Dedicated PhysX Card

[djlenoir]

I just finished building a new computer and I am interested now in adding in a third video card for dedicated PhysX. I only have two slots available so I am looking for the best card that only takes up one slot. By slot, I don't mean PCIe slot, but rather the total width of the video card does not extend more than one slot in the case. With that said, I have two questions:

1) Is PhysX worth buying another card for?
2) What is the best single slot card available that I can pick up for this purpose?

Actually, I do have another question if anyone knows an answer. Is there a reason that PhysX can't be done on ATI based cards? I mean, I understand it is because NVIDIA does not want them to but the hacking community usually doesn't care about that sort of thing... so, is it even possible, or is it an engineering problem where ATI cards are not capable of doing it?

 

[Keysplayr]

You didn't mention what your first two video cards were.

 

[blanketyblank]

I know there's a hack that can get physx working if you have an ATI and a seperate nvidia card. Normally that option is disabled if nvidia detects an ATI card.
Personally I don't think it's worth spending the extra money on physx since what it adds is pretty minimal.

 

[happy medium]

I just finished building a new computer and I am interested now in adding in a third video card for dedicated PhysX. I only have two slots available so I am looking for the best card that only takes up one slot. By slot, I don't mean PCIe slot, but rather the total width of the video card does not extend more than one slot in the case. With that said, I have two questions:

1) Is PhysX worth buying another card for?
2) What is the best single slot card available that I can pick up for this purpose?

Actually, I do have another question if anyone knows an answer. Is there a reason that PhysX can't be done on ATI based cards? I mean, I understand it is because NVIDIA does not want them to but the hacking community usually doesn't care about that sort of thing... so, is it even possible, or is it an engineering problem where ATI cards are not capable of doing it?

There is a gtx 260 that is 1 slot.Thats the best single slot card there is.

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/30...60_896mb_razor_edition_video_card/index3.html

 

[zerocool84]

Buying an expensive card just for Physx doesn't make sense to me. There's not that many games that even use it and the ones that do, there's only 2 that make even decent use of it and only one of those games is worth playing. Not worth it.

 

[tweakboy]

I stand by zercool and what he said.

Its a waist of time and money. phsyx card is not important now if you have a powerful CPU ,, and gear,, :0

 

[Zillatech]

Buying a dedicated PhysX card is an absolute waste of money. The technology and game support just isn't there and when it does become viable, the GPU's and/or CPU's will do just fine.

 

[toyota]

I stand by zercool and what he said.

Its a waist of time and money. phsyx card is not important now if you have a powerful CPU ,, and gear,, :0

if you want to run hardware physx then you will need a gpu to do that on. no cpu can run full hardware level physx.

 

[djlenoir]

Well it seems like the general feeling is that PhysX is not a compelling technology at the moment, as it:

a) has very few games supporting it, and even fewer that one might want to actually play

b) is a costly upgrade for the sole purpose of supporting titles that do support PhysX at this time

The Youtube videos that I have seen of PhysX in action make it seem like an awesome addition to the 'real feel' of games. It would be nice if they patch implemented it into existing game, or new ones (like Star Trek Online).

For those that have asked, my existing system consists of two XFX HD5870 XXX cards in CrossFire mode. I didn't want to start any controversy about no official support for ATI cards as the primary graphics adapter. I added my complete system specs to my signature for those who are interested in any other components.

Thank you for the link to the GTX 260+ Razer edition... if I decide to jump on the PhysX bandwagon, that may just be my target purchase. I had been searching and thought that a 9800GT was the best card available. How does the 260 compare to the 9800GT anyway?

 

[djlenoir]

Adding post to see if my signature is included... did not show up on previous posts.

 

[Grinja]

b) is a costly upgrade for the sole purpose of supporting titles that do support PhysX at this time

At the moment it does appear that way.
I wonder if some of the entry level Fermi cards (between 50$-100$) would be able to provide a decent Physx experience as a dedicated Physx card.

At this point in time I would say that Physx is only worth while if your primary display card is in fact an nVidia based card. i.e not pay for a dedicated PhysX card