• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Can you explain 2nd card for PhysX?

jujuman

jujuman

jujuman

Associate
Joined
15 Jan 2007
Posts
47
Hi All, hope you all had a happy and safe Christmas.

Current System

Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
Quad Q9550 cpu
Asus P5N-D mobo
4GB Geil DDR800
Creative X-fi Xtreme Gamer S/Card
Dell 24" Ultrasharp Monitors (2)
EVGA 8800 Ultra gfx card.

I have on order with OC a Sapphire HD5970, and would like to know if its worth using my 'old' 8800 Ultra for PhysX? What does it do? How easy/difficult is it to configure?

I would really appreciate a 'laymans' explanation of the pro's and con's, if any.

Thanks all

JJM
 
Pro's - you can play Physx titles with a little extra eyecandy.
Cons - Extra heat, extra power usage, extra noise.

That's about it really. An 88Ultra will handle physx easily, all it requires is a hacked nvidia driver in order to run alongside the ATI card.
 
Might be worth checking if that board can run both PCI-E slots at 16x, my P5N-E can only do 8x when both are in use.

If it can run both at 16x in theory it's worth using the old card for PhysX, but you'll need to take the extra power consumption into consideration.
 
HangTime said:
Might be worth checking if that board can run both PCI-E slots at 16x, my P5N-E can only do 8x when both are in use.

If it can run both at 16x in theory it's worth using the old card for PhysX, but you'll need to take the extra power consumption into consideration.
Click to expand...

His Board is 1x16, 1x8. 8x is fine for physx - I used to run an ATI/nVidia combo on a 16/8 board :)

It's limiting, but not massively so.
 
Unless your playing Batman AA its not really worth it atm... not many other titles really use GPU PhysX aside from mirrors edge and thats pretty forgetable. Theres a couple more major titles in the works using it but no idea when they will be released.
 
To be honest if you just want a Nvidia card for PhysX I'd ditch the 8800 Ultra which is a power hog compared to todays cards, and buy a power sipping 220GT or similar.

These can do PhysX just as well whilst being extremely economical in terms of power and heat production and are very cheap.
 
That sounds like good advice. One of the reasons I'm considering getting one for PhysX is also to have a backup graphic card if the main one fails once I start overclocking it. How well does the 220GT hold up in modern games? Bearing in mind I run at 1920x1200.

Edit: ninja'd. Okay, How well does a 240 do?
 
Last edited:
Thats a good reason to have a card for PhysX imo heh... atleast you've got something to tide you over if the main one does fail :D

220 would probably be ok maybe but its kinda borderline at best... 240 should be more than capable and not a bad gaming card in a pinch either.
 
MeMeMeMe said:
That sounds like good advice. One of the reasons I'm considering getting one for PhysX is also to have a backup graphic card if the main one fails once I start overclocking it. How well does the 220GT hold up in modern games? Bearing in mind I run at 1920x1200.

Edit: ninja'd. Okay, How well does a 240 do?
Click to expand...

Over on tom'shardware they did on article on this stating that the gt 220 worked great as a dedicated physx card for batman.
 
civic said:
Over on tom'shardware they did on article on this stating that the gt 220 worked great as a dedicated physx card for batman.
Click to expand...

Yes I remember reading that too, the link was this http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/batman-arkham-asylum,review-31725-8.html

What have we learned from this? Primarily, the GeForce GT 220, a card that doesn't appear to be very powerful on its own, becomes a force to be reckoned with as a dedicated PhysX processor, definitely offering the most bang for the buck when compared to more expensive GeForce models.
Click to expand...

So yes the 220 is a safe bet, or maybe the 240 if you want to future proof also. :)
 
Stonedofmoo said:
To be honest if you just want a Nvidia card for PhysX I'd ditch the 8800 Ultra which is a power hog compared to todays cards, and buy a power sipping 220GT or similar.

These can do PhysX just as well whilst being extremely economical in terms of power and heat production and are very cheap.
Click to expand...

I already have the 8800 as my spare card. Whats the point of buying another? My PSU is a 1000W, so no problems on the power. Cooling wont be a problem either.

Thanks for the input.
 
Read what I said again. I said ditch the 8800 Ultra which is a hot, power hungry antique, and get a cheap 220 just for PhysX work.

The Ultra was built before power consumption became a design factor and it would be a horrible waste of power just when most the time it would be idle.

Geforce 8800 Ultra max power consumption = 175w
Geforce GT 220 max power consumption = 58w
... and because the GT 220 has proper idle down clocking it will use a fraction of that at idle, whereas the 8800 Ultra will sit at full 3D clock speeds all day long.

Unless you don't care about things like that :)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom