660Ti w/GT640 as PhysX GPU, OR HD4000 as PhysX possible?

ericjohn004

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I have a 660Ti and I play a few games that have PhysX, like Batman, BL2, and I think Metro 2033 has PhysX. I was thinking of getting a GT640 for 89.99 to have as my dedicated PhysX GPU. The reason I'm going with the 640 is because it has the same amount of CUDA cores as the GTX650 and it doesn't require a 6 pin power connector, so I can just plug it in and it'll work.

So I notice, particularly in Borderlands 2, that when bullets are flying I get frame rate drops down to 45FPS and noticeably longer frame latency that impacts my game play in a negative way. Even if I turn down graphics settings this still happens because of PhysX. It only stops if I turn PhysX on low. And I have a powerful graphics card, I normally run this game from 75-120FPS at MAX settings except for when PhysX kicks in. And I'd like it to run at a higher FPS because of my 120hz monitor and I'd also like higher minimums of at least 60FPS, and no more latency issues.

I'm contemplating doing this, but I don't know if it'll be worth the 90 bucks. How are Nvidia's PhysX drivers? Will there be a decent amount of PhysX games that'll come out in the near future? I think Metro Last Light will be one because(correct me if I'm wrong)Metro 2033 has PhysX.

Any answers would be appreciated. Hopefully someone can sway be one way or the other because I see on a few forums that lots of people have dedicated PhysX GPU's and they seem to enjoy the performance benefit from. Granted, most of the people already had an old GPU, so I guess that's the best case scenario.

Also, I just thought of this... Would it be possible to run PhysX on my HD4000 graphics iGPU? I have it on my 3570k but I think it's disabled because there's no option for it in my Nvidia control panel. I heard some mobo's disable HD4000 or if you have a dedicated GPU it disables it. Would I be able to enable my HD4000 graphics? Is that possible? I have a laptop with both a GT650m and HD4000 enabled, I'll check when I get home from work if you can use it for PhysX.

Again, any answer to any of my questions would be appreciated.

 
CUDA cores are key for a dedicated PhysX card. A GT640 is an excellent choice as it has a high CUDA core count and runs quietly with very low power consumption.

No you cannot use your Intel on-board graphics for PhysX; Nvidia cards only.

With a good PhysX card, you will get roughly 25% better performance on those PhysX games you play. Metro: Last Light will feature PhysX when it comes out next month.
 

ericjohn004

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Cool, so your onboard for gettings a PhysX GPU huh? Think it's a good idea? Do you currently use a dedicated PhysX GPU?

I also have another question if you don't mind asking. Do HD4000 graphics automatically become disabled when you add a discrete graphics card? What if I wanted to use the feature quick sync(hypothetically)? I know laptops are different, but on my DV6 I can switch between my GT650m and HD4000 iGPU. I guess you can't do the same thing on a desktop?
 


Sorry, I'm not familiar with on-board graphics on my setup. I also don't run a dedicated PhysX card with my GTX 580, but I have done A LOT of research on this topic for these forums. I have played the Batman games, Metro: 2033, and Mafia 2, and have seen how enabling PhysX can deliver quite a hit to performance. With the right dedicated PhysX card, that performance hit is eliminated.

I think if you play PhysX games then a dedicated PhysX card is a good idea... provided you need the extra performance. Since you have already described slowdowns in Borderlands 2, then its a logical improvement. The Batman games will love the dedicated PPU. One of the most demanding PhysX games is the special PhysX pack for Unreal Tournament 3. In these circumstances a dedicated PhysX card can help a lot.

With the GT 640, it eliminates much of the concern with adding a dedicated PhysX card; too much heat, power consumption, and noise is added to justify one. The GT 640 is a very economical and will add very little idle overhead to your system when not playing PhysX games.

Here is one example of Batman performance with PhysX On versus Off. With a dedicated PhysX card, the performance is equal to the performance for Off.
http://physxinfo.com/news/6922/batman-arkham-city-physx-benchmarks-roundup/
BatmanAC_physx_ddworld.jpg


And for Borderlands 2, in fact, according to this chart you will get double the framerate with a dedicated PPU:
http://physxinfo.com/news/9653/borderlands-2-physx-benchmark-roundup/
hitechlegion_border.jpg
 

Duke Nucome

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LOL no you don't get a performance boost when running Physx rather it requires much resources to run Physx and in return you will notice a hit on the frame rate when running Physx.
 

That's exactly the point.
 

Duke Nucome

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You don't gain 25% performs with Physx turned on. That preposterous LOL.
 

Re-reading this thread would help you to understand the topic.
 

Duke Nucome

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Well turning Physx off gets you a much more optimized experience without the hassle of trying to hack in an additional space heater to run Physx. The only thing that Physx adds to metro is more smoke and dropped frame rates and frame times.
 


You really don't know diddly squat and should really stop posting here.
 

Duke Nucome

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Just wondering how Physx for the OP could magically make the game BL2 run smoother with additional framerates is all. Can you set the record straight or does my opinion for OP not count ?
 

Duke Nucome

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Seems like nvidia is up to their dirty old marketing tricks again.
http://semiaccurate.com/2010/07/07/nvidia-purposefully-hobbles-physx-cpu/
 

Duke Nucome

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Yes I tried a dedicated GPU to run Physx in Metro 2033 but I did not have a satisfactory experience and I noticed frame times drops so I reverted back to graphics by AMD Radeon HD and now Metro 2033 runs as good as gold.
 

Duke Nucome

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I would wager you have multiple hundreds of dollars sunk into nvidia graphics and Intel CPUs to run Physx. Personally I don't enjoy most of the Games by nvidia with GPU accelerated Physx so I am not about to drop $500+ just to run the two games that I rarely play aside from bencmarking that have Physx.
 

That's a wager you would lose then, now stay on topic.
 

ericjohn004

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Dude you don't even know what you are talking about. And surely your not helping me of all. And of course your going to get less FPS. It's more graphics intensive OBVIOUSLY. And since it's so graphics intensive, you run a dedicated PhysX card, OBVIOUSLY. And no, it cost me 80 bucks for a dedicated PhysX card, not 500$. And if you don't like PhysX effects then somethings just wrong with you in the first place. How can you not like those effects? Hmmm, maybe because your a biased AMD owned so what are you doing on this thread in the first place? I very highly doubt you ever even owned an Nvidia card as mine runs Metro 2033 perfectly. If your comparing turning PhysX on to turning PhysX off and getting better FPS, then that so freaking obvious. You turn a setting up, you get less FPS, that's so obvious. And yet you don't seem to understand that.


Edit: And what does having an Intel CPU have to do with running PhysX? NOTHING at all. So this just tells me your a biased AMD fan as you don't even use a CPU on PhysX, so why would I buy Intel just to run it? Just goes to show your biased and misinformed that's all. Go do some research, go watch some PhysX effects again, and then come back here and tell me if I need an Intel CPU and that PhysX isn't worth it. Every explosion, shot of a bullet, spark, blood, any particle, goo, water, smoke, force fields, collisions, that's ALL PhysX, and if you don't like it then you don't like graphics. Personally I enjoy PhysX, so just because AMD doesn't have this awesome feature doesn't mean you should hate on it.
 

ericjohn004

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Hahaha, I think it's funny how biased owners of certain parts come into a thread knowing nothing about what the threads about, and think they can comment on it and not get showed up. I mean seriously, how can running an Nvidia graphic card, on an Nvidia powered PhysX game, hurt performance? Yeah it'll lower FPS if you have PhysX on, but that's just obvious. The point in getting a dedicated PhysX card is so having PhysX on won't hurt performance and you get PhysX. It's not like you have to have a dedicated PhysX card. It just gives you even better performance. And being that some of the most popular games in the world have PhysX like Borderlands 2, Batman, Metro 2033, Metro Last Light, and many more, it would make sense that you got an Nvidia card to enjoy the full experience. And I'm sure more titles will have it in the future.
 

Duke Nucome

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No one has to cough up $600, anyone could do that for only a third of that price and it doesn't take that much of a card to run physx. If you are still sold on the idea and without a 6pin connector then your options are limited. A GT640 is ok for the job and the memory bandwidth won't hold it back too much for physx only but don't bother paying retail for one when a used GT640 sometimes is as low as $40 before ship.