Nvidia VS ATI (Physix)

[SmokeDarKnight]

Ok after 7 months with my ATI HD6990 and defending its peformance and Physixs Capability i now wish i'd gone with the Nvidia, and i blame Borderlands 2.

It will run Borderlands 2 at full settings great except when you put the Physix on Max. The game looks great with the additional non essential touches but drops to about 32fps. It just bugs me in the back of my mind that i've had to put something down to low.

Its just trying to justify whether the price just for Physix is justified. In terms of preformance the ATI cards been great only ever had one problem with a driver.

Thinking about keeping it as a good gaming laptop and finally upgrading that desktop in my signature.

 

[rickne]

Ive certainly noticed the difference. I have 2 6950s on my desktop which play everything pretty much maxed fine but my 680m on the lap top does the same with a few noticeable added extras. Physx is getting better and better.

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

Yeah your right. When i first seen it in Batman and it added fog, i was like "BIG WOOP" but then in Mirrors Edge they added banners that reacted made it feel more like a live environment than just running through a static world. Then Borderlands 2 the debris and the liquids etc its just eye candy.

 

[Wozza63]

I can't remember how to do it, but you can run PhysX through the CPU, which isn't great, but may let you get slightly better settings, worth googling..

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

Yeah it does it automatically through the CPU now. Theres a Nvidia Physix Program installed that seems to be managing it anyway. It works fine on single player but with 4 it has too much to deal with.

With Physics on my i7 CPU is at about 90%

Its not a problem just a... em... niggle if that makes sense.

 

[Kalisnoir]

If I recall, it's possible to get a Nvidia card and run the Physx through that while still using your AMD, doesn't even need to be particularly that good of a card. Do a Google search on it or hopefully someone on the forum can shed some more light on the situation.

 

[steaky360]

Gorman did touch on this in the following thread http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?178-Dedicating-a-GPU-to-Physics&highlight=dedicated+physx

Doesn't say 'how' to do it though (and none of the pics seem to work anymore... which is a bummer)

According to http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/352845-15-dedicated-physx-card-main-card all you need are 'hacked drivers' (and an Nvidia GPU). Certainly possible if you're looking at potentially a cheaper solution

EDIT: If you keep reading through Gormans thread PaulH does give a link.

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

I've only got one bay in my lappy and my Deskys not worth the effort yet but yeah its a good shout KalisNoir

 

[Kalisnoir]

I've only got one bay in my lappy and my Deskys not worth the effort yet but yeah its a good shout KalisNoir

Earlier in the year I also recall and article on Engadget that showed off a new adapter for laptops that allowed you to attach high end cards externally although I think it was £100~ I can't however remember the name and doubt I could find the article again :/