8800GT for PhysX

T

Tiberius

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 6, 2007
Messages
1,110
My son's 8800GT started to get weird lines and artifacts so it appears its on its way out. I've already ordered him a replacement but I was wondering if I can use that card for dedicated PhsyX?

I'm currently running a Phenom II X6 @ 3.8Ghz, 16GB DDR3 and a AMD 6870. Using this a ASUS M5A99X EVO motherboard

(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131754)

If it could be done, is it worth it?
 
Last edited:
Absolutely not.

Not only would you need to use old and hacked drivers to get it to work with your primary AMD gpu, but PhysX is flawed in that the slower your PhysX card is, the slower your overall FPS will be. For example, you could couple that 8800GT with a GTX 580 and absolutely cripple your framerate compared to running PhysX on the GTX 580 itself. Honestly, Nvidia's implementation of PhysX on GPU's is dead. It was a marketing scam that didn't work.

Maybe in the future if they open up and optimize the standard to run on all GPU's that it may take off again.
 
I'm actually going to try doing this. I really like physx, despite what people think of it. I just wish it wasn't nVidia hardware only. nVidia needs to learn that they are not apple and cannot get away with proprietary software when competing with open industry standard.
 
I just read a Batman review on ge force dot com that showed better framerates using different GPU's as Physx cards. looks to be beneficial.

I'll try to find those pages and update my post

update: "
By repurposing a piece of five-year-old kit gathering dust on a shelf we’ve boosted our Batman: Arkham City frame rates by 11.56%, pushing the GTX 560 Ti into the forty frames per second sweet spot when using every single effect and enhancement (if you don’t already own a 8800 GT or 9800 GT, they’re cheap as chips on eBay). Another popular, ageing graphics card, the GeForce GTX 260, improved frame rates by 17.55%, and a second GTX 560 improved frame rates by 23.71%.
This performance improvement scales somewhat with your processor's power, so those with older CPUs will receive less of a benefit from the secondary card, though it should still make a noticeable impact on the overall frame rate. In the end, any improvement is an improvement worth having, so hold onto your old NVIDIA tech as it will come in handy in similar situations in the future."


 
I only though of it because of one of the other posts here...the HD 6970 + Dedicated GT 430 review. With physics enabled, he got a better frame rate with the GT430 and the 8800GT is a more powerful card.
 
Tiberius said:
With physics enabled, he got a better frame rate with the GT430 and the 8800GT is a more powerful card.
Click to expand...

Indeed, quite surprising.
It must be due to the older architecture of the 8800GT and/or driver support.
 
My GTS250 has proven to be a pretty nice PhysX card with the two Batman games and those cards can be had for cheap these days.
Oddly enough, it ran BETTER with an ATI main GPU than an Nvidia one. When paired with my GTX570, it seems like whenever scenes change, there's about a 1 second hitch where everything is loading. With my older 5870 and the PhysX hack that never happened.
 
bigdogchris said:
Absolutely not.

Not only would you need to use old and hacked drivers to get it to work with your primary AMD gpu, but PhysX is flawed in that the slower your PhysX card is, the slower your overall FPS will be. For example, you could couple that 8800GT with a GTX 580 and absolutely cripple your framerate compared to running PhysX on the GTX 580 itself. Honestly, Nvidia's implementation of PhysX on GPU's is dead. It was a marketing scam that didn't work.

Maybe in the future if they open up and optimize the standard to run on all GPU's that it may take off again.
Click to expand...

How can you even make a statement like this? If you were to push a 580 by running very highres and AA levels of course adding extra help will make a difference...this is simple logic here.
So you cant just come up with a one answer fits all for this.
 
Is there any current info on how to run PhysX with an AMD cpu? All the threads that I've found are kinda old.
 
Tiberius said:
Is there any current info on how to run PhysX with an AMD cpu? All the threads that I've found are kinda old.
Click to expand...

I believe the old methods still work okay (you still have to use a secondary Nvidia card) however you have to use older versions of the PhysX drivers.
I haven't messed with it in about a year, but my 5870 + a GTS250 was bulletproof in the PhysX games I owned, especially Arkham Asylum.
 
I wouldn't use it because it would just downgrade your first gpu. Besides, its artifacting so about time to throw it out.
 
Not worth the power draw and heat of the old dinosaur on the very few games that support it, its artefacting too.
 
Bake the 8800GT to see if you can get the artifacts to go away. If that doesn't work, throw it away. If it does, give it a shot with physx. Can't hurt playin with it abit. Like others have said though, if its artifacting, its already bad. Physx will likely do some really odd things if it works at all.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top