AMD/ATI main card with Nvidia card as PhysX card?

Marine-RX179 · 19 Dec 2010 at 12:05

I will be getting a MSI 5850 Twin FrozeR soon, so my 9800GTX+ would either be retired to become a PhysX card, or be sold on the bay (to be honest I really don't want to bother with the hassle of selling).

I'm awared that there is a cracked driver or hax which allow to use Nvidia card as PhysX card while having a AMD/ATI main card, so anyone got a instruction or guide on what I would need to do to get that to work?

Nocky24 · 19 Dec 2010 at 12:15

It'll only work with a certain old cat driver iirc. To be honest it's not worth the bother, Physx isn't all that anyways.

I'd just sell it, get a bit of money for it against your 5850, and use the best set of drivers for the 5850

Mojo · 19 Dec 2010 at 12:35

Nocky24 said:
It'll only work with a certain old cat driver iirc. To be honest it's not worth the bother, Physx isn't all that anyways.

I'd just sell it, get a bit of money for it against your 5850, and use the best set of drivers for the 5850

This, Physx is still a total gimmick, and using unsupported workarounds with older drivers isn't worth it

MichaelM · 19 Dec 2010 at 12:40

Dedicated Physx cards make slight sense if you have the card to spare and won't be spending any money on them.

Heres a helpful link for performance with different cards.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-physx-hack-amd-radeon,2764-8.html

No harm trying it then selling it if you feel the benefits are not worth the extra power draw. Can't see much of a future in physx when game designers start using idle CPU cores and opencl...which is the way it should have been done if Nvidia where not so greedy.

Andric · 19 Dec 2010 at 14:18

will have a spare 460 was thinking giving this a try - please post results/problems?

tommybhoy · 19 Dec 2010 at 15:16

It'll only work with a certain old cat driver iirc.

It works on any 10's I have been using it for over a year.

To be honest it's not worth the bother, Physx isn't all that anyways.

Cryostasis, Mirrors Edge, Trine, Dark Void, Batman, Mafia 2, but most of all Metro is simply stunning with fisx!

It's handy for some apps too, like Coreavc.

It's simple to do, just install card, I use nvidia 258.96 drivers, then use this fisx hack (instructions in it too)Link Use the files in 'Extras folder to switch fisx on/off without using nvidia control panel and check with Fluidmark 1.2.0 (newer Fluidmark needs files moved around to make it work) that it works.

wolvers · 19 Dec 2010 at 15:47

tommybhoy said:
Cryostasis, Mirrors Edge, Trine, Dark Void, Batman, Mafia 2, but most of all Metro

A good list of reasons not to bother!

pingu666 · 19 Dec 2010 at 15:52

theres darkest of days aswell, which was crashy but good

Marine-RX179 · 19 Dec 2010 at 17:22

No offense...as a natural guy that don't really bias toward either camp, the only people I've seen claiming PhysX is 'totally' not worth the bother are ATI loyalists that don't have the necessary hardware to run PhysX, so it's not really convincing.

While I agree it would be not worth going out of the way to get a card just to run PhysX and there's only handful of games uses it, the thing is I already got the necessary hardware lying around so why not? I would probably be keeping the 9800GTX+ as a back-up card since I would not be getting much money back anyway.

Final8y · 19 Dec 2010 at 18:23

Marine-RX179 said:
No offense...as a natural guy that don't really bias toward either camp, the only people I've seen claiming PhysX is 'totally' not worth the bother are ATI loyalists that don't have the necessary hardware to run PhysX.

While I agree it would be not worth going out of the way to get a card just to run PhysX and there's only handful of games uses it, the thing is I already got the necessary hardware lying around so why not? I would probably be keeping the 9800GTX+ as a back-up card since I would not be getting much money back anyway.

I have seen plenty of NV users saying the same lately.
And to make out that ATI users only say its worthless because they cant run it is also false as no one is forcing them to only use ATI cards & if they thought it was worth it in the first place then they would have bought an NV card in the first place.

PhysX is used as a visual enhancement you don't need to run it first hand to see if you like how it looks to think its worth it or not & if i thought it was worth it i would have it.

Mojo · 19 Dec 2010 at 18:49

Marine-RX179 said:
No offense...as a natural guy that don't really bias toward either camp, the only people I've seen claiming PhysX is 'totally' not worth the bother are ATI loyalists that don't have the necessary hardware to run PhysX, so it's not really convincing.

While I agree it would be not worth going out of the way to get a card just to run PhysX and there's only handful of games uses it, the thing is I already got the necessary hardware lying around so why not? I would probably be keeping the 9800GTX+ as a back-up card since I would not be getting much money back anyway.

I'm not an ATI loyalist, I got my 5870 for free

I'm not saying that they aren't used in games, but the effects they are used for are very small (read: Unnoticeable) and aren't worth the effort. I've played through some of the games in your list with both my GTX280 and my 5870, and I noticed no difference. I know it's for free, but you still need to download old sets of drivers and unsupported bits of program, and every time you want to update your graphics drivers you have to go through the whole sodding thing again.

I suppose it's how dedicated you are to getting those effects, but I myself would be happy to sell the 9800gtx+ and drink myself to death for a week or two

tommybhoy · 19 Dec 2010 at 19:08

Final8y said:
And to make out that ATI users only say its worthless because they cant run it is also false as no one is forcing them to only use ATI cards & if they thought it was worth it in the first place then they would have bought an NV card in the first place.

I totally disagree with you there, I use hybrid fisx myself. I want the best graphic experience, hence I game on PC and not consoles. Each time someone asks for help enabling it on Ati cards the replys are always the same. It's crap, rubbish, not worth the effort. Nine out of ten the negativity is from the red side probably because they can't use it! The reason there is not to many games with fisx is because Nvidia (wrongly)locked it down to there cards. And at the moment there are more Ati cards out in the wild. If Nvidia was to do a u-turn and let fisx work with an Ati card present then it would be embraced more within the PC comunity.

Final8y · 19 Dec 2010 at 19:25

tommybhoy said:
I totally disagree with you there, I use hybrid fisx myself. I want the best graphic experience, hence I game on PC and not consoles. Each time someone asks for help enabling it on Ati cards the replys are always the same. It's crap, rubbish, not worth the effort. Nine out of ten the negativity is from the red side probably because they can't use it! The reason there is not to many games with fisx is because Nvidia (wrongly)locked it down to there cards. And at the moment there are more Ati cards out in the wild. If Nvidia was to do a u-turn and let fisx work with an Ati card present then it would be embraced more within the PC comunity.

Once again no one is forced to use only ATI cards your statement would hold true in a situation where the have not's don't have means to obtain.
This is not a situation of the poor being jealous of the rich & that the poor would do the same as the rich if they were rich themselves.

It maybe because they are not impressed with Physx is to why they bought that ATI card instead of the NV card & they have a right to say its not worth it.

If i choose a Bentley over a Rolls-Royce because i didn't think the Rolls-Royce was worth it then i still have a right to say so & will not accept someone telling me that the only reason why i don't think the Rolls-Royce is worthy it because i don't have one as if i couldn't of had one if i wished.

The line of thought of only because you don't have one is extremely shallow as if we all own things that we think are not worth it just so we can say its not worth it without looking like its only because we dont have it.

I will place an order for a 580 & leave it in the box just so it gives me the right in some peoples eyes to criticise it.

Mojo · 19 Dec 2010 at 19:26

tommybhoy said:
If Nvidia was to do a u-turn and let fisx work with an Ati card present then it would be embraced more within the PC comunity.

They certainly would, Physx is a great system. It's handling of Fluid dynamics in particular are superior to OpenCL. However, Nvidia has kept it proprietary. Their using it in marketing for buying an Nvidia card has ironically made it pretty useless as it stands

Final8y · 19 Dec 2010 at 19:35

Mojo said:
They certainly would, Physx is a great system. It's handling of Fluid dynamics in particular are superior to OpenCL. However, Nvidia has kept it proprietary. Their using it in marketing for buying an Nvidia card has ironically made it pretty useless as it stands

Physx its self is not the problem the way its used in a very limited sense is.

AMDs latets Dx11 demo. just having something does not matter its how its used is what counts & its the worse use i have ever seen.

he HK-2207 real-time demo features a number of post processing effects (depth-of-field, lens flare, ghosting, aerial perspective/atmospheric, LUT, emissive and reflection) provided as an easy approach for developers and artists to adopt Microsoft® DirectX® 11 programming. This demo also uses a current trend in game engines utilizing deferred lighting and deferred shading allowing many more lights and rapid prototyping. A newly developed GPU accelerated physics particle system is introduced utilizing DX11 DirectCompute. Bullet Physics is used with a new fracture/destruction approach that also features procedurally generated unique debris leveraging DX11 tessellation.

exe & pictures...just awful.
http://developer.amd.com/samples/demos/pages/RadeonHD6900SeriesRealTimeDemos.aspx

You can make any cutting edge tech look like garbage if used badly.

pingu666 · 19 Dec 2010 at 19:48

i quite liked it, shame its a propietary system, and you have to fiddle about to get it to work with a ati as a main card. would be far better and more popular if you could just get a cheapo nvidia gfx card, plug it in, and it worked

Cleeecooo · 19 Dec 2010 at 20:59

I tried PhysX with a 5850 and a 8800GTX. Not worth it.makes everything hotter, doesn't even do that much. Slight difference in Mafia II but not much. better to o/c ur 5850

Marine-RX179 · 19 Dec 2010 at 22:04

Cleeecooo said:
I tried PhysX with a 5850 and a 8800GTX. Not worth it.makes everything hotter, doesn't even do that much. Slight difference in Mafia II but not much. better to o/c ur 5850

But that's because 8800GTX is a G80 chip on a 90nm process and the card can draw up to 225W under max load, therefore it's a bad idea to use the 8800GTX as a PhysX card; my 9800GTX+ only require 1x6-pin PCI-E connector and max power draw is under 150W, and temp is around 10-15C lower than the 8800GTX.

wolvers · 19 Dec 2010 at 23:36

I doubt that would make much difference because it's only likely to use 20-30% of either of those cards.

Game devs will never embrace fizzx and get the most out of it, while it's a proprietary system, so it will remain a bit extra glitter as opposed to being a real game enhancing feature that it has the potential for. Shame really.

tommybhoy · 19 Dec 2010 at 23:45

Final8y said:
Once again no one is forced to use only ATI cards your statement would hold true in a situation where the have not's don't have means to obtain.
This is not a situation of the poor being jealous of the rich & that the poor would do the same as the rich if they were rich themselves.

It maybe because they are not impressed with Physx is to why they bought that ATI card instead of the NV card & they have a right to say its not worth it.

If i choose a Bentley over a Rolls-Royce because i didn't think the Rolls-Royce was worth it then i still have a right to say so & will not accept someone telling me that the only reason why i don't think the Rolls-Royce is worthy it because i don't have one as if i couldn't of had one if i wished.

The line of thought of only because you don't have one is extremely shallow as if we all own things that we think are not worth it just so we can say its not worth it without looking like its only because we dont have it.

I will place an order for a 580 & leave it in the box just so it gives me the right in some peoples eyes to criticise it.

You are kidding yourself on if you think that most Ati users would still rubbish fisx if they had access to it! If it was the other way about, I have NO DOUBT it would be the Nvidia crowd rubbishing it with the Ati mob saying it's fantastic!

As I have tried to point out before, it takes about 10 minutes maximum to set up, very straight forward to do. It's not costing the op anything to try it to find out for himself is it?

By no means am I claiming that fisx is the dogs danglies, but it is an option I chose to have. The smug look on my face is priceless when my console mates watch me play the likes of Metro, Batman or Mafia2 and show them what a real toy can do!

Is that not the point of having a PC in the first place? It's up to you what goes in and if you don't like something about it, rip it out and get a new shiny bit.

In case anybody is wondering, I use a 5870+9800gt just now, but when it's time for me to get a new card, I will be going for best bang for buck. I do not care about brand loyalty as they sure as hell don't care about us they just wan't your cash!