A bunch of ATI + physx questions.

[Undercover_Man]

Hello. I converted from nVidia to ATI because ATI is better from my research. At least when I reviewed their top dog cards.

I want to do dual 5970's. Since 1 card is a dual GPU and 2 cards would be at the max, 4 gpu's, is it still possible to add an nVidia physx card?

Am I right when I say that ATI can't do physx?

If I wanted physx, would I have to do a 5970+5870+physx card? (Basically replacing an ATI gpu with an nVidia gpu)

Assuming I can actually get physx to work, I'll be playing games in a 3 monitor eyefinity mode. Can physx even do that?

I also planned on overclocking the 5970('s) to match or exceed the 5870's clock/mem speed since the only real reason for them downclocking them in the first place was because they wanted to stay below a certain power usage level or whatever. My question for this is, would overclocking the cards (including and/or excluding the physix card) affect anything? Like supposed I didn't OC, how would that affect the 5970 speeds? Doesn't it run at the same speed the lower card run at or do the cards go at their own clock speeds? When I think if this, it makes me think the ATI cards are counted separately as GPU's and the physx card isn't counted as a GPU otherwise the ATI cards would be at the speed of the nVidia card. Would anything change if I OC'd? I just forget how this works.

Would it be possible or even worth doing at all to OC the physx card?

I'm kinda suprised ATI doesn't have a physx type feature. Why is this? I mean nVidia has had Ageia since Feb. '08 and Ageia's card since before then.

I'm wanting to do dual 5970's because I'm maxing out quality over 3 eyefinity monitors. That' in itself will use up a lot of processing power and if I went any lower, the setup would become obsolete quicker than the dual 5970's.

Let me know how this stuff works and I'll be that much smarter. THANX

 

[MJZ]

Yes.

 

[J Macker]

The reason ATI has not implemented Physx is because it is patented. Game developers may get support from nVidia, but they may also have to pay a license fee. This is also the reason why most games do not have Physx support; it takes resources to code because the programmers have to learn it.

I don't think ATI would spend the resources to create a new Physx and leave it open source, so I don't see it gaining widespread support.

I think you will need a motherboard with at least 3 PCI-E slots then, which severely cuts down the options.

 

[Undercover_Man]

I don't think ATI would spend the resources to create a new Physx and leave it open source, so I don't see it gaining widespread support.

Hmmm...I would think if ATI got its own Physx and left it open source, their technology would mature and grow faster surpassing nVidia's after a couple generation of cards.

 

[noquarter]

Hello. I converted from nVidia to ATI because ATI is better from my research. At least when I reviewed their top dog cards.

I want to do dual 5970's. Since 1 card is a dual GPU and 2 cards would be at the max, 4 gpu's, is it still possible to add an nVidia physx card?

Am I right when I say that ATI can't do physx?

If I wanted physx, would I have to do a 5970+5870+physx card? (Basically replacing an ATI gpu with an nVidia gpu)

Assuming I can actually get physx to work, I'll be playing games in a 3 monitor eyefinity mode. Can physx even do that?

ATI can't do physx, and you should be able to do 5970+5970+physx since the nvidia card isn't involved with the Crossfire interconnect. I have seen Batman Arkham Asylum on 3 monitor Eyefinity with Nvidia Physx going, you can mix the 2.

I also planned on overclocking the 5970('s) to match or exceed the 5870's clock/mem speed since the only real reason for them downclocking them in the first place was because they wanted to stay below a certain power usage level or whatever. My question for this is, would overclocking the cards (including and/or excluding the physix card) affect anything? Like supposed I didn't OC, how would that affect the 5970 speeds? Doesn't it run at the same speed the lower card run at or do the cards go at their own clock speeds? When I think if this, it makes me think the ATI cards are counted separately as GPU's and the physx card isn't counted as a GPU otherwise the ATI cards would be at the speed of the nVidia card. Would anything change if I OC'd? I just forget how this works.

You're fine on the OC. Nvidia gpu won't be involved. Also ATI's Crossfire is somehow able to mix different clocked cards now without downgrading them to match too, check 5750+5770 crossfire

Would it be possible or even worth doing at all to OC the physx card?

Not likely, unless you get a bottom of the barrel nvidia card.. Physx isn't terribly demanding.

I'm kinda suprised ATI doesn't have a physx type feature. Why is this? I mean nVidia has had Ageia since Feb. '08 and Ageia's card since before then.

ATI tried to get Havok going but I think that didn't work out due to Intel now owning Havok, not sure. So they moved on to Bullet and some other physics engine, but their goal is to implement it through OpenCL/DirectCompute.

I'm wanting to do dual 5970's because I'm maxing out quality over 3 eyefinity monitors. That' in itself will use up a lot of processing power and if I went any lower, the setup would become obsolete quicker than the dual 5970's.

Let me know how this stuff works and I'll be that much smarter. THANX

It can be done.. I don't see any problems with a dual 5970 + nvidia Physx card, just know you have to use the Physx hack to prevent nvidia's drivers from locking out Physx.

 

[Undercover_Man]

Wow. Thanx noquarter. You answered all my main questions quite clearly. I *THOUGHT* I remembered the vid cards downclocking to match the other cards specs. Glad to head they fixed that issue.

You mentioned I'd have to use the "Physx hack to prevent nvidia's drivers from locking out Physx". I've noticed various Physx hacks floating around the web. Is there one that you would recommend?

Thanks for the help thus far.

 

[noquarter]

Wow. Thanx noquarter. You answered all my main questions quite clearly. I *THOUGHT* I remembered the vid cards downclocking to match the other cards specs. Glad to head they fixed that issue.

You mentioned I'd have to use the "Physx hack to prevent nvidia's drivers from locking out Physx". I've noticed various Physx hacks floating around the web. Is there one that you would recommend?

Thanks for the help thus far.

Np, all the info for the hack should be here:
http://physxinfo.com/news/942/hybrid-physx-mod-1-02-195-xx-drivers-and-win-xp-support/

 

[Undercover_Man]

Thanx again. I have another question. I've researched and I can't tell which card I should get for the dedicated Physx card. I was thinking the 9800 GTX+ would be the best. Would this be good or would I need a faster one since I have using 5 GPU's over 3 monitors?

And those GTX+'s have some with 1GB of memory instead of the standard 512MB. Would the increase in memory help out the card being used as a PPU instead of the GPU or would the 512MB's be just a good as the 1GB's?

Oh yes, and will I need to use the back connectors? noting plugs into the card, correct? It just has to connect to the mobo? If so then that's perfect. I believe I will have to mod the Obsidian case to allow the card at the bottom to fit. The even slots are x16. I plan on having Slot 1-2 5970, 3-4 5970, 5 sound card, 6 blank (for now cuz I forgot what was going in there), and 7 PPU. the bottom two slots on the mobo will not be accessible from the back of the Obsidian if I remember correctly. So that's slot 6 and 7 which won't be accessible unless I do modding on the back of the case which would look ugly.

Now the GPU's need to be on the 16x slots but does the PPU card need to be? Would it be any slower if it had to be run at 8x (I believe that's the other option besides 16x that the mobo gives you)?