Overclock.net banner

SLI and PhysX

935 views 12 replies 10 participants last post by  Zoomer 
#1 ·
I have two 8800GTS in SLI at the moment, I know that I can disable one and use it as a PhysX card.

Can I continue to use SLI and get something like a cheap PCI video card and use it as a PhysX, or would it have to be a proper PhysX card?

Worth it?

Thanks.
 
#6 ·
^ That is true. Yeah. I forgot about that, lol. Do you think getting a dedicated card would make a difference?

I know I can use my other 8800 as a PhysX card, but I was wondering if I could use SLI and get a cheap PCI video card and use that as the PhysX card. Or would I have to buy a proper PhysX card, like a BFG one?
 
#7 ·
You need at minimum an 8000 series GPU, and AFAIK the only ones you can get for PCI is an 8400 GS which uses a bridge chip. There are two possible problems with this configuration. First, an 8400 GS would probably run PhysX slower than an actual PhysX card since it has so few processors. Second, I've often seen problems with the combination of a bridge chip, Windows Vista and an Nvidia chipset motherboard.

If you really, really need pure PhysX, then just get a PhysX card (if you can still find one). Otherwise, replace one of your cards with a faster card (like a GTX 280) and use the second one for PhysX.
 
#8 ·
Currently, you cannot utilize BOTH SLI and have a dedicated PhysX card. One of your GPUs in SLI can run the PhysX processing, but you cannot have a 3rd card dedicated to PhysX. There is actually no reason to in a SLI setup. I am sure that someday, in a future driver/chipset revision/release the ability may be gained, but as of now, no.
 
#10 ·
Quote:


Originally Posted by Zap
View Post

You need at minimum an 8000 series GPU, and AFAIK the only ones you can get for PCI is an 8400 GS which uses a bridge chip. There are two possible problems with this configuration. First, an 8400 GS would probably run PhysX slower than an actual PhysX card since it has so few processors. Second, I've often seen problems with the combination of a bridge chip, Windows Vista and an Nvidia chipset motherboard.

If you really, really need pure PhysX, then just get a PhysX card (if you can still find one). Otherwise, replace one of your cards with a faster card (like a GTX 280) and use the second one for PhysX.

I know there is an 8600 GT and a 9500 GT for PCI.
 
#11 ·
Quote:


Originally Posted by VCheeZ
View Post

Currently, you cannot utilize BOTH SLI and have a dedicated PhysX card. One of your GPUs in SLI can run the PhysX processing, but you cannot have a 3rd card dedicated to PhysX. There is actually no reason to in a SLI setup. I am sure that someday, in a future driver/chipset revision/release the ability may be gained, but as of now, no.


That is wrong. With Vista, yes you can, with XP no. As of 180.44 drivers that is.
 
#13 ·
Yeah. You can have 3 cards with just 2 in SLI, with the third running the PhysX on it's own. They can be like 3 8800 GT's,as the third doesn't have to be in SLI at all. If you have anything higher than an 8800/9800GT, though, then there's no reason. Just use both for both graphics and physics at once, as there seems to be a maximum of a 5 fps loss in most games, even if they use PhysX.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top