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SLI/Phyx questions

I

IDversusEGO

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Oct 30, 2003
Messages
5,015
I need to upgrade my gaming box. it is showing its age with an abit ip35-e and an 8500gt video card. Would it be a benefit to get an SLI board and a 9800gt, then use the 8500gt as a phyx card?
 
I may be mistaken, but if you aren't going to run the cards in SLI you may not need an SLI-specific motherboard. But you should probably get a confirmation from someone that's tried it before buying.
 
Technically you don't need an SLI motherboard to run two separate video cards not in an SLI configuration. However how many motherboards that are not SLI capable would come with 2x 16.0slots for video cards? There just wouldn't be a need because they'd assume you're only wanting to run 1x video card.

What you could do is get a motherboard that's capable of crossfirex, since apparently there's no licensing fee for that, and run your single video card main render + your second card as physX ppu. But then you're cutting off your ability in future to upgrade to dual video cards in SLI without purchasing a whole new motherboard OR putting in 2x ATI video cards instead. Your choice.

And PS a 9800gt is a pretty bad choice for an upgrade at this point in time. The performance is poor compared to any current gen card and it has zero DX11 capability.
Best budget card rigth now is the 5770 for the $150 and under pricepoint. Nvidia has yet to release a next gen update under $200, although perhaps the GTX 460 will change the landscape on June 1st.

You could just go with a 5770 + the 8500GT for PhysX, although you do have to 'patch' the physx to make it work with an ati card in your system.
 
The 8500 as a physx processor is pretty shabby. I had one laying around and tried it as a physx card against a 260 running both graphics and physx.

The 260 won.
 
There is absolutely no reason for you to get a new motherboard if you are not planning on upgrading your cpu (and :. most likely your ram as well). I would suggest getting a new (single) card in the dx11 range if you can swing it. You do not need an SLI board to run 2 video cards in a non-SLI configuration (as it would be with a 9600+8500). You also probably won't get very good performance with an 8500 for physx processing, but that's not the end of the world as there really aren't any games that use hardware physx on the gpu (besides batman).

You can find the list here: http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_physxgames_home.html

Absolutely do not spend money getting a card for physx until you have at least a 5850/gtx470 or better gpu. Your gpu is way more important. I'm not sure what resolution you play at, but the 9600 would be ok for source games like counter-strike, TF2, Half-Life, etc., but wouldn't be up to snuff for the more modern Bad Company 2, Metro 2033, etc. titles.
 
funny everyone is hyped about physx cards but just saw review for 5970 with a 480 physx card and was impressed it took 1500$ in cards for decent fps with physx (of course i got no sleep so maybe im kinda out of it) but i agree worry about everything else before physx get new cpu more ram better psu, my guess is you never had a gaming box since a 8500gt was never top the line or even a midrange card! and a 9800gt is a waste now days sell your 8500gt and get a 5770 or 4890 and just forget about physx
 
forget about physx card...done. was just trying to see if I could use my 8500 for something. as for the 9800 being a poor upgrade...I can get one for $50 and I just want to use it until I build a new machine sometime around the first of the year.
 
the 16sp 8500gt is too slow for physx. the MINIMUM according to Nvidia is a 32sp like the 8600gt or better. I can tell you that even the 8600gt is too slow in reality. the benchmarking I did shows my gtx260 to be better at handling both graphics and physx then to let my 8600gt be a predicated physx card. the realistic physx minimum card is a 9600gt but a 9800gt or gt240 would be a better choice.
 
so I could buy my $50 9800gt now then when I build my new machine I could use it as a physx card. sounds like a better plan.
 
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