Dedicated Physx card on H77 chipset mobo?

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PsykoTenshi

PsykoTenshi

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Nov 18, 2012
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My situation in a nutshell (somewhat): I'm currently running an HD 4890, but I've got a GTX650 Ti on the way, and a 8800GT on another system that will be replaced by my current gpu, so instead of having that 8800GT lying around, I might as well use it for dedicated Physx processing.
But after doing some quick research I see that buying the cheapest (yet decent) mobo I could find sort of backfired on me, and according to official specs, it only supports CrossfireX.
And it would appear I need SLI compliance to get a dedicated Physx card working.
However, according to other sources the H77 chipset doesn't support multi-gpu setups at all? Then I read on this very forums there are driver hacks to address this kind of stuff as well.
So things are a bit unclear for me at this point.

tl;dr, any way to enable dedicated Physx processing on a 8800GT paired with a GTX 650Ti on an AsRock H77M?
I don't mind staying on the same driver(s) version forever as long as it runs fine, no need to fix what ain't broken as they say.

Relevant system specs:
Motherboard:
-AsRock H77M, 2 PCI-e 16x slots (first slot is 3.0 running @16x and the second is 2.0 running @4x)
Graphic cards:
-Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 Vapor-X (currently running)
-PNY GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost (arriving soon)
-MSI NX8800GT (soon to be dedicated Physx card?)
Power supply:
-Corsair AX850 (850W)
OS:
Windows 7 x64

Thank you for your help :)
 
Solution
17seconds
You are good to go with a GTX 650 Ti as your primary card and an 8800 GTS as a dedicated PhysX card. Your motherboard does NOT need to support SLI, since the cards will not be utilizing SLI. The 8800 will only be performing CUDA computations, and not rendering graphics.

It will be interesting to see what results you get. It is not really clear which cards best pair up for dedicated PhysX processing. Hopefully, you actually plan to play some GPU-accelerated PhysX games (Borderlands 2, Planetside 2, Metro Last Light, Mafia 2, Hawken, Batman: Arkham, etc.); otherwise installing the 8800 will be a waste of time, power consumption, and heat.
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PsykoTenshi

PsykoTenshi

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Nov 18, 2012
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Problem is the GTX 650Ti didn't arrive yet, so I currently only have the Radeon 4890 and the 8800GT, both in use on their respective systems.
My question is oriented mostly to know if I'll either get to install both Nvidias and have dedicated Physx processing without problems, or if it'll require specific tweaks/meddling with the drivers or if there's an impassable wall on the H77 chipset architecture (or a similar "worst-case-scenario").
 
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PsykoTenshi

PsykoTenshi

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Nov 18, 2012
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Gah, that's what I get for oversummarizing my posts. I tend to go wall-o-text mode if I don't though :/
No, I've got two desktop systems "under my care" at home.
One is built with unused parts of my gaming rig as I upgrade it, the other is my gaming rig.
The "secondary" (for lack of a name) system has a 8800GT which is currently using, and my gaming rig has the HD 4890.
The next upgrade for my gaming system is a GTX650 Ti, so I my idea was to "cycle" the cards and upgrade the secondary system with the 4890. That gets me a spare 8800GT, which apparently is very good at dedicated Physx processing.

But after doing some research I see my gaming comp's motherboard chipset could be a problem to get a dedicated Physx setup working, so my question is if the H77 chipset (which doesn't support SLI? not sure, honestly), the AsRock H77M motherboard specifically, supports a dedicated Physx gpu setup.
 
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17seconds

17seconds

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Jul 27, 2010
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You are good to go with a GTX 650 Ti as your primary card and an 8800 GTS as a dedicated PhysX card. Your motherboard does NOT need to support SLI, since the cards will not be utilizing SLI. The 8800 will only be performing CUDA computations, and not rendering graphics.

It will be interesting to see what results you get. It is not really clear which cards best pair up for dedicated PhysX processing. Hopefully, you actually plan to play some GPU-accelerated PhysX games (Borderlands 2, Planetside 2, Metro Last Light, Mafia 2, Hawken, Batman: Arkham, etc.); otherwise installing the 8800 will be a waste of time, power consumption, and heat.
 
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Solution
PsykoTenshi

PsykoTenshi

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Nov 18, 2012
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@matto17secs: So dedicated Physx does not require SLI compliance, that's good to know.
Yes, I am particularly interested on dedicated Physx processing as Borderlands 2 has known issues with Physx and the GTX 6xx series.
But that 650Ti was pretty much my only (affordable) shot at getting a noticeable upgrade to my 4890, so I couldn't let it pass just because it might perform badly with Borderlands 2's Physx.

I hope to not get too excited and take my time to make a few benchmarks of Borderlands 2 Physx performance with both the 650Ti alone and with the 8800GT processing Physx.
 
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PsykoTenshi

PsykoTenshi

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Nov 18, 2012
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Sorry I didn't post in so long, my GTX 650ti just arrived today. And boy oh boy I underestimated that thing.
Likely also because of the numerous .ini tweaks I've applied on Borderlands 2, but I'm getting a quite solid 60+ frames per second with Physx maxed, at 1080p, PLUS an antialiasing injector (also maxed out).
Given that I usually play on windowed mode at 1600x900 (which basically = even higher framerate), I don't think I will need a dedicated Physx card after all.
It would only be used in one game and while I play it quite often and my power supply can take it, I've already got a dedicated audio card there (I know, I really should've said this before). I was planning on getting a bigger H77 mobo if it dedicated Physx worked on my current setup but seemingly there's no need.
Also I am still stunned by the huge leap that is going from an Already powerful Radeon HD 4890 to a GTX 650ti boost (yes, it happened to be the boost model, I just got confused with all them Nvidia variants. It's the only gpu upgrade I got in over 3 years xP).

Anyways, thanks for the responses, everyone.
 
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