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dedicated physics card

wingnuttzz said:
will be running vantage later, see if my score has gone up since adding the 8600gt
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well just ran vantage, and my score has dropped from 7800 to 7400

i have changed my drivers to the latest beta (180.24) but i don't believe that is the problem, i believe its because the physX just aren;t as fast on the 8600GT as they can be on my primary graphic card - 9800GTX

i noticed through out most tests (GPU one), my FPS was the same, if not slightly better, but on the second CPU one, my OPS used to be around 120, this time it was only 59, and i believe this is because of the 8600GT

bit undecided whether to take the card out of the pc, or just leave it there
 
Hmm i'll test mine again later, first leaving the 8800GTX to do GFX and physx, then do it again with the 8600GTS for physx
 
Well im back the test results and its not what i expected tbh.

First Run : 8800GTX AC3 doing GFX and BFG 8600GTS OC 256Mb doing physx

CPU Score : 13797
Test 1 : 777.97 Plans/S
Test 2 : 46.69 Steps/S

2nd Run : 8800GTX AC3 doing GFX and physx ( 8600GTS removed )

CPU Score : 26407
Test 1 : 772.67 Plans/S
Test 2 : 107.36 Steps/S

Now during these tests the GTX isnt really being tested and the higher score could well be the result of the much better capabilities of the GTX.

Is there a benchmark for UT3 that i can use to compare the dedicated physx option as i feel it will be a better indication of what to expect since the GTX will be busy with GFX duties
 
i assume, one needs to use the sli bridge ??? , i also have a p35 board, and a spare 8600GT doing nowt. I have gone back to using my old 8800GT OC card, 4870 was a waste on my 22" monitor, and the cash paid for a whole months petrol usage ...lol
 
wellibob said:
i assume, one needs to use the sli bridge ??? , i also have a p35 board, and a spare 8600GT doing nowt. I have gone back to using my old 8800GT OC card, 4870 was a waste on my 22" monitor, and the cash paid for a whole months petrol usage ...lol
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No mate no need for the bridge :)
 
So what are we saying is the minimum / reccomended leel for running dedicated physx?

I would prefer the lowest power consumption as well...

Kind Regards
 
Agreed with the above sentiments. Just get the fastest PhysX enabled GPU you can rather than a separate GPU just for physX.
 
i think the minimum someone said was a 8600GT (preferably an S model) but tbh, i don't know.

know, i am going to agree with the above statement, as i have seen no performance gain at all, but i got the card for free and i might aswell give it a shot if i have it lying spare.

I wouldn't go out and buy a card to use for dedicated physics, but just get the fastest physX enabled card i could
 
MeatLoaf said:
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Whilst Vantage tests to show you the performance level of doing PhysX on the GPU, what you haven't taken into account is how different it is in games. Any PhysX benchmark like said section in Vantage shows the performance level from the selected device, waht you have to remember is PhysX is done on any non-used SP in a single GPU machine (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

So whilst Vantage puts your 9800GTX at being the clear choice, you may find games such as UT3 may indeed run better doing the PhysX work on a dedicated GPU. If you have UT3 and the PhysX mod pack from nvidia, fire the game up doing PhysX on the 9800 and play CTF-Tornado for a good 5-10 mins, then try with the 8600GT doing the work. I found playing this map for about 10 mins does some really intence work. Framerates dropped from 45-60 down to 25-30 on my M1730 when so many objects started flying about.
 
You guys might already know this but seeing as nobody has posted here for a while to document some recent changes...

You can run a dedicated PhysX card alongside your SLi cards as of the 180.xx series release. It still needs to be hooked up to a monitor and you'll probably need to disable the card first, then enable SLi, then re-enable the card and select it as your PhysX processor.

Senture got it spot on as far as Vantage and actual PhysX encoded games are concerned, the vantage physics test isn't graphically demanding in the slightest and will only test the power of your physics processor. So if you have SLi GTX280s you will be testing those, if you add a 8800GTS for PhysX then you will only be testing that, which obviously won't give you as high a score as a GTX280 will.

When you play PhysX encoded games however, it's a different story. These games are graphically demanding and your SLi setup will benefit by even a mid-range card taking away the physics processing duties, allowing for at least a few more FPS, e.g in the Nurien demo, a GTX280 SLi + 9600GT setup can attain 2-3 more average FPS than just the 2 GTX280s. Other games such as UT3 will most likely benefit more.

Whether you think the increase is worth it or not is up to you but if you've got a spare older card lying around and you play some PhysX encoded games, it may be worth a try
 
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littlepuppy said:
may look to get a cheap 8600 for physx then and leave the 280 for games,
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It's a rather pointless purchase, as stated above.

If you already have a spare card - I've a 9600GT lying around for example - then by all means whack it in your machine. But to purchase a card specifically for physx is just silly.
 
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