Cheapest Nvidia GPU as dedicated PPU

[forrestman]

Hello. I currently have a high-end ATI card in my system and a very lonely PCI x16 slot.

I am looking to purchase a Nvidia GPU to use as a dedicated PPU, but I want to spend as little money as possible. Having searched Newegg, I see that I can get low end cards from 8xxx, 9xxx, or 2xx series for ~20, which would be great if one of those would be able to adequately handle modern physics needs. I have two questions:

1. Are those cards capable of handling modern physics processing as a dedicated PPU? If not, what is the cheapest card that you would recommend?

2. Would those cards be able to handle physics processing in the foreseeable future? (how do physics processing power needs scale with time?). If not, what is the cheapest card that you would recommend for that?

Also, as an aside, do you know if those hacks to the Nvidia drivers that let them run with an ATI card still work? They don't seem to have been updated in a while.

Thanks for your time!

 

[mayankleoboy1]

they will act as a discrete ppu in only those games/applications that use the PROPRIETARY NVIDIA PHYSX.
sadly, that list is very small.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhysX#PhysX_in_video_games

if you dont play games not in this list, a nvidia card for ppu is WASTE

if you do play some of those games, and think that adding Physx effects is worthwile, then buy atleast a 9600gt.
here is toms review: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-physx-hack-amd-radeon,2764-8.html

read this page and decide for yourself which card suits your budget.

2.regarding future, nobody knows. but proprietary softwares locked to specific hardware have a habit of disappearing. (except for apple ).