don't want to spend any more than $100 since I'll be just briefly using it while playing Arkham asylum and then just keeping it out of the case as a spare GPU when checking friends systems or if my 5870 blows....

Your input is always appreciated, thanks again everyone.

PS: Looked at used ones and am wondering did anyone other than XFX use black PCBs in this period? There are a lot of ugly greens and reds out there lol

[_dangtx_]

used, for sure.

32 shaders and up will make a difference.

a bud plays left 4 dead , gave him my 9400gt pci and he used that for physx lol. made quite the difference(smooth vs lagging) at a certain resolution/eye candy

some folks tested things out and a gtx 260 will make quite the difference.

now keep in mind that a 100 something watt second card brings in, so chose wisely

i say at least 8800gt, they can be found for 50 bucks

[Zero82z]

Be aware that nVidia drivers will disable PhysX on their cards if they detect an ATI GPU in the system. There are driver hacks to get around that limitation, but do your research first and make sure that you are able to get it working for sure before you actually go and buy anything.

As for what card you should use, I would say you want a 9600GSO/GT 240 or better. If I remember correctly, the minimum requirement for PhysX is 32 SPs, which means to actually get very good performance, you'll want something better than that.

[JD]

I put together this thread: HD5870 with 8800GTS for PhysX Although NVIDIA messed up their drivers a few weeks ago and forgot to block PhysX with ATI, so if you can get your hands on those, you won't need to do any hacking from the sounds of it.

I think you'd definitely want something more than a 9500GT. Going with current generation, I'd say GT240 minimum, and of yesteryear, 8800 series and 9800 series. The GTX series of cards are rather expensive for purely PhysX.

[belgolas]

Well 8800 GT I would go for at the minimum. The 8800 GT wont be able to do high physx for BAA but can do the medium setting. The 9800 GTX is the minimum for high level physx.

I will be putting up 3 cards tomorrow for sale. 1 9800 GT and 2 GTX 260's. The 260 is overkill for physx currently but who knows if there will be some ridiculous tech demo lol.

[FreeKnight]

Thanks for the input guys.

jdrom: It was actually your thread that first got me interested in the idea, and I later caught the thread about the one driver version that accidently allowed ATI and PhysX. I haven't read the threads after the first couple posts in a while so I'll have to do a bit of review before I get started, but from what I recall it didn't seem that difficult.

I also want to have a spare card laying around, (though not my 4890 Vapor-x I have for sale, that's going towards the vertex RAID fund :) so I thought it would be nice to have an nVidia card as well so I have at least a little experience with their camp (plus I'm thinking of doing a little mitx project so a physx nvidia card will be more than what I need).

Belgolas: Oh really :D I'll have to take a look at that thread quick before they get snatched. Thanks for the heads up

[JD]

Well I actually removed the card about a week later because I have no games that use PhysX that I want to play. Didn't like Mirror's Edge and Batman was "meh".

That's why I suggest not spending too much money. Spend as little as possible unless you really believe that you'll use it often.

[Linus]

Originally Posted by _dangtx_

a bud plays left 4 dead , gave him my 9400gt pci and he used that for physx lol. made quite the difference(smooth vs lagging) at a certain resolution/eye candy

That's very strange because Left 4 Dead doesn't support PhysX...

[_dangtx_]

you sure? then i guess its another title (<---doesnt play games anymore ahem lol)

[FreeKnight]

Re: Left for Dead

IIRC some engines can be 'forced/tricked' to using some PhysX or PhysX like effects with custom configurations. Can't for the life of me remember any off the top of my head and how indepth the effects were, but maybe LFD is one of those games? Linus is definitely right on it not normally being PhysX though.