Physx: gtx285 vs 8800gt

[mcbath]

I have the following 3 cards:

Radeon 5970
Nvidia gtx285
Nvidia 8800gt

I want to use the Radeon as the main graphics card, and use one of the others as a standalone physx card. My problem is that if I use the gtx285 as the Physx card, fluid mark (and all other benchmark programs) crash. It works great as a main graphics card, but fails as a Physx card.

So my question is: Is it worth me spending weeks trying to figure out how to fix it, or should I just stick the 8800gt back in for Physx and ditch the gtx285? I am currently playing quite a few Physx games (Batman, Mass Effect2, Dragon Age Origins) and I would hope that the gtx285 will give me a better gaming experience, but its difficult to get good information as to how much difference I might notice with current (or even future) games.

I just hate having something like the 285 lying around doing nothing (cant sell it because I made some modifications to the cooling solution).

 

[Lmeow]

I saw in a review that the GTX 280 used as a PhysX card only provided around three to five FPS max boost over using a GTS 250 as the PhysX card, which is just a 55nm 9800 GTX+ which is an overclocked 9800 GTX which is an overclocked, with some stepping revisions I believe, 8800 GTS G92 which the 8800 GT G92 is kinda based off.

 

[mcbath]

Yeah I am leaning towards putting the 8800gt back in, although its just annoying to have a piece of kit like the 285 lying around doing nothing Now I just wish I had not removed the water cooling from the 8800 before testing the 285 as a physx card ....

 

[randomkid]

Yeah I am leaning towards putting the 8800gt back in, although its just annoying to have a piece of kit like the 285 lying around doing nothing Now I just wish I had not removed the water cooling from the 8800 before testing the 285 as a physx card ....

Its really a pity you can not use the 285. Perhaps you will feel good by handing it down to a sibling or friend. I would be happy to take it if I am not so far away...

 

[mcbath]

It got a little stranger. I tried the gtx285 all by itself as main display card + physx and sure enough it wont handle Physx without crashing, possibly its always been that way. But then I put the 8800gt in as a stand alone physx along side my new 5970 and whilst it worked, it actually benchmarked lower in Fluidmark and Jx3 than if I forced the CPU to do Physx.

So now I have to decide, have I broken my 8800gt too (a big possibility as its old and much abused) or is an 8800gt just not powerful enough to make any difference in an i7 920 with a radeon 5970? Or is something else in my system causing this? I cannot for the life of me think what it could be. Don't you just love mysteries

I am sorely tempted to just buy a cheap gtx260 and use that.

 

[Mousemonkey]

an 8800gt just not powerful enough to make any difference in an i7 920 with a radeon 5970? Or is something else in my system causing this? I cannot for the life of me think what it could be. Don't you just love mysteries

Maybe you just need a newer hacked driver.

 

[mcbath]

I was using the latest NVidia driver and the physx mod 1.02.

I just read they are having troubles with the 196 and 197 drivers. Maybe I will go back a few and see what happens. I can accept one busted card, but 2 sounds a bit too much of a coincidence

 

[mcbath]

oh there is a 1.03 hack now. Sweet.

 

[borisof007]

I didn't even know that you could combine a Radeon card and still have a dedicated Nvidia card doing Physx in the same machine at one time.

I learned something today. Yay!

 

[mcbath]

Excellent. Got the 8800gt working perfectly and it jumped up my benchmark in Fluidmark 3 times over. And the difference in the fight scene in JX3 was insane. Went from 8 or 9 fps to 100. I am going to try the new drivers/hack on my gtx285, but seeing as that would not do the physx even with no radeon present, I think that card is borked.

But still, good news really. I know it works, so I just have to decide if a 8800gt is enough power, or whether I should just buy a cheap 260. Recommendation for Batman was a 9800 apparantly.

 

[mcbath]

When I say modded, i mean dremel, tie offs, ingenuity and a distinct lack of artistic care Plus if it won't run Physx, either its a dud card, or I dudded it with my hack job. I am gonna give it a little tweaking, thump up the voltage a little and see if it overcomes its issues with Physx. If it dies more, meh.

 

[mcbath]

Well the benchmark for Batman at 1680x1050 with max everything except AA (which I think was x2, but it was difficult to figure out) gave a minimum fps of 54 for full physx. It dropped down to a minimum of 45 when I forced Caalyst to do 4xAA which is a bit low for my liking. But of course upgrading the Physx is no guarantee that will up the FPS. In fact when I benched for Normal Physx the frame rate did not go up, which suggests the gfx is the bottleneck, which is insane, but there ya go

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Why cant you sell the GTX285?
Mods increase value, and people who buy used cards care nothing about warranties. Go to fleabay and have fun.

Nay

 

[randomkid]

When you advertise it correctly and make looks good..

Yes... it's all about advertising...

 

[mcbath]

When you advertise it correctly and make looks good..

The card has a custom made cooler that is ugly as hell and apparently cant run Physx. I would love to see the marketing campaign that makes that look good

 

[randomkid]

The card has a custom made cooler that is ugly as hell and apparently cant run Physx. I would love to see the marketing campaign that makes that look good

Picture please!