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Is a second physx card worth it on top end cards?

I tried an 8800GTS 512MB (which I dont think is much different from the 9800GT) with my GTX 570 and in Metro 2033 gained an extra 1-2 fps at 1680x1050 (around the 35fps mark on full settings iirc). So i'd say no, on high end cards it's defo not worth it! Maybe it will be better optimised in other games but Metro was the only one i play with physx.
 
I tried my 580 with my old 280 running physx, just for the hell of it. Was there any gaming difference? YES! Unfortunately the difference was that the case got so hot, it was very close to igniting the oxygen in the air and killing us all. No fps difference greater than a single fps, benched in metro/gta4/crysiss'ssss.
 
Aside from the fact theres pretty much nothing worth having a dedicated PhysX card in for at this time, Its not really about the framerate... using a high end card for rendering and physx and using a high end card for rendering and another card for physx might actually give you the same displayed framerate - but you will find the game smoother with less spikes, etc. when using a dedicated card in most cases - especially true if your using an SLI setup for rendering.
 
That might be true but from my experience it wasnt worth the extra heat, and especially not worth it if u dont have a spare older card lying around.
 
I wouldn't buy one purposefully for physx, but if you have an 'old' card that's not so old why not give it a try.
 
I've been using SLI Nvidia cards for a while now, and still havnt found any case where I could have used Physx. Batman is the only recent game I can think of that used it, and in any such case if I get a game like that, I can just turn off SLI and use the second card for Physx.

Adding an extra dedicated card for Physx isnt worth it.
 
The only reason I use physx is because I have a spare card which does nothing else. Might aswell put it to good use. Otherwise physx is not worth it at all.
 
I used my old 9800GTX+ for physx on Mafia 2 with a 570 as my main card because 3D hit the frame rate a bit hard with high settings and it did pick it right back up, so far though that is the only game its been useful for.
 
These were my results from October 09 on Batman AA.

PhysX on high using just my GTX 280:

Min FPS 24
Max FPS 60
Average FPS 44

PhysX on high using GTX 280 and a 9800GT for the PhysX

Min FPS 34
Max FPS 60
Average 54

This is at 1920x1200
4xAA everything else on max.

However when moving over to my GTX480 and using a GTX260 for PhysX I noticed very little gain in Mafia 2 and apart from Metro 2033 I can't think of any more games of significant note that utilise PhysX. I've since sold the 260 as I thought it was pointless leaving it in my system sucking up power and making things warmer.
 
Batman on a single stock speed 480
Batman%20PhysX%20480%20Only.PNG


Stock 480 + GT240
Batman%20PhysX%20480%20and%20GT240.PNG


Cannot remember what the res was, either 1920x1200 or 2560x1600
 
^^

Would be better with two GTX 480s as that way you can run SLI in non physx games, and disable SLI to use Physx in any such game.
 
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