Tom's Hardware > Forum > Graphic & Displays > Graphics Cards > [Solved] Ageia Physx card or similar PPUs, still worth considering?

[Solved] Ageia Physx card or similar PPUs, still worth considering?

Forum Graphic & Displays : Graphics Cards - [Solved] Ageia Physx card or similar PPUs, still worth considering?

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MARSOC_Operator   10-30-2009 at 04:57:36 PM

I'm going to buy an ATI Radeon HD 5870 for my next gaming PC, so I was wondering if I'm still going to need a dedicate physics processing unit to aid my main videocard in extra-rendering/destructive environment, or these latest gen videocards such as the 5870 are already able to do all the job alone? :(

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Best answer from TheGreatGrapeApe
Get the HD5870 for graphics, and a GF9500 for PhysX.
Just use the older nV drivers for the PhysX, because nVidia has decided to try and get you to buy a lesser graphics card, by linking PhysX to the card rendering your graphics instead of the card doing the physics. It's like if ATi or nVidia wouldn't let you install graphics drivers if you loaded a Creative Labs audio card instead of Turtle Beach because Creative was involved with 3DLabs. :pfff:

 

I wouldn't worry about future physX support, it'll just get hacked again like DVD encryption or iPhone/iPods and other 'locked in' solutions.

 

Get the card for the best graphics card and then get another card for PhysX, because that's a far more capable solution than two GF8800GTs.

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tortnotes   10-30-2009 at 10:52:29 PM

You shouldn't need a physics accelerator with a card like the 5870. Who knows, though.. in some games you might see a performance increase.

If you really want to use a second card for physics acceleration, I've heard that Win 7 lets you use two display drivers simultaneously... so you could buy a cheap GeForce card that supports Physx and use it just for physics acceleration. You'll have to research this, as last I heard there was some hack that was necessary because the Nvidia driver doesn't particularly like ATI cards installed in the same system. And if you do this, you might run into trouble with drivers conflicting or misbehaving or who knows what.

So, short answer: No, you don't need one.
Long answer: If you really want one, it might be possible. Google is your friend.

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MARSOC_Operator   10-31-2009 at 01:11:06 AM

tortnotes wrote :

You shouldn't need a physics accelerator with a card like the 5870. Who knows, though.. in some games you might see a performance increase.

 

If you really want to use a second card for physics acceleration, I've heard that Win 7 lets you use two display drivers simultaneously... so you could buy a cheap GeForce card that supports Physx and use it just for physics acceleration. You'll have to research this, as last I heard there was some hack that was necessary because the Nvidia driver doesn't particularly like ATI cards installed in the same system. And if you do this, you might run into trouble with drivers conflicting or misbehaving or who knows what.

 

So, short answer: No, you don't need one.
Long answer: If you really want one, it might be possible. Google is your friend.

 

Yes, I know that I don't "need' one, but I want all the eye-candy I can possibly get. I can buy a brand new OEM Ageia card for 70 bucks, so I don't think I'd want to mess with any cheap Nvidia videocard-- especially considering the fact that I may run into compatibility problems.

 

Thanks for the input.


Message edited by MARSOC_Operator on 10-31-2009 at 01:12:10 AM
Reply to MARSOC_Operator
randomizer   10-31-2009 at 05:21:19 AM

Sorry, NVIDIA won't let you run a PPU with ATI hardware. It's just bad business.

Reply to randomizer
Wisenos   11-01-2009 at 06:36:32 AM

would it worth to get a ppu with 2 8800gt?
---------------
and Randomizer... i saw somewhere that there was a software that let you run physx on nvidia with an ati main card

Reply to Wisenos
comawhite   11-01-2009 at 07:07:01 AM

Any nVidia card 8xxx + comes with Physx builtin, just use the latest drivers

Reply to comawhite
randomizer   11-01-2009 at 07:34:38 AM

Yea, if you buy an NVIDIA card the PPU is kinda pointless. It's old and it's really not needed.

Reply to randomizer
Silver Graphics badge TheGreatGrapeApe   11-01-2009 at 11:55:28 AM
Best answer

Get the HD5870 for graphics, and a GF9500 for PhysX.
Just use the older nV drivers for the PhysX, because nVidia has decided to try and get you to buy a lesser graphics card, by linking PhysX to the card rendering your graphics instead of the card doing the physics. It's like if ATi or nVidia wouldn't let you install graphics drivers if you loaded a Creative Labs audio card instead of Turtle Beach because Creative was involved with 3DLabs. :pfff:

 

I wouldn't worry about future physX support, it'll just get hacked again like DVD encryption or iPhone/iPods and other 'locked in' solutions.

 

Get the card for the best graphics card and then get another card for PhysX, because that's a far more capable solution than two GF8800GTs.


Message edited by TheGreatGrapeApe on 11-01-2009 at 11:56:46 AM
Reply to TheGreatGrapeApe
ainarssems   11-01-2009 at 03:24:50 PM

If You have quad CPU You can easily run PhysX on CPU. Nvidia will not allow to run PhysX with ATI main GPU. Just buy a single powerfull Nvidia GPU.

Reply to ainarssems
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