Running a dedicated PhysX card worth it?

Kuga

Kuga

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So I have an ATI Radeon 4870, 1gb version. Picked up an 8600GT and installed the drivers and ran the patch to enable hybrid cross PhysX. Followed this guide. Ran fluidmark to actually check that it was working.

What I want to know is, should I shell out extra for a GTS250 for improved PhysX and dump the 8600GT?
 
No not worth it. Google it we had a lengthy discussion on this either here or on mygaming.co.za.

The problem is that the CPU can pickup the slack anyway, so one doesn't get much benefit by offloading it. Even worse, because not everyone has PhysX, its *never* absolutely necessary & the game designers design & plan for PCs without it.
 
Yes, and no.

PhysX is much less of a performance hit with a better card dedicated to it, and an 8600 is really scraping the bottom of the barrel, but relatively few games use PhysX in the first place. PhysX is also generally only used to improve atmosphere or provide a better experience, and doesn't usually have much of a gameplay impact. That, together with the number of games that use PhysX, make buying a dedicated card very much a luxury, and you'd generally be better off using that money for something else.

Performance wise, CPU-powered PhysX really sucks in a lot of PhysX-enabled games, but in recent ones like Mafia 2, you can apparently get most effects without that much of a performance hit (you still need to tweak it to remove some effects, like clothing in Mafia 2).
 
Try it and see if it's better. When I going to upgrade I'll check if my GTX280 will even make my physx games run smoother. I'm thinking of upgrading soon to maybe GTX480 or the next big card. myabe AMD 6800 series when that comes out
 
Well I've checked with the 8600 GT running Fluidmark. I can see a _HUGE_ difference when it comes to PhysX. I think for the time being I'll just stick to it and maybe later get a 5870 or something :)
 
Kuga said:
Well I've checked with the 8600 GT running Fluidmark. I can see a _HUGE_ difference when it comes to PhysX. I think for the time being I'll just stick to it and maybe later get a 5870 or something :)
Click to expand...
Naturally the PhyX score will improve dramatically, but what about the overall score?
 
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