Dedicated PhysX card, should I bother?

[PhantomTa2]

Hi, firstly, let me say I used the search at the top of the page and only came back with 3 results, none of which answered my question properly. I've also asked on another forum and was told it might be better NOT to do it.
Basically, I'm wondering whether or not I should add a dedicated PhysX card to my setup. I'm running an Asus Matrix GTX580 Platinum which is doing the job quite nicely but thought, as I had a few cards lying around, maybe it would be better to add one of those lower end cards for PhysX?
I'm thinking of adding a GT240 card and using that for PhysX. I also read that you can use your CPU for it, too, is that worth trying? I have an i7 990x Extreme CPU, if that helps

Thank you for your time and sorry for asking a question that's probably had 1,000+ variants of being asked before.

 

[vitornob]

"Dedicated PhysX card, should I bother?"

No

 

[regularguy290]

i think only 20 games actually take advantage of the "PhysX", but there isn't any detriment without it. the new nVidia cards have "PhysX" processing built in, and the high end cards are powerful enough that you don't need a second card. there really isn't any benefit to be had, it's not something people recommend putting money into.

having said that, if you have a card laying around there's no harm in plugging it in.

 

[atikkur]

from my experience, SLI would handle better for graphics+physx than dedicated physx.

 

[PhantomTa2]

OK, thanks for the input guys

 

[17seconds]

The 580 should be plenty on its own.

 

[DM186]

^+1
You don't need physx so don't waste your money or have issues in your rig. More power and more heat. Good luck to you.

 

[sharpiedpanda]

If you already have a decently powered card, something like a 550 ti or 560ti (possibly gtx460), there is a slight performance boost (~7fps based on an avg fps of 49) Though I am not certain where the reviewer got the numbers for the base line (ie. avg fps from PhysX enabled games). Basically he is saying that something like an 8600GTS will bottleneck overall performance but a dedicated ~GTX 550 Ti will boost fps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbww3dhzK0M around 3:00min.

It would be interesting to see if you get similar results

 

[ubercake]

If you already have a decently powered card, something like a 550 ti or 560ti (possibly gtx460), there is a slight performance boost (~7fps based on an avg fps of 49) Though I am not certain where the reviewer got the numbers for the base line (ie. avg fps from PhysX enabled games). Basically he is saying that something like an 8600GTS will bottleneck overall performance but a dedicated ~GTX 550 Ti will boost fps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbww3dhzK0M around 3:00min.

It would be interesting to see if you get similar results

That's a good video, but one interesting thing to note is the 8600 card he uses to exhibit the bottleneck is not on the 'Supported GPUs' list on Nvidia's PhysX page:

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/physx/supported-gpus

The other cards he uses in the video are on the list and give around a 10% performance increase (from 50 up to 55fps with dedicated PhysX).

A 10% increase is not bad if you have a supported card laying around. Your 240's on the supported list. I would definitely try it for the science of it. Tell us how it turns out.

 

[radnor]

Sure ! If you have getting dusty around.

If not save your money. Physx isn't that popular. I did like mirrors edge !

 

[bystander]

If you already have a decently powered card, something like a 550 ti or 560ti (possibly gtx460), there is a slight performance boost (~7fps based on an avg fps of 49) Though I am not certain where the reviewer got the numbers for the base line (ie. avg fps from PhysX enabled games). Basically he is saying that something like an 8600GTS will bottleneck overall performance but a dedicated ~GTX 550 Ti will boost fps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbww3dhzK0M around 3:00min.

It would be interesting to see if you get similar results

Keep in mind, you are talking about one specific example, the vast majority of the time it will do nothing at all. The only times it may make a difference are when playing an game that supports GPU accelerated PhysX: http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/physx/pc-games

And in those games, how much you gain or lose will vary.

 

[ubercake]

^+1