Dedicated PhysX Card, is it worth it?

whitelion1284 · Jun 3, 2015

The title pretty much says it all. I'm planning on buying a 980ti in a month or so and will thus have my current 760 gtx just lying around. So I'm wondering if it's worth using the old card as a dedicated physX processor, as opposed to either a paperweight or dust trap.

I did some searching but admit that my google-fu is weak. I couldn't find any conclusive answers. There seems to be a lot of opinions but very little substance. Does anyone know for certain whether it's worthwhile? The setup looks fairly easy, and I'll already have the card and a power supply capable of running both cards. So...

Gam3r01 · Jun 3, 2015

I wouldnt bother, the 980Ti is more than enough to handle its own Physx.
If you wanted to you can, but you likely wont benefit much.

Joseph DeGarmo · Jun 3, 2015

It may help in games like Batman: Arkham Knight, but a GTX 760 is far weaker than a GTX 980 Ti. I have yet to try this out myself with an old GTX 660 I have sitting in my closet, but cannot do that yet until I upgrade my motherboard and PSU for SLI. But a lot of people say that running SLI is better than running a dedicated PhysX card.

tical2399 · Jun 3, 2015

Gam3r01 :

do you have hands on experience with this or are you just repeating what you've heard on the internet? Play Borderlands 2 or Pre sequel on say 1440p with max physx and watch your fps die in a ditch. People said the same thing about the 980. "Its more than enough for graphics and physx", they said. Well as a 980 owner, i'm tellin you IT AINT.

I use my old 770 fot physx and I see better minimum fps. The 980ti may be different. To the op: use the 760 with the 980 ti and see what score you get with and without a dedicated physx card.

Gam3r01 · Jun 3, 2015

The borderlands series actually happens to be one of my favorite game series, and I dont lose nearly that large of an amount of FPS, and I have a 760.

tical2399 · Jun 3, 2015

Gam3r01 :

You play at 1440p all settings maxed out?

Gam3r01 · Jun 3, 2015

Does the OP?
I play 1080 Ultra, and that is my input.

whitelion1284 · Jun 3, 2015

Thanks tical2399. That was what I was looking for.

17seconds · Jun 3, 2015

Great website for all things PhysX:
http://www.physxinfo.com/

Here's a boatload of Borderlands 2 PhysX charts:
http://physxinfo.com/news/9653/borderlands-2-physx-benchmark-roundup/

Jeremy Comans · Jul 30, 2015

Absolutely. There is no reason not to have a dedicated physx card if you can. Even a low end card (500 series) should give you ~20% better frames and leaner, more consistent frame times. If you had SLI-980's, you'll get better performance in many physx games using one as a physx card instead.

17seconds · Jul 31, 2015

Jeremy Comans :

Check this:
If you had one card and added a PhysX card, taking your number, +20% would be the improvement.

Now if you had one card and added another in SLI, your improvement would be more than 20%, and likely more like 80%+, or even +60% if you factor in a -20% PhysX hit.

Just trying to think that statement through. It seems like 1 graphics GPU + 1 PhysX GPU is not near the performance level of 2 GPUs doing both graphics and PhysX.

Jeremy Comans · Jul 31, 2015

80% would be amazing scaling with SLI. 50% improvement is more likely where you're going to be with a game with a good SLI profile. The discrepancy is because of the way the pipeline deals with physx. Some games will scale differently, but on a SLI-980's rig I've experienced that some games are better run in SLI, but others (MetroLL, for instance) where I got improved performance using one as a physx card. It will depend on each games implementation (how well and how much) of physx, and on the quality of the drivers for SLI.
But most people will be looking to use a lesser card as a physx card after an upgrade, or something. And the only reason you would not want to do it is if your PSU or mobo couldn't do it, or your case was tiny and airflow to your main card was an issue.

whitelion1284 · Jul 31, 2015

I've continued to research this question since asking about it here in this forum. What I've found out is that installing a dedicated physx card MIGHT improve performance. It might also slow it down. It seems to depend on the cards in question. For instance, using a powerful primary like a TitanX and a powerful second card like a 980 as a dedicated physx GPU will just about guarantee improved framerates and smoother performance. On the other hand using a powerful primary and a much less powerful card as a dedicated physx GPU can actually bottleneck frame rendering and slow everything down.

With regards to the 980 ti as a primary and a 760 gtx as a dedicated physx card, well, I'll know in about two weeks when I actually purchase and install the 980.

And perhaps next year I'll be able to state a definitive answer with regards to a pair of 980 ti's running in SLI...

zoltar151 · Nov 2, 2015

I use a 970 with a 750 ti dedicated physx and 8n batman arkham knight the FPS tanks and chops when your turn smoke and paper debris on. When I dedicate the 750 ti I get better FPS average and max. Yes it sucks to need a second card to fully use the gameworks rlfeatures but it looks great at 1080p. My 2gb physx card is used to 77% max usage so far and it's because the 3ffects are rather draining but again look great. And yes I HAD to get a 750 ti because no other card less than that was use able for me, 750 stock was no good.

In short no a physx card is not a waste and cost the same as a 980 in total value. A 980 can handle batman AK maxed out on 1080p. But it's enough to say that getting a better card really wouldn't help you as next to those costs you might as well get a titan if you plan to get a 980 ti. Yes only nvidia uses physx but the game list for gameworks titles is sky rocketing so the worth is starting to curve very much toward useful. A 970 + 750 ti will cost less than a 980 ti, you'd save $200 where I am, you will get better overall performance over a bigger variety on a 980ti on its own but you don't really need it at 1080p.

MyHD4870x2Melted · Nov 2, 2015

In my experience you can get good performance by dedicating one to PhysX when SLIing.
A lot of games do not handle SLI very so your basically getting the performance of having one card doing both rendering and PhysX.
However, if you have your spare card doing PhysX then the game runs as if you have one card only doing only rendering while still getting PhysX.
I can't say if it will help any games that support SLI because I don't know if I have any games that do, but I have gotten a performance boost from all of my games from dedicating one card to PhysX.

zoltar151 · Nov 4, 2015

SLI seems to be this kind of set up that was great in theory for a single monitor but was mostly meant for multi monitor is in a span display. I hear of people having far more luck in spinning their displays over both video cards then when they use a single monitor using SLI for top and bottom. I can't say how compatible most games would be with it cuz I don't use it and the reason for that is is that just as I said above most games will not use it very well. What we do see this increase in physics performance and the ability to use a spare physics card as a dedicated card. Though I will admit it is kind of dumb that it's an Nvidia only option and I think it's a gap that we really need to bridge between manufactures. Although I have heard and seen of ways to make hybrid physics cards that is by using a Radeon card as a primary and an Nvidia card as a physics secondary and using a hybrid kind of setup. But like I said before or after crunching some numbers it was actually cheaper for me to do a main card + physics card then to buy the next best card which was almost $200 more.

MyHD4870x2Melted · Nov 4, 2015

My setup:

GTX 670 #1
- Monitor #1 DVI (24" 1080p @ 60hz) Middle
- Monitor #2 DVI (22" 1080p @ 60hz) Right
GTX 670 #2
- Monitor #1 DVI (22" 1080p @ 60hz) Left
- Dedicated PhysX

Batman Arkham *Origins* gets a bit choppy in 3D Surround View.
Dedicating the PhysX to the 2nd card that only has 1 monitor helps.
3D Surround View with 3D Anaglyph gets choppy as hell but still playable lol.

Edit - lmao I forgot which one I had on PC City/Origins/Knight

Dedicated PhysX Card, is it worth it?

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