Game coding

shaynoa

Member
Feb 14, 2010
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Is a game better to be coded for SLI / Crossfire or just for Physx.
or should it be coded for both,
In the gaming circle what is most sort after.
thanks
 

3DVagabond

Lifer
Aug 10, 2009
11,951
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Is a game better to be coded for SLI / Crossfire or just for Physx.
or should it be coded for both,
In the gaming circle what is most sort after.
thanks

Multi GPU is not exclusive of PhysX. You can have both or neither. Although, if a game has PhysX it's an nVidia sponsored game, so it will likely support SLI quite well and be broken on crossfire, at least at first.
 

shaynoa

Member
Feb 14, 2010
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3DVagabond, in your opinion which is more practical PhysX or SLI/Crossfire
and has PhysX really made a big impact on games , is it as popular as it is made out to be, also is there that many games using PhysX
thanks for you reply
 

3DVagabond

Lifer
Aug 10, 2009
11,951
204
106
3DVagabond, in your opinion which is more practical PhysX or SLI/Crossfire
and has PhysX really made a big impact on games , is it as popular as it is made out to be, also is there that many games using PhysX
thanks for you reply

They are not an either/or. They are in no way linked. A game can have PhysX (for nVidia only) or not, independently of multi GPU support for either one or both of the brands. I'm not sure where you are coming from with this?

As far as how popular PhysX is, there are probably 2-6 games a year that support hardware accelerated PhysX on the GPU, which uses the GPU to do particle/fluid/cloth effects. I have my own personal opinion as to the value, but if you asked 10 different people you'd likely find the opinions are pretty split. Same goes with Multi GPU. While it's supported in most games and it generally supports both AMD and nVidia, if you asked 10 different people you'd find opinions as varied as, "It's the best bang for your buck performance" to "It's only worthwhile if you need more performance than what a top of the line single GPU can offer" to "I would never own multi GPU because it's too much of a hassle and never offers as smooth of an integration as single GPU does".

Personally, I would prefer if resources were spent on optimizing performance to get us closer to photo realistic rendering (the holy grail). Generally PhysX effects tend to be over done to draw attention to them. Some people really love the effects. PhysX requires more processing power than the visuals it gives you. Again, this is just my opinion.
 

shaynoa

Member
Feb 14, 2010
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I have noticed that with a lot of comments about hardware people seem to think it's about bang for bucks, im not worried about the money,
what i am getting at it is do people prefer SLI/Crossfire over having PhysX, surely with the new drivers lately between either AMD or Nvidia most of the problems with dual GPU's has subsided.
So would you guy think it would be crazy for any game developing company not to include Crossfire / SLI PhysX
 

3DVagabond

Lifer
Aug 10, 2009
11,951
204
106
I think proper multi GPU support is more important. That's not even considered a feature, really. Goes more to support, IMO.