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Which card for Physx?

F

FurBurglar

Gawd
Joined
Jan 14, 2005
Messages
513
I know these questions have been asked a million times, but will I notice much difference in Physx processing by using an 8800 GT vs GTS 250? I have a new card coming and already have the other 2 cards. If the 8800 GT will be plenty for stand alone Physx, then I will pay it forward and help out a friend with the GTS 250. Any opinions? Thanks.
 
I've actually heard the GT240 is a good choice for a discrete Physx card as well. There's no need for a really expensive card for Physx.
 
Both cards are fine for discreet Physx. The main practical difference for me is that the 8800GT would probably be louder thanks to the little fan most of them have.
 
I highly recommend you see this information

Go to the bottom bottom of the page. Clicking on the scrollbar and dragging is recommended.http://gamegpu.ru/action-/-fps-/-tps-eng/mafia-ii-public-demo-test-gpu.html

In more demanding situations, like Mafia II and its intensive PhysX, then alot can be desired from even a GTS 250.Considering your setup has almost twice as much raw performance as the GTX 480 which is the master card in the review, a more powerful PPU is even more recommended. If you want to maximize the PhysX potential of your rig, a GTX 260 would be recommended. This of course will add even more power and heat into your system, so if you opt not to, it's understandable.

The 8800GT is fine if you don't want to spend more money.

If you want to buy a PPU that uses no power or heat, GT240 like the other poster said.

If you want to full PhysX, GTX 260 or more. A GTS 450 would be ideal.
 
Yeah thanks for the info and link. I guess maybe I will offload both of the cards I currently have and buy a little bit better card.
 
Your welcome :] I had the same question at one time and was dying to find any real benchmark where the same main GPU was paired to different PhysX cards. Now that I finally found one, I love to spread the news.

Have a nice day and good luck.
 
I run a 8800gt with my GTX470 and in game playing Mafia 2 with physx on high the gpu usage for the 8800gt is somewhere between 10-35% and mostly hovers under 15%. An 8800gt is the fastest card I would get as a dedicated PPU.
 
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I've tried the Mafia 2 demo with a 470 with a 240 (physx). If I remember right, the 240 wasn't very taxed... but my framerates were still pretty bad. Not sure if that was an isolated problem with the demo or not. When I turned PhysX off, it ran perfect. With it on, I was lucky to get 24fps, even though the 240 wasn't taxed very much.
 
I got almost 20 FPS increase using GT 240 compared with no dedicated Physx on high Physx setting with Arkham at 25x16. Mafia 2 seems more demanding but much of that is unnecessary. It was proved that deleting a bunch of files on medium Physx drastically improved performance; the files applied Physx to the clothing of characters other than the one you're controlling, which seems like a huge waste.
 
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Matrices said:
I got almost 20 FPS increase using GT 240 compared with no dedicated Physx on high Physx setting with Arkham at 25x16. Mafia 2 seems more demanding but much of that is unnecessary. It was proved that deleting a bunch of files on medium Physx drastically improved performance; the files applied Physx to the clothing of characters other than the one you're controlling, which seems like a huge waste.
Click to expand...

+1.

I think that the real point of this is: the amount of PhysX processing you need is highly dependent on the game. The Tom's article and the Russian site I linked both suggest that a GTX 275 is what you need to max out PhysX capabilities in the most demanding game to use it yet. I bet 90% of the other games to use PhysX don't need a GTX 275, and that the user-reports that say a GT 240 or 9800GT are fine are spot on for the average gamer.
 
Just testing it now, I more than doubled my FPS simply by removing the Physx cloth effects for all characters except Vito, according to the benchmark. That is just ridiculous, especially because this boost also applied to explosions and other scenes where you can't see anyone's clothes.

This is really exhibit A in the shittiness of proprietary tech. Who knows how many fools are dropping GTX 260 or greater cards in their machines for Physx so they can "enjoy" watching someone's clothes move in a certain algorithm. I guarantee no one is checking out anyone's clothes as you're trying to shoot them.

I myself only use dedicated card for Physx because the GT 240 was $40 AR and you need a third card to run 3 monitors with SLI enabled anyway (unless using Surround).
 
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