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Dedicated physx

These are the facts:
i) Even if his PSU can handle it, it still doesn't change the fact the GTX280 is a high power consumption/hot-running card
ii) The temp 'could' become an issue for the OP, with 3 hot cards in his PC
iii) Overclocking the pair of GTX480 is more benefitual than having a PhysX card for games in general
iv) No point adding a PhysX card for adding's sake right now and giving energy provider extra money, unless he already have games at hand that he wants to play which actually uses PhysX

The OP is fully aware of the facts seeing he had 2 280s beforehand & now 2 GTX480.

Everyone knows the situation of PhysX & its the simple question would he see benefits under PhysX usage & that's either yes or no.
 
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The OP is fully aware of the facts seeing he had 2 280s beforehand & now 2 GTX480.

Everyone knows the situation of PhysX & its the simple question would he see benefits under PhysX usage & that's either yes or no.
But it will be the first time he will have 3 hot cards in the PC not 2, so it was just a reminder.

And the OP asked "Is it worth squeezing an old 280 as a dedicated physx card?", not will he see benefits under PhysX as you claim.

And we can't provide a simple "yes or no" answer for the OP, as "is it worth it" is down to OP himself putting the pros and cons on the scales and come to a conclusion for himself, since people WILL have conflicted opinions of "worth it or not".
 
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But it will be the first time he will have 3 hot cards in the PC not 2, so it was just a reminder.

And the OP asked "Is it worth squeezing an old 280 as a dedicated physx card?", not will he see benefits under PhysX as you claim.

And we can't provide a simple "yes or no" answer for the OP, as "is it worth it" is down to OP himself putting the pros and cons on the scales and come to a conclusion for himself, since people WILL have conflicted opinions of "worth it or not".

It either benefits or it does not.
Whether the benefits are worth it or not are down to the OPs opinion once he has established if there would be any & from Rroffs' post it seems that there would be.
 
Another obvious that does not need mentioning.
Another obvious personal targeting with no intention of focusing on the topic at hand. If everything is so 'obvious', then OP would 'obviously' just toss his GTX280 in without asking for opinion, and 'obviously' wouldn't be here making this topic now would he? Obviously :rolleyes:
 
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Another obvious personal targeting with no intention of focusing on the topic at hand. If everything is so 'obvious', then OP would 'obviously' just toss his GTX280 in without asking for opinion, and 'obviously' wouldn't be here making this topic now would he? Obviously :rolleyes:

As you can see I have 2x480. Is it worth squeezing an old 280 as a dedicated physx card?

He didn't ask for your opinion on heat & power because everyone knows it going to create more & use more.

When someone asks about dedicated its is always first & foremost about performance & features & that's the part he was not sure about otherwise there would be no point at all.
The performance part is not obvious, using more power & creating more heat is even if there was no performance gain or even a performance loss.
 
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Final8y does have a point :)

When I get my second 580 I'm gonna try running a 450 for physx. Not sure if it will run in a 4x slot, but that's what pc's are all about for me, trying new things, and eking the best performance I can. That's why I have a 2500k @ 5.1ghz and a 580 @ 1/2.2. The OP is the same.

And stop whining about personal attacks, there aren't any. You are just taking it that way.
 
And stop whining about personal attacks, there aren't any. You are just taking it that way.
I said personal targeting not personal "attack". So what if I did posted something obvious? Would you go round and criticise people for saying 6950 2GB is the best card around £200 again and again...obvious as it is?

Also clearly we interpreted what OP asked about "is it worth it" differently. While some talked about it from performance point of view, I'm thinking more down to earth asking the question "does he actually got PhysX games that he want to play right now?" in relating to "is it worth it". I myself got a 9800GTX+ lying around, but putting it in now would be pointless, cause I have no plan to play Batman or Mirror Edge yet, or any PhysX games on the wait. I would consider putting the 9800GTX+ in, WHEN I decide to play those games.
 
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I said personal targeting not personal "attack". So what if I did posted something obvious? Would you go round and criticise people for saying 6950 2GB is the best card around £200 again and again...obvious as it is?

Also clearly we interpreted what OP asked about "is it worth it" differently. While some talked about it from performance point of view, I'm thinking more down to earth asking the question "does he actually got PhysX games that he want to play right now?" in relating to "is it worth it". I myself got a 9800GTX+ lying around, but putting it in now would be pointless, cause I have no plan to play Batman or Mirror Edge yet, or any PhysX games on the wait. I would consider putting the 9800GTX+ in, WHEN I decide to play those games.

Its always about the performance/smoother view when asking about dedicated PhysX card there is no other reason to have one.

And of course there is no point in having dedicated PhysX unless he plans to play GPU PhysX games & you think that he may not know that & your reminding him i take it.

This is not PC world with totally clueless customers but some of your questions you put to others are on that level as if they were.

Its very quick & easy to work out were someone is not aware of other factors & the OP has not given any signs of not being aware & so such questions & comments will come across as being patronising.


Personally i don't give a fig roll about PhysX but he was not asking whether people thought PhysX was worth it or not.
 
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Wow! Didn't realise that asking what I assumed was a simple question would result in such a debate and what seems to be aggresive comment, I thought everyone on these forums were friends, although they may have different opinions and ideas.
So then, if I can manage to squeeze the 280 in, will I notice an improvement in performance? Not bothered about the power consumption as long as the 950 can handle it, which I think it can. Heat on the other hand I will keep close eye on and remove it if I have to. The 480s reach 70 odd degrees running heaven.
Please give me your opinions, thanks.
P.S metro 2033 is the current squeeze! ;)
 
The advanced PhysX effects in Metro 2033 aren't anything much to write home about - bit of extra debris/smoke and a few more destructable props in the game world.

Same with Batman AA tho they do add a bit more atmosphere - not sure on the new Batman AC but that might be worth the extra card for PhysX.

Only game that really benefits from it atm is Mafia 2 so unless your playing that a lot hardly worth doing atm.
 
Extremely likely to be using it again. Why would you waste dev time removing it from the engine?

I found the actual physics part of physx in AA to be rather a letdown. There were a couple of interactive thing like tiles, cloth, webs and paper floating about but they very quickly wore off. The fog was far better, adding a real eeriness to everything and of course the trash cans in the crime alley.

Mafia II pulls it off better, adding more feel to the environments but there are some other half decent games that use it. Cryostasis, mirrors edge, ut3 + physx pack + gpu mod, alice: madness returns are all hardware accelerated games worth playing and have well implemented effects.
 
If they opended it up to ATI/AMD, more devs would use it, it would get more development and would probably contribute a lot to game evolution.

But for as long as it remains closed source, it will remain under utilised.
 
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