Dedicated Physx ATi NVidia iGP Compatibility

Theoretically it's possible but it's slightly against the rules atm as Nvidia put a block on people doing this sort of thing.

There are ways around it with certain 'hacks' but i'm not too familiar with them.

It can work with an AMD 6xxx, but Nvidia doesn't want you using "enemy" cards so they disable it in drivers. There are hack drivers you can use if you want to use an AMD and PhysX card.

DX11 will still work. That is handled by the GPU so thats all that matters. Realize before you do this that there are only a few PhysX hardware accelerated games out there. If you don't play any of them, then all that GTX260 will be doing is adding to your power bill.

I play a lot of games with physx.
Besides its not going anywhere right?
Only more games will take advantage.
I wanna be sure I can still run physx on max settings down the line.

Sounds like a hassle.
Should I go for an AMD 6950 flashed to 6970?
Or a 560 ti (the gigabyte oc'd versions are fast)

The dedi physx assistance would really help me see smooth framerates with physx on (id think) using these cards.
Id be running the games at 1080 res. What card would allow me to max out crysis at that res (sub $250)

Also couldnt I just downclock the 260 when not in use?

Thanks

This topic comes up every other day. Please try to google about it.

That said, here's the source you want including the patch to run a PhysX card with ATI cards in your system:
http://www.ngohq.com/graphic-cards/17706-hybrid-physx-m...

Theres only about 20 games that support this, and most are not worth playing. Batman:AA, Cryostasis, Metro 2033, and Mirrors Edge. There are other games out there, but either suck, or use PhsyX in only one level. If you play a lot of Crysis, L4D2, TF2, or any of the BF or COD games, its only going to do anything other then consume power and emit heat.

Cough Mafia 2 has great game play and is one of the best physx titles out there. The GTX 260 is more or less overkill for physx as a dedicated card however you could try the sli hack (software) to enable sli on non certified Intel boards and on boards using ATI chipsets. I am using this my self with no problems on a ancient 790x board. Sli isn't a bad option for you as getting a second gtx 260 is very easy and cheap. $90 can still get you a lot of power these days on the second hand market.

I'd put in a 570 with the 250 .... no need to do the hack thing. If ya go w/ 6xxx series card you can read about the hack (requires Windows 7) here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-ATI-physx-patch...

Sure you can use the software hack to run PhysX with an ATI card in there, but if you don't want to go through that hassle then it's easier to just stick with nVidia cards. No matter what card you use a 260 is overkill for PhysX right now, but at least you know it's not going to slow down your rig when you use PhysX for a long time  . Anyway, flashing a 6950 to a 6970 is something you should consider, though I'm guessing by now the 6950s they are shipping are chips with defective sharers and that the original 6950s were perfectly good 6970s they had to shoehorn into a lower price point. Then again that's why they have a backup BIOS ^_^. If not then a GTX 560 or 570

Thanks for the link.
've done plenty of googling..
I found people who got it working and others who didn't.

I just want to be sure I make the right choice and that also includes what I get as my main gpu.
It still seems like the 560 is a smarter choice to avoid driver complications.
How's the bang/buck?

I would have mentioned Mafia 2, but I know many who don't like that game because of how short it is.

The 560 is a fine card. Like with most Nvidia cards AMD sells one similar in performance for less $$$, but your not buying a dud. I'd probably grab an Nvidia card to just to avoid hacks/driver issues. You wouldn't want it working for X months/years only to have new "unhackable" driver come out that prevents you from using it anymore.

So at this point the cards I'm looking at are the 560 ti, and 6950 or 5870.
The best bang for buck is probably the 6950 and then i might even sell my gtx 260 (if there are issues)

My last question then is which would perform better overall?
GTX 560 ti + 260 dedi physx
Or
AMD 6950 flashed to 6970

Considering how few games can use the GPU for PhysX (and I play none of them.) I would take the 6950. I'd have to double check to see if the games that I do play perform better on the GTX560 or 6950/6970.

I've literally been holding out on playing physx titles so I could get the full experience.
There would be no shortage of em, trust me.

That said comparing the 6950 to gtx 560 ti is hard. I'd say theyre about even.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/330?vs=293

They both have their wins and losses.
However this fails to consider that the 560 would be factory overclocked by a lot (800 to 1000mhz core)
Which in toms benchmarks shows a major improvement (near 570 level)

Also assuming nothing has changed the 6950 would be flashed to 70 and probably overclocked a good bit by me.
However nowhere near as much oc as 560 which comes with much better cooling

So let's assume then that this is 570 vs 6970 (probably overstating)
They are so neck and neck I can't say which is better.
Thoughts, on all this, to ease my insanity?

Get the 560 in that case to prevent driver issues with the 260.

The GTX 560 and the GTX 260 won't have driver conflicts. You can mix cards when it comes to nvidia.

Just looked at a review to see, because I found it odd how the 560 sometimes pulls ahead of a 6950. As far as I can tell it's almost only on titles that Nvidia sponsored. Anyway here's a review and an interesting comparison:

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-r...


They do recommend it though at the end, due to being a bit cheaper and very close in performance. They note it's biggest issue is the memory bandwidth, and if you overclock the memory it'll become quite a beast.

At what I assume they mean 1680x1050, the GTX580 is barely faster then the 6950. at 1080, its nearly a tie. If you do unlock that 6950 to a 6970, then it will be faster then the GTX560. Seeing as we are talking basically dead heat here (1-4% is nothing we'd be able to feel/notice) I'd still get the GTX560. If you want to use the old 260GTX as a PhysX card it will be easier with the GTX560. If you won't be using PhysX, or care only about which card is faster, get the 6950.

The other thing to consider is that I have a relatively new 550w corsair.
Enough juice to supply stock 560 or 6950.
However, flashing/overclocking the 6950 and overclocking the 560/adding the gtx 260 for physx would probably warrant a new psu.
Im assuming that the extra physx card would need at least a 600w (assuming it never gets near full load).

Would a flashed and oc'd 6950 need an upgrade?

Good question. I've never seen the power draw of a flashed 6950 so I can't say. I assume that at worst it wouldn't draw any more power then a normal 6970. I'd use that number as your TDP.