1. #1

    What is Nvidia PhysX?

    I'm about to buy an AMD graphics card but I know I'll miss on PhysX. On what does it consist? What is PhysX and where does it affect games?

    thanks for the explanation

  2. #2
    PhysX is a way, surprise, to generate physics in games. It's not supported by "a lot" of games. Titles I can think of off-hand is the Batman-games and Mafia II.

    It's a drain on resources (ie, FPS), but might improve the way the game looks. But really, veeeery few new games gets developed with PhysX support; Rather, they move to more brand-neutral alternatives.
     

  3. #3
    Deleted
    Basically what tetris said. You can read more here:
    http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx_new.html

  4. #4

  5. #5
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0xRJt8rcmY

    Basically shows you what you want to know.

    But it's not used by most developers, as it's nvidia only, most games are sadly becoming console port overs, and not everyone uses an nvidia GPU. Last game with any real value that I recall releasing with it was Metro 2033 or Mafia II (forget which came last :P)
    Last edited by Alan1187; 2011-09-07 at 11:40 PM.

  6. #6
    Herald of the Titans kailtas's Avatar
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    The concept is pretty damn close to revolutionary. What if i could choose to combine ANY graphics card , and make the weaker one take care of the physics?

    To bad its only for Nvidia cards, and then again only for a very few titles.
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  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by kailtas View Post
    The concept is pretty damn close to revolutionary. What if i could choose to combine ANY graphics card , and make the weaker one take care of the physics?

    To bad its only for Nvidia cards, and then again only for a very few titles.
    Assumption: Running a GTX580, have a GTS450 lying about. Decide to use the GTX450 as a dedicated PhysX-card vs using only the GTX580 as a combined PhysX/GPU card.
    GTX580 would yield better framerates.
     

  8. #8
    Herald of the Titans kailtas's Avatar
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    Allow me.

    GTX 580 alone: 60FPS
    With a GT450 : 45 FPS

    BUT, then you notice that your GTX 580 is not being stressed as much in PhysX mode as in solo mode. So you turn up graphical options that does not have an impact on physics. Options like AA, Tesselation, Shadow quality, viewing distance. And then you experience better graphics at higher FPS than you would if you had run the GTX 580 alone.

    You just have to configure the settings so that your most powerfull card is not underperforming. And if it does so at max setting, your PhysX card is not powerfull enough.
    Last edited by kailtas; 2011-09-08 at 12:31 AM.
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  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by kailtas View Post
    Allow me.

    GTX 580 alone: 60FPS
    With a GT450 : 45 FPS

    BUT, then you notice that your GTX 580 is not being stressed as much in PhysX mode as in solo mode. So you turn up graphical options that does not have an impact on physics. Options like AA, Tesselation, Shadow quality, viewing distance. And then you experience better graphics at higher FPS than you would if you had run the GTX 580 alone.
    Well. I did mean that the GTX580 itself running PhysX+game is better than the GTS450 running PhysX while the GTX580 ran the game. And still yielding better framerates. IE, using such an inferior card as a dedicated PhysX will lower your playingexperience because you're being bottlenecked by what it can create in its physics-engine.
    So not only would it look better with the GTX580, you could run with PhysX on and higher settings.

    Also, game-developer has mostly left PhysX completely now. I don't have a game that run PhysX, but I do have mostly/only nVidia cards; starting with the FX5200 to the GTX460 and GT550M.
     

  10. #10
    Herald of the Titans kailtas's Avatar
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    Well that example was kinda taken out of my fantasy world.

    But there are benchmarks where adding a PhysX card added more FPS per dollar compared to the main card.


    Linus tech tips GTX 480 + GTS450 PhysX: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQu55bciMt4
    Linus tech tips GTX 580 + 8600GTS, GTX 580, GTX 550 Ti, GTX 560Ti: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbww3dhzK0M

    Edit: Dont get me wrong, i am in no way defending a system only supported by like 5 games. But the concept is interesting.
    Last edited by kailtas; 2011-09-08 at 12:49 AM.
    Your greed, your foolishness has brought you to this end.

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  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Synthaxx View Post
    FX5200 - Leafblower Edition?
    Wonder if physx could render the air output from one of those tearing through a flag
    The technology isn't quite that advanced, yet.
    5800X | XFX 7900XTX | Prime X570 Pro | 32GB | 990Pro + SN850 2TB | Define 7

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Synthaxx View Post
    FX5200 - Leafblower Edition?
    Wonder if physx could render the air output from one of those tearing through a flag
    It looked kind of like this! (but I had the 256MiB one) http://usavers.net/images/large/Nvid...%20VER2.10.JPG
    But I'm unsure what you mean by leafblower. I wasn't such a junkie back then, that I am now. And I haven't filled in the blanks retroactively :P
     

  13. #13
    There is also Havok. Which is used more often than PhysX, but still not very much (Witcher 2, AC series, Portal 2, Halo series)

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by tetrisgoat View Post
    It looked kind of like this! (but I had the 256MiB one) http://usavers.net/images/large/Nvid...%20VER2.10.JPG
    But I'm unsure what you mean by leafblower. I wasn't such a junkie back then, that I am now. And I haven't filled in the blanks retroactively :P
    If he's referring to the reference fans, like this:



    Then they were awful. The cards were really, really bad too. But the FX5800 fans took the cake, and I think thats what he means:

    5800X | XFX 7900XTX | Prime X570 Pro | 32GB | 990Pro + SN850 2TB | Define 7

  15. #15
    One last thing - Will BF3 and MW3 use PhysX?

  16. #16
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by skycaptain View Post
    One last thing - Will BF3 and MW3 use PhysX?
    No. The new Batman game will probably use it though. That's the only upcoming title that might use it afaik.

  17. #17
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by tetrisgoat View Post
    PhysX is a way, surprise, to generate physics in games. It's not supported by "a lot" of games. Titles I can think of off-hand is the Batman-games and Mafia II.

    It's a drain on resources (ie, FPS), but might improve the way the game looks. But really, veeeery few new games gets developed with PhysX support; Rather, they move to more brand-neutral alternatives.
    Mirrors Edge uses it too. Remember it fucking hammered my friends Top of the line machine.

    PhysX is heavy on your machine. Well, was at the time.

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