Hey guys I was wondering if someone could clear up something for me. I know PhysX is marketed as a Nvidia only feature but I also do know other people have managed to get PhysX running with AMD GPU's via hacked drivers. But what I am wondering is since I came across it today is that apprently you can just download the Nvidia drivers dispite having a AMD card and just do a custom install and only install the PhysX part of the driver and then run it off the CPU. Is this true? and is it literally that simple? or is their some other trick to it?
It is true, PhysX is not a driver, it's a functionality that can use any floating point processing unit. nVidia has proprietary drivers that allow for the PhysX software to be accelerated by the GPU. PhysX is not that important, there are not many games that use it and there is no other software that uses is, but if it were important (and it's been trying for the last 6 years or so without avail, so it would surprise me if it were to become important), it would be easily fixed by the community to accelerate it through OpenCL or the likes, in which case it would probably run even faster on AMD cards.
Some games use it, and of those games, only a select few actually use GPU-accelerated PhysX. PhysX mostly runs on the CPU, even with an Nvidia GPU.
I see, in my case the only game that really interests me with PhysX is Borderlands 2, any other game I can go without if need be, so with Borderlands 2 in question do you get all the PhysX features working and working fine with this method or are you still better off with an Nvidia GPU to get the shrapnel fest and fluid Physics that PhysX offers with an Nvidia GPU?
Borderlands 2 does use GPU PhysX. If that's the game you're looking at, then yes, definitely go with an Nvidia GPU.
My 2600k processor at 4.5 ghz can't run that game above 20 fps with PhysX on high when lots of particles start flying around. Something like a 670 or better definitely could handle it.
You used to be able to just buy a PhysX dedicated card, though I am not sure if they still sell them today.
you can buy a cheap nvidia card and build a hybrid configuration
The nVidia and catalyst drivers will not conflict? I would like to see this tried, would be interesting so see.
If its only for one game i would still recommend going for whatever will give you the best performance in your range (which could be nvidia gpu). Ive had physx, it was cool but to be honest i was so busy playing the game and rarely noticed the difference with it enabled and disabled. As mentioned above it did take a toll on FPS having it enabled for me so as time went on i would have to disable it anyways to make newer games playable. I had it about year ago so there might be some changes now but I wouldnt worry about it too much.
Thanks for all the input guys, guess Nvidia is the way to go then, at least for borderlands 2 anyway, guess I will just see if i feel like I really want it all when I come to upgrade my GPU, while I think I can manage just fine without PhysX on all the games I play I'm just a little unsure if I will feel like the games are just missing something if I went from my current GTX 470 to something like a 8950 when they eventually come out.