Dedicated PhysX Card

[EduCat]

I was just kind of wondering how many of you guys use a dedicated physX card in their rig. I have a reference 980 at the moment and was given a gtx 650 today at work.

It's a cool lil' guy and searching around about what to do with it, came up with using it as a dedicated physX card. The idea sounds rockin' to me, although I'm not even sure how many physX games I actually play. (Have BF and all that but have went back to Arena FPS which dont take too much gpu horsepower.)

According to the tests below it can actually make a pretty nice improvement.

http://www.volnapc.com/all-posts/how-much-difference-does-a-dedicated-physx-card-make

Yay? Nay? Not worth the power consumption?

 

[Insomniator]

I'm really really surprised to see those results, I thought dedicated physX cards were pretty much pointless at this point regardless of the game.

If it gets a good improvement in the games you play... then sure its worth it... who cares about power consumption. Whats a 650 gonna cost to run (at not even 100% probably), dollar a month?

 

[EduCat]

Hah I was really surprised with the results as well which is why I wanted to ask the community here. You're right about the power though, cost is very low. Maybe I'll give a shot and see what happens.

 

[EduCat]

Well I am reporting back. I installed the card and came across a BM called PLABenchmark. I'm not sure the quality of the benchmark but I did end up getting better results when I had the 650 dedicated to physx. The 650 started out at 20c and went up to 30c during the benchmark, and the funny thing is I am pretty sure there was much more going on during the 2nd test with the 650, more explosions and such. Check it out, not too bad lol?

980 alone

980 with 650 dedi physx

 

[sxr7171]

I use a 750ti for that purpose. The problem being that nothing I play uses physx. Even it it does it can be broken like in AC BF. However I think they fixed it over time.

 

[therealnickdanger]

Isn't there a difference in how PhysX can be implemented - PhysX generally refers to the licensed physics engine used. Some games actually use hardware acceleration (GPU) while other games don't (CPU). I know that in Borderlands 2, when I play on my AMD systems the PhysX is still on, but forced to "low", but when I play on my NVIDIA systems, it gives me the option of setting it to "high".

EDIT: Either way, it's a good reason to hang onto your old GPU.

 

[Makaveli]

I've been doing it for over a year now and enjoying it on my AMD system.

i'm using a EVA GTX650SC for my Physx card.

I found it made borderlands 2 better playing with Physx on aswell as other titles.

As for power consumption not a big deal my card uses 65watt at full load according to the specs on NV's site. And I don't believe when physx is running on that card that it uses 100% of gpu so power usage should actually be lower than 65 watts.

 

[bystander36]

Here is a list of hardware accelerated PhysX games: http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/physx/games

Unless playing games on that list, with PhysX that is done well, I wouldn't bother putting it into my system. But it may be worth trying it if you do. Just make sure to compare before and after.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

I have a 750ti dedicated with my 770 4GB and it makes 57fps improvement at max and 44.9fps average over the 770 alone. This is on high PhysX settings

 

[bystander36]

I have a 750ti dedicated with my 770 4GB and it makes 57fps improvement at max and 44.9fps average over the 770 alone. This is on high PhysX settings

Which game?

 

[EduCat]

I ran another benchmark after a fairly long session of gaming and got some interesting results again. I ran it maxed out (8x msaa) first with the 980 doing the physx, 2nd with the 650 dedicated to it.

980alone.

980 +650physx.

 

[Fox5]

I've got a dedicated physx card as a 750ti, along with a gtx 970 as the primary card. Most physx games aren't intensive enough for it to matter, so it really only is worthwhile if you're playing the physx title of the moment. Unfortunately, none of those titles are really pushing the graphical boundaries as much as other titles do.

 

[Deders]

The 980 has more efficient shaders than Kepler and Fermi, the 750 and 750TI make much better dedicated PhysX cards than the 650 because of this.

 

[Wall Street]

PhysX does still show benefits in benchmarks. The main problem with a buying a PhysX card, is what percentage of games:

1) support PhysX,
2) are high enough graphics fidelity for PhysX to deliver a noticeable boost, and
3) are games which people actually play

Out of the tests in that Article I personally would say:

Games that benefit a lot from PhysX per 1, 2 & 3 above: Metro
Games which don't have high enough system requirements to matter (old games): Batman, Mafia II
Games which don't matter: PLA, Cryostasis
Games which don't support PhysX (not in article): Too many to list

So basically, based on their test, there is one games tested worth buying a PhyX card for.

 

[MongGrel]

I used to have a dedicated ASUS one years ago, when PhysX first came out.

Haven't bothered with one in a long time personally I suppose.

 

[Deders]

PhysX does still show benefits in benchmarks. The main problem with a buying a PhysX card, is what percentage of games:

1) support PhysX,
2) are high enough graphics fidelity for PhysX to deliver a noticeable boost, and
3) are games which people actually play

Out of the tests in that Article I personally would say:

Games that benefit a lot from PhysX per 1, 2 & 3 above: Metro
Games which don't have high enough system requirements to matter (old games): Batman, Mafia II
Games which don't matter: PLA, Cryostasis
Games which don't support PhysX (not in article): Too many to list

So basically, based on their test, there is one games tested worth buying a PhyX card for.

I would say that Metro and Metro Last: Light are 2 separate games, I'd also put Arkham City in that catagory if you ramp PhysX up enough in certain places.

Borderlands 2 may or may not benefit depending on whether its the poly count that is causing slowdown or the calculations themselves.

The Witcher 3 will suppport Hardware PhysX as does Far Cry 4 and CoD Ghosts for fur.

It's not a huge list granted but it can make for some nice touches and ambiance when used well.

Note Mafia 2's benchmark never really reflected in game performance. Despite getting borderline playable framerates on my 2x 9800GTX+'s (SLI disabled) I would consistently get 60+fps in game.

 

[sxr7171]

PhysX does still show benefits in benchmarks. The main problem with a buying a PhysX card, is what percentage of games:

1) support PhysX,
2) are high enough graphics fidelity for PhysX to deliver a noticeable boost, and
3) are games which people actually play

Out of the tests in that Article I personally would say:

Games that benefit a lot from PhysX per 1, 2 & 3 above: Metro
Games which don't have high enough system requirements to matter (old games): Batman, Mafia II
Games which don't matter: PLA, Cryostasis
Games which don't support PhysX (not in article): Too many to list

So basically, based on their test, there is one games tested worth buying a PhyX card for.

Agreed even though I have a 750ti for Physx I would not recommend anyone go down that road. The effects in Batman were cool no doubt but I can't remember the last time I played a game that included Physx and done correctly.

 

[Headfoot]

Its an unfortunate chicken and the egg problem: if they used PhysX in an inseparable way in the game (like fully destructible environments) you could do some really cool stuff and I'd be a lot more motivated to get a PhysX card. But since the majority of people either don't have a PhysX card or their card isn't fast enough to run both PhysX and graphics, no one will design that game.

Even just pre-set destructible buildings/certain other elements in Battlefield 4 changes the shooter in a massive way that's really awesome (imo). Full or nearly full destructibility would be a selling point for an FPS alone.

The good looking but not game essential stuff is nice but, at least for me, isn't enough to sell me a card. Plus the fact that you have to have an nVidia primary graphics card means that I'll only do it when nVidia is otherwise equal or ahead in perf/$. Have a 290 now, but I used to use PhysX when I was rocking a GTX 260 back in the day and it was enjoyable

 

[xixou]

 

[Deders]

That's very interesting. Not much difference between a reasonably clocked maxwell card or a highly clocked Pascal card.

 

[Face2Face]

I'd be interested to see the effect on Fallout 4 and TW3. Both games can be played for 100+ Hrs, so it could make sense for these titles alone.

 

[Deders]

I wonder if compute based gameworks effects like in the Witcher 3 can be calculated on a separate card, or if it is just PhysX?

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Which game?

Borderlands 1/2