Physx Card for GTX 570

[sgt bombulous]

I was considering adding a GT430 for dedicated Physx. Is this a good pick? Also, I had a few questions in this regard:

1) Is a 650 Watt PSU sufficient for these two?
2) Would I use a PCI-E x16 slot (effectively x8 on P55), or the x4 slot?
3) Should I just wait to see what the GT 530 or maybe even G510 bring?
4) Would the Physx card add to the Folding@home abilities of the GTX 570, or are the two incompatible in this application?

I may not even bother, unless adding the Physx card gave some clear advantage.

Other gear:

Motherboard: ASUS P7P55D-Pro
CPU: Intel i5-750
RAM: 8GB Corsair XMS3 1600 MHz
PSU: Antec Earthwatts 650
OS Drive: Intel X25M 80GB
Data Drive: Samsung HD103SJ, 1 TB
GPU: EVGA GTX 570 SC

Thanks!

 

[renz496]

1) it should be enough
2) either slot will work just fine
3) you can wait if you want to. just want to add a bit: rather than GT430 i think it is better to pick GT240 for the job. honestly i don't think GT430 will be sufficient for the job
4) i don't think so but i could be wrong since i never did folding@home. maybe someone that have experience with folding can answer this question for you.

did physx is a must for you? if not then you should just forget about it and enjoy your game as it is. if yes then go ahead with the plan.

 

[sgt bombulous]

1) it should be enough
2) either slot will work just fine
3) you can wait if you want to. just want to add a bit: rather than GT430 i think it is better to pick GT240 for the job. honestly i don't think GT430 will be sufficient for the job
4) i don't think so but i could be wrong since i never did folding@home. maybe someone that have experience with folding can answer this question for you.

did physx is a must for you? if not then you should just forget about it and enjoy your game as it is. if yes then go ahead with the plan.

Isn't the only real difference between the GT430 and GT240 Memory bandwidth? The both have the same # of SP's and the 430 has a higher clock, leading me to believe it (by all accounts) should have MORE processing power than the 240. Unless Physx processing is highly dependent upon memory bandwidth (someone else would have to confirm that).

 

[renz496]

GT240 is faster:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gt-430-gf108-fermi,2766-5.html

you can look the whole review especially in game benchmark for more details. in the review GT240 is always ahead of GT430. the card actually was meant to replace the much weaker GT220. so far mos people consider GTX260 / GTS250 / GTS450 as best dedicated physx card. going higher than that will not resulting in better performance or frame rates. but for those who doesn't want to tax their PSU just for a dedicated physx card will tend to choose GT240 because the card is the fastest nvidia card that doesn't need extra power connector to date. in short GT430 core is just not strong enough but will still get the jobs done.

if i'm wrong about this then please correct me

 

[wolfram23]

Honestly, you already have a good Nvidia card... for the few games that really use PhysX I wouldn't really worry about getting a dedicated card. I mean it's up to you if you have the extra cash go for it. I bought a GT240 for it because I have ATI cards, so I kind of needed it to experience PhysX. But yeah ultimately I've played all the PhysX games already, and now my GT240 is in my girlfriend's PC until some future day that another PhysX game comes out.

As far as a PhysX card goes, if you get around or more than 100 CUDA cores you'll be golden.

 

[17seconds]

You won't need a lot for PhysX, so a GT430 with low power consumption and a quiet fan will be a good option.

 

[nforce4max]

Don't bother with a GT240/GT430 as they are not worth the extra cost for the performance that they deliver. The power consumption is good but compared to what a dirt cheap 8800/9800gt can offer not worth it. Physx is gradually becoming more and more demanding so it is best that you either get a G92 or not bother with it at all. I have spent the past month going through and researching this my self and have found that avoiding those two cards to be worth it.

 

[nforce4max]

GTX 460 main card stock clocks 100% fan load in Mafia 2 60-70%
8800gt stock clocks 70-100% fan avg load in Mafia 2 as dedicated card 15-25%

fps 40-60

 

[wolfram23]

Don't bother with a GT240/GT430 as they are not worth the extra cost for the performance that they deliver. The power consumption is good but compared to what a dirt cheap 8800/9800gt can offer not worth it. Physx is gradually becoming more and more demanding so it is best that you either get a G92 or not bother with it at all. I have spent the past month going through and researching this my self and have found that avoiding those two cards to be worth it.

Yeah that's why I was saying ~100 CUDA cores, I think the 9800GTX, GT250, and GTX450 are in that area.

My GT240 did fine, mind you. I didn't notice any FPS drops while playing through Metro, Mirror's Edge, Cryostasis, Batman, or Mafia 2 (except in one specific scene). I recommend basically anything slightly better than that card.

 

[17seconds]

Some random info to help you decide...

"Even though the rendering horsepower of the GT 430 is light years ahead of the GT 220, the amount of additional performance you get from using it as a dedicated PhysX card is negligible at best. There is a slight improvement but if you are already using a lower-end card for PhysX processing, you won’t see a noticeable benefit from “moving up” to a GT 430."
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/36968-asus-geforce-gt-430-1gb-review-13.html