PCI GeForce for PhysX

[CamaroRacing]

Does anyone know if you can a PCI version of the GeForce 8 series for PhysX? I don't have anymore PCI-E slots, so I was thinking of using one of my PCI slots for a dedicated PhysX card.

 

[evilsofa]

PhysX 9.x requires series 8, 9 or 2xx nVidia cards with 256MB or more. As far as I can tell from newegg, the only two cards that fulfill those requirements that are PCI cards are the 8400GS and the 9400GT.

The only PCI 9400GT on newegg costs $100 which does does not sound at all worth it to me. At least the cheapest PCI 8400GS costs only $50 - but will it run PhysX fast enough to be worth even $50?

Edit the next day: Also, I wonder how much the PCI interface will nerf even the 8400GS for PhysX use. I wouldn't spend any money trying this out; odds are you would be better off just leaving PhysX on your main video card(s).

 

[Relativist]

we need benchmarks or something...

 

[defaultluser]

I don't see why it would be a problem. The original Physx accelerator cards used PCI, and these low-end cards (9400GT) will offer similar performance.

It may be that Nvidia's Physx drivers only support PCIe-connected graphics cards, but if that's not the case, it will probably work.

 

[evilsofa]

Check out this article:

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,...s_Edge_Physx_effects_benchmark_review/?page=2

It would appear from those results that using an 8400GS for PhysX may actually nerf the entire system if you have it do PhysX - you would be far better off NOT using an 8400GS than using it.

 

[Relativist]

It looks like it does better than cpu, but you are worse off if your using a 260, you can just let it handle both the PhysX and Video. Seems like a bandwith problem then. Now I'm thinking, I should get a board I can use my 9800GT for PhysX with.