I have a question about setting up two non matching GPUs, with one being for PhysX.
I currently have a Gigabyte GTX 660 as my main GPU in my computer. I upgraded from a Asus 550 Ti GPU. I know I can use the older GPU as a dedicated PhysX processor, but I was wonder . . .would it work out between these two cards? Or better saying, would it be worth it?
Not 100% if the older 550 Ti would bottleneck and drop my computers performance playing different games.
Example of the games I play with PhysX:
Planet Side 2
MechWarrior Online
Borderlands 2
Here is also my current PC specs:
CPU: Intel i5 – 2400
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 660
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 4x2GB DDR3 1600
MOBO: Asus P8P67 Pro rev. 03
STORAGE: Crucial 60 GB SSD and a random mess of WD and Seagate HDDs
Probably just give it a go and look at the fps. If it's not like a significant increase then it might not be worth it considering heat and power. Have a look at this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbww3dhzK0M
I'm thinking you will have some gains but no idea how much.
Alright, thanks for the link.
I'll be giving it all a try in a minute. Just reinstalled the 550 Ti.
Would be good if you could post your findings, I'm interested in running a physx card with a 7970
I can't find really find any benchmarking software that uses physX, except for Fluidmark (but I believe its kind of old software).
But I did boot up Borderlands 2 and did notice a difference. I got smoother game play when physx really kicked in from all the crazy weapon effects. I forgot to set up a log to monitor it.
Ill post whatever findings I get after I do some tests.
That's very cool as the only reason I want to do it is I play a lot of borderlands
Ok, I got some results from using the Fulidmark PhysX benchmarking software.
http://i.imgur.com/8Xq1jOL.png <---Imgur pic with screenshots of results.
From what this software showed me, having the GTX 660 with the 550 Ti as a dedicated PhysX processor DID increase performance. (I did several tests before these results to make sure the software wasn't going to freak out on me).
I am going to do some more test to see what other software and what some games have to say about this set up. So far it looks promising.
Ok I have some new results from doing further testing. These results I recording as I was playing borderlands 2 for a good amount of time. I preformed the tests about 4 times in the same locations.
I am not an expert on benchmarking or doing this kind of testing. These are all my own amateur results and attempts.
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PhysX Benchmarking
With and without dedicated PhysX GPU
Test results using Borderlands 2.
Location: Caustic Caverns
Weapon: Some random Fire and Lighting effect weapons
Targets: Everything
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With just the GTX 660
Idle FPS at spawn point: 73.6 FPS
Framerate during as much chaos and effects I could create right outside the double doors that lead to the large lake of acid:
Started at: 45.6 FPS
Dropped to and stayed around: 26.6 FPS
============================================================
With just the GTX 660 and 550 Ti as dedicated PhysX processor
Idle FPS at spawn point: 80.8 FPS
Framerate during as much chaos and effects I could create right outside the double doors that lead to the large lake of acid:
Started at: 57.1 FPS
Dropped to and stayed around: 36.5 FPS
============================================================
oh I like that a lot that sounds very promising, Thanks for the info
"Would be good if you could post your findings, I'm interested in running a physx card with a 7970"
Not sure what AMD card (from these results) would be a good affordable or cheap dedicated physX GPU to pair with a 7970.
I would get a nvidia 560ti or something second hand and run hybrid graphics drivers it would take a bit of fiddling but I feel like trying it out
AMD doesn't do physx. You need to pair your AMD card with an Nvidia card. (Which still works when using it for physx, just need a modified driver)
Yeah that's the plan I haven't looked into it a heap but i know I need hybrid drivers if I didn't make that clear
Sorry, I was reffering to bigsp00ns comment
Not sure what AMD card (from these results) would be a good affordable or cheap dedicated physX GPU to pair with a 7970.
