Possible to do hybrid CrossfireX/SLI (combining ATI and NVIDIA cards)

[tmontney]

I realize this is a pretty stupid question. I mean why would ATI and NVIDIA simply work together? Doesn't seem likely. But, the reason I'm even asking is I saw someone post a comment (again, on someone else's questions here) that "theoretically you could use an ATI card as main, and an NVIDIA card for PhysX".

Alright, so here's what I have. Right now, my PC has a Gigabyte Radeon 5770. I have this EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX sitting around. I'm quite confident it has support for PhysX. So, are there any hacks I can do to get it to work? Like to make it that dedicated PhysX card? Regardless if performance gain won't be noticeable, or this or that, I don't care. I simply want to know if it can work.


Thanks.

 

[Maziar]

You can use the 8800GTX as a PhysX card
http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx_gpus.html
But it's not worth it IMO.

 

[Deemo13]

I don't think it would work, but might as well go for it.

 

[tmontney]

You can use the 8800GTX as a PhysX card
http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx_gpus.html
But it's not worth it IMO.

Do you understand what I want? I would like to have both cards working together. Like I said in my OP, someone made a reply saying that you could do your main card ATI and a dedicated PhysX card working together. So, how would I do that?

I don't think it would work, but might as well go for it.

That's not helpful at all. "might as well go for it"? Like what does that mean? I can't just assume I "plug them in and go". You gotta be more detailed than that. I've actually never done a CrossFire/SLI setup before. Not that I couldn't figure out how to do a standard one, but I'm not too familiar with it.

 

[Guest]

Lucid Hydra. Allows for both GPU's to work together, but from what I've read a while ago the performance wasn't so great. They did a review here on TH about it but you might want to google around and check it out.

I know the old MSI big bang fuzion supported it. Not sure about their newer models. Drivers were "iffy" back in the day. I suppose they could have improved.

 

[drwho1]

I got intrigue by this question, so I made a simple search and guess what I found!

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1362038

On this forum there is an interesting setup with 2 Radeon cards and an Nvidia card
for physics.

so go to the link, read (view the picture for proof) and good luck!

 

[holdingholder]

you can try and use the 8800 as a phys x card, but you would have to find old or hacked drivers as Nvidia has stopped allowing the use of their cards in physx setups with Ati cards as the main gpu. As for using them together in any other fashion, not gonna happen, the only thing you could possibly use it for is physx and like most people will probably tell you, it would be a colossal waste of time and effort.

 

[Maziar]

you can try and use the 8800 as a phys x card, but you would have to find old or hacked drivers as Nvidia has stopped allowing the use of their cards in physx setups with Ati cards as the main gpu. As for using them together in any other fashion, not gonna happen, the only thing you could possibly use it for is physx and like most people will probably tell you, it would be a colossal waste of time and effort.

+1^
Nvidia has stopped allowing to use a Nvidia card as a PhysX card along with an ATI card as the primary one.(Unless you use hacked drivers)
On the other hand,if you want to use both in multiGPU config,it's not possible and requires a motherboard that supports Lucid

Hope that's what you wanted to know

 

[jaguarskx]

I realize this is a pretty stupid question. I mean why would ATI and NVIDIA simply work together?

Because they compete against each other for market share.

 

[tmontney]

you CAN use the 8800 as a dedicated physX card with the 5770.
you'll need to use 'certified' hacked drivers to do so...
there is an article with step by step instructions on how to do so..
also look for a forum member ' elmoisevil'
he has CF-X configuration with a GTS 450 physX card.
so yes, it's possible, tricky but possible.

now with that being said.....
as you know.
8800GT will not produce MUCH better fps, it's too weak.
your better off selling it and taking the money for something better or other..

I went to the link, it's cool. But it doesn't show me "how" to do it. So where is this step by step instruction? Trust me, it's not like haven't googled this. It's just hard to know how to word the search.

Because they compete against each other for market share.

Uhm, no kidding? You literally stated the obvious. I was explaining I understand why NVIDIA (or ATI) wouldn't explicitly allow their cards to be compatible with their competitor. I wanted to show I understood so my question looked not as unintelligent.

 

[tmontney]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-physx-hack-amd-radeon,2764.html
http://www.gamephys.com/game-physics/how-to-run-physx-in-windows-7-with-ati-cards/
http://www.gamephys.com/game-physics/ati-radeon-hd-5870s-in-crossfire-with-xfx-9500gt-dedicated-physx-card/

Thank you good sir. I appreciate it much.

Also, one more thought passed through my mind. I have a 550w PSU. Do you think it'll be enough to power both the 8800 GTX and the 5770? The other hardware in my PC is Phenom II X6 1055T, 5 GB DDR3 Memory (x2 2 GB and x1 1 GB), No optical drive, 1 TB SATA III 7,200 RPM HDD, 40 GB SATA (no clue on the RPM and if I or II) HDD.

 

[zteven]

it's not exactly what you looking for but... I have a nvidia chipset and an ati (offboard), it worked for me:
bios setup/advanced/chipset/northbridge then select the option to start the video from the onboard video instead from the offboard, in the OS, set the offboard to be the primary video.

 

[tmontney]

it's not exactly what you looking for but... I have a nvidia chipset and an ati (offboard), it worked for me:
bios setup/advanced/chipset/northbridge then select the option to start the video from the onboard video instead from the offboard, in the OS, set the offboard to be the primary video.

Are you saying you have two GPUs (one ATI and one NVIDIA) and you've combined the two GPUs (like a crossfire/SLI setup)?