NVIDIA® PhysX® technology3

[looper]

With the rig that we have listed below, could I take an older 6800GTS or 8800GTS nVidia card which we are not using, put it in an open PCI slot as a second video card, and get that so-called 'physX' effect from certain games? Or, is our MB not capable of such a thing?

Confused...

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: looper
With the rig that we have listed below, could I take an older 6800GTS or 8800GTS nVidia card which we are not using, put it in an open PCI slot as a second video card, and get that so-called 'physX' effect from certain games? Or, is our MB not capable of such a thing?

Confused...

Only 8 series or better Nvidia GPU's. So your 6800GT wouldn't be able to.

Your motherboard has the following:

2 x PCI-E x16 (blue @ x16 mode, black @ x2 or x4 mode)

So yes, your motherboard is capable. You can use your 8800GTS as a PhysX card and your primary would be your GTX280.

 

[looper]

What do you think? Worth doing? Only 'works' for certain games?

Son and I play new games COD-MW and -WaW, and Supreme Commander. Sometimes 'Age of Empires'...

The rest of the games are OLD...golf game 'Links 2003', and an old 'RTS' 'Total Anihilation'...

(Edit... BTW...off-topic question... tried 'single-player' in COD-MW (always play online/multi), just for fun...would not run w/ error...'disk not in drive' message. The disk is perfect.... what's up?)

 

[SunnyD]

IMHO - for those games, not worth it. I'm not even sure if CoD or SupCom even use PhysX, but I think those would be the only two on your list that would remotely even consider using PhysX, and probably not in terribly much detail (or not really noticable).

 

[looper]

PhysX possibly could become a 'big thing', depending on what new game or developer utilized it's capabilities? Yes, no, and why....

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: looper
PhysX possibly could become a 'big thing', depending on what new game or developer utilized it's capabilities? Yes, no, and why....

PhysX is pretty much in it's infancy. There are only two full games out right now that utilize PhysX which runs on Nvidia GPU's. They are Mirrors Edge and Cryostasis.
There are other games that demonstrate GPU PhysX in only certain levels, such as GRAW2 and Unreal Tournament 3.

As far as developer support. Many big names devs like "EA" have signed over the past year and are currently developing games. A few more games "should" launch over the summer.

The games you had mentioned though, do not have GPU based PhysX. So, you wouldn't notice any difference using PhysX or not, because there is no difference.

The only thing that 8800GTS would do in the second PCI-e slot is eat up electricity. Unless of course you buy the two full titles I mentioned above. Then it would actually utilize the Nvidia GPU's to run PhysX because the games support it.

As far as PhysX becoming the "next big thing", well, you'll hear opinions from all over and of vastly differing perspectives, but IMHO, PhysX will be big, yes. It already has the momentum of tier one devs backing it.

 

[looper]

Interesting, thanks...

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Don't beat the dead dog any more than we have to..

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: Keysplayr
The only thing that 8800GTS would do in the second PCI-e slot is eat up electricity. Unless of course you buy the two full titles I mentioned above. Then it would actually utilize the Nvidia GPU's to run PhysX because the games support it.

Curious if you know this... Would an extra 8800GTS in his situation (1600x1200 screen with a GTX 280) really help, or is the GTX 280 enough to handle video and PhysX at that rez? I didn't notice any slowdowns running Cryostasis with a single GTX 280 at 1920x1200, but then again I also wasn't able to try it out with an extra card for PhysX.

 

[Keysplayr]

@ Nitro: I was actually using a 9800GTX+ by itself to run CS at that rez with PhysX. A 280 is more than enough. In my testing of all the PhysX titles available, I have found that an 8800GTS in the second slot running PhysX next to my 280 usually gained anywhere from 15 to 30% framerate improvement depending on the game. The actual numbers are in that old PhysX FAQ I had going for a while. As you go up in rez, the dedicated PhysX GPU would probably become more prominent.