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NV alongside AMD for PhysX?

HangTime

HangTime

HangTime

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Currently have a RX480 installed and am contemplating if/should I also install my old gtx470 to use as a dedicated PhysX card.

1) Is this still possible? I read something about hardware PhysX being disabled ifthe nv driver detects an amd gpu?
2) On a z77 mobo could this cause issues with reduction in pci-e lane speed? I.e. rx480 current runs as 16x 3.0 but I fear this might get reduced if I fill the other pci-e slot? Will this impact performance?
3) what are the implications for power consumptuous - I am assuming it won't need as much power as a PhysX card compared to being a dedicated gpu.

My feeling to date has been 'not worth the hassle' but wanted to get some more opinions. In the past, despite all the doom mongering about driver issues I was able to get cards from different vendors cohabiting my system fine (old pci 3dfx voodoo3 card to run glide games alongside my age nvidia card) so I know it can theoretically be done.
 
Maybe now that Nvidia had a change of heart with GameWorks they will end up allowing this at some point? What give Nvidia the right to tell the user how he can and can't use the GPU.
 
^^ They seem to be moving a lot of the functionality into FleX instead - which just uses generic compute routines and isn't limited to a specific GPU. I think PhysX will eventually just end up abandoned instead of unlocked for legacy purposes.
 
HangTime said:
Currently have a RX480 installed and am contemplating if/should I also install my old gtx470 to use as a dedicated PhysX card.

1) Is this still possible? I read something about hardware PhysX being disabled ifthe nv driver detects an amd gpu?
2) On a z77 mobo could this cause issues with reduction in pci-e lane speed? I.e. rx480 current runs as 16x 3.0 but I fear this might get reduced if I fill the other pci-e slot? Will this impact performance?
3) what are the implications for power consumptuous - I am assuming it won't need as much power as a PhysX card compared to being a dedicated gpu.

My feeling to date has been 'not worth the hassle' but wanted to get some more opinions. In the past, despite all the doom mongering about driver issues I was able to get cards from different vendors cohabiting my system fine (old pci 3dfx voodoo3 card to run glide games alongside my age nvidia card) so I know it can theoretically be done.
Click to expand...

Ain't worth. The games supporting NV Gameworks/PhysX are counted on max two fingers every year. And many years 0.
Consider this, 10 years and only 50 games exist who support it, of which worthy to play are a dozen, and a third of them are the Batman series!!!!

And even if you would be able to do so, GTX470 won't cut it. Even the old GTX670Ti wouldn't cut it, when I had the GTX1080. Was better to leave the 1080 do the job.
 
Haven't tried with newer games but my old GTX470 used to cut it overclocked to around 800MHz - not exactly a power efficient way of doing it though as it'll be sitting there using as much power as an old lightbulb when idle and potentially chugging a couple of hundred watt when just doing PhysX.

With both my 780 and 1070 it was better just to leave it on those cards rather than use an additional card - though if you were replaying Mafia 2 and 1-2 other older games using an additional card can remove some of the microstutter you get when doing PhysX on the main GPU in those titles.
 
Problem is that physx is not just physx. There are certain features within it that requires later gens of nvidia cards to function and where a 400 series or 500 series fermi wont be enough or supported at all. The last batman game used such feature sets and some effects were disabled from running on my 560 ti when i tested it. I had to plug in my weak sauce GT 640 and that was just to weak to do anything but had the feature support needed.

In the summer of 2016 though, NVIDIA must have had a change of heart and allows the pairing with AMD cards ever since.
Click to expand...
Would suggest that you can run a hybrid system. The article can be found here
 
Not too bothered about support in modern games as I play a lot of older titles - have just started playing batman arkham city and noticed a bit of stuttering in places which prompted me to think about this as my gpu is a lot more modern than cpu.
 
Phixsator said:
Problem is that physx is not just physx. There are certain features within it that requires later gens of nvidia cards to function and where a 400 series or 500 series fermi wont be enough or supported at all. The last batman game used such feature sets and some effects were disabled from running on my 560 ti when i tested it. I had to plug in my weak sauce GT 640 and that was just to weak to do anything but had the feature support needed.
Click to expand...

Had a feeling that was the case - part of the reason I switched to just using the 780 but been so long I couldn't remember for sure.
 
Same as all vendor specific APIs, they get abandoned by developers. Because it's not cost effective to code things for only half the customer base.
 
Like others have said it's not really worth it. Well not unless you play a lot of Batman/Borderlands games, or want to ensure your system is Borderlands III ready.
 
VincentHanna said:
Yeah, Arkham Knight was the last big release I remember with Physx support.
Click to expand...

Quite a few games use the software version of it i.e. Deus Ex Mankind Divided its still being used in a lot of AAA titles just not the hardware only side - as like Nasher said developers don't tend to like vendor specific extensions/features/APIs.
 
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