AMD/ATI graphics card woking with NV PhysX GPU

[zafer069]

Sorry if I'm going to sound like a noob but my question is if a AMD/ATI Graphics card running on a default screen and If an application requires a Nvidia PhysX GPU(9600GT/9800GTX) , can I add it to a second PCI-E just to run physics processing? reason I'm asking is trying to save money.

 

[inglburt]

Strangely enough I was just thinking about this on saturday. I did some googleing on the subject. It seems the main problem is with Vista and it's single driver model. I didn;t find out if anybody messed with it on XP. But I'm thinking that NV wouldn't make it easy.

 

[4745454b]

Is there a stand alone driver for PhysX? I know its built into the display driver, but if you can find a stand alone version of it you should be fine on Vista. That or wait for Windows 7, they removed that one display driver only problem.

 

[zafer069]

I am running Vista 64bit, is there a mod or BIOS for this to be possible?

 

[zafer069]

I don't know if this is a stand alone driver http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx_9.09.0408_whql.html

 

[4745454b]

Looks like it. I have to admit I have no experience with this. I'm waiting to upgrade my video card again before I move my 8800GS into the other PCIe slot on my motherboard. The normal Nvidia driver is ~100MB, and this is around 31. The only issue I see is that is says you need the driver to interface with it. Not sure if there is another way or not. Try it and see, just report back so I learn something

 

[jedimasterben]

It's actually not a standalone driver. It's the newest PhysX software, but it doesn't contain any drivers. Any computer can run the software and use the CPU for PhysX calculations, but any game would be crushed by the pressure it puts on it.

However, Windows XP and 7 are able to use two different graphics drivers at the same time, and I've seen benchmarks to go along with it. It's too late for me to pull up all the information that I've found so far, but I ordered me a 9500GT yesterday to take a shot at it (I'm running a 4830 currently).

The process in which to get it working has seemed difficult, but I'm gonna toy with it and see if I can get it to work as others have. And you can bet your sweet behinds that I'm gonna post benchmarks, because I'll be damned if I can't get it to work!

 

[zafer069]

Once agin Windows Vista has let me down, good thing i have XP thank you jedimasterben.

One more thing, not to sound rude to jedimasteben but on the same web page ( http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx_9.09.0408_whql.html ) there is a Products Sopported tab where it tells you the graphics car it sopports even the old AGEIA PhysX Processors, can some one explain this to me if is not a standalone driver.

PS, good luck with the benchmarks

 

[Mousemonkey]

I'm pretty sure that to use two graphic cards they have to be Nvidia ones 8 series or higher if you are using an ATI graphic card then you would have to use an Aegia PPU card.

 

[gamerk316]

If you have Vista, you have to have a NVIDIA GPU to use a second one as a PhysX card, as Vista forces only a single display driver to load at a time. Windows 7 and XP, however, support multiple display drivers, so you can use a NVIDIA card for PhysX while using a ATI card as your primary display device.

 

[Mousemonkey]

:lol: And then get the ATIdiag errors and everyone telling you to un install the nvidia drivers and run driver sweeper.

 

[jedimasterben]

Once agin Windows Vista has let me down, good thing i have XP thank you jedimasterben.

One more thing, not to sound rude to jedimasteben but on the same web page ( http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx_9.09.0408_whql.html ) there is a Products Sopported tab where it tells you the graphics car it sopports even the old AGEIA PhysX Processors, can some one explain this to me if is not a standalone driver.

PS, good luck with the benchmarks

No worries, it wasn't rude at all. I had completely forgotten that it does have the drivers for the actual PhysX cards. Thanks for reminding me, actually!



And I actually did get it working! Check out the thread I started, with benchmarks and such: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/f...rint=0&numreponse=0&quote_only=0&new=0&nojs=0