Which GPU for dedicated Physx?

[!TIMMY!]

Ok, so I have a 8800GT and want to pop in a cheap Nvidia card to do all the Phsyx work in a multi-gpu set up. I have XP so don't need the work around. I can't find any reviews that compare how different cards handle physx when paired with the same more powerful card.

So what is the worst card I could get without sacrificing any physx performance?

I have been looking at the 9500GT 256mb as it has a silent cooling solution.

[AdamAnubis]

I don't fully understand what you are getting at? Do you mean you want another card in SLI to do all of the physX work, or you want to get rid of the 8800 and replace it with something for physX.

I'm not sure if you can run a 8800 and a 9500 with 1 doing purely graphics and one just physx.

[!TIMMY!]

You can use 2 different Nvidia GPU's even on a crossfire mobo in multi-gpu mode where one does the game, and the other does just physx. I am just wanting to know what the worst card I can get away with for purely the physx work.

[AdamAnubis]

Ah i see. I'm not sure. How much are you looking to spend? The 9500GT, or 8600GT is probs your best bet at around the £50 mark. Have a look at some benchmarks for the 9400GT or something. I'm not entirely sure.

[!TIMMY!]

I dont mind paying up to around £60 but I would like it to be quiet. I could get a 8800GT 256mb for £44 plus p&p and get a arctic cooler for it. Or a 9600GT with arctic cooler. Or will they be any better than the already silent 9500GT?

[AdamAnubis]

the 9600GT is similar in performance to the 8800GT. Personally, have a look for the 8600GT/S's on ebay or something. They are reasonably decent cards, and pretty cheap.

[saltynay]

Don't know if this is still valid sorry everyone for the necro post if its not but hopefully you guys can learn somethings from this explanation as you seem to lack the knowledge .

Think you need to do some research (The guy who answered this thread) before you reply on posts, giving people random guesses is not great especially for the under confident in the tech world. You can make it harder for people that actually know what they are talking about to get there point across.

You can sli only cards of the same model the exceptions are when the memory sizes are different which can add complications to the planning. Physx adds realistic details to some games that support it atm its only available as an nvidia technology and supported by there cards it is not particularly apparent in most games as designers want to sell to the entire market rather then dedicating resources just to nvidia. The idea of a dedicated physx card is to free up stream processors on the master card and using the physx card to work out all the physics in a game. In my planned addition for feb a 55nm gtx260 would then be free to devote itself to just eyecandy textures and my 8800gts 640mb would be used as the dedicated . Any card after the 8 series can be used as a dedicated physx card but its a general rule that the 8600gt or higher is needed to make an effective gain as lesser cards like the *400 & *500 don't really have the performance to get full performance. I would also buy second hand if your using it as physx it isn't as important or stressed as your main card.

[Pob255]

There is a major lack of information on how this all works.

oh and from what I remember it's only chips after the g80 that can run this onboard physx
so the new 2xx series the 9xxx series and only the 8800gt and 8800gts 512mb (g92) from the 8xxx series.

[matty-hodgson]

SOURCE

Question: Which graphics cards can accelerate NVIDIA PhysX?

A: All GeForce 8, 9, and GTX 200 series graphics cards with at least 256MB of local onboard graphics memory will be able to accelerate NVIDIA PhysX.

seems that any card with SPs can run PhysX.

In multi-GPU mode, one GPU handles all graphics duties, while the second card is solely responsible for tackling all physics commands. Under this mode end users can mix and match different cards. For instance, someone who purchased a GeForce 8800 GT last year can run this card for physics, and then pick up a brand new GeForce GTX 280 to run as the primary graphics card for gaming. An SLI motherboard isn’t required for this mode either, both SLI and non-SLI motherboards are supported.

One limitation of this mode under Vista is that a second monitor must be attached to run PhysX on the secondary GPU, and you must extend the Vista desktop onto this secondary monitor. According to NVIDIA this limitation is related to the Windows Vista display driver model (WDDM). However, the same limitation does not exist in Windows XP.

If you don’t have a second monitor available, you can also run a second display cable from your monitor to the second GeForce card running PhysX.

yeah, provided your monitor has 2 inputs!

hope this helps

[moogle]

yeah, provided your monitor has 2 inputs!

\o/

Well I can still run it then

Any decent LCD should have 2 inputs. I bet some people were wishing they had a VGA input now

[Pleiades]

So what is the PCI-E limitation for a GPU for Physx? I think I can only get to a PCI-E 1x slot, will that be enough (as I presume it doesn't require the bandwidth that a graphics card would)?

Cheers

[Pob255]

Oh cool they updated it for all 8xxx series

Just did a quick test, I was still useing the 177 beta drivers when they first supported physx, just updated to the latest 180.48
Warmonger runs much better now, I'll have a go on city of heroes/villians (my main mmo) and see if I can activate physx now with the new drivers (I couldn't with the beta drivers)

@Pleiades, I don't know of any geforce card that works on the small pci-e x1 slot, only one I know of is a matrox card which woun't be of any use.

[Pleiades]

@Pleiades, I don't know of any geforce card that works on the small pci-e x1 slot, only one I know of is a matrox card which woun't be of any use.

Damn, Abit Dark Raider only has 1 PCI-E 16x and 2 PCI-E 1x AFAIK. So it won't be possible to upgrade later a 9800GTX+ to a GTX295 (say) and relegate the old card to Physx only status? Oh well...