PhysX Memory Usage Tests

[VJ]

Perhaps a strange question, but what would be the minimum slot requirement for the 9600gt when used as PhysX card?

Would it still be useful when placed in an PCIe x1 slot?

Jörg

[Mehen]

Would it physically fit in an x1 slot?

An x1 slot might not supply enough power to the card even if it did (I've heard of people modding their slots, but I wouldn't recommend it).

[Evildead666]

It should have enough power to run the card, but the performance is likely not going to be as good.

You would need an open ended PCIe slot, or mod one yourself, at your own risk.
I wouldnt go lower than PCIEx4 personally....

AGEIA cards are PCIEx1.....

[VJ]

All slots of the mainboard are full length PCIe slots (asus p6t6 ws revolution), but they are not all x16 (obviously). So physically it would fit. But I just noticed I was wrong: it is an x4 slot, not an x1.

I have a number of cards in it, and only the bottom slot would be an option (otherwise I'd loose one slot more).

[Evildead666]

x4 should be fine for all of the PhysX stuff....
Depends on how its done though....

I'm sure there was a site that had done these tests tho.....will have to dig it out.

[VJ]

Cool! It is still for a longer term planning though...

[Evildead666]

SOme PCIe bandwidth tests:

http://physxinfo.com/news/880/dedicated-physx-gpu-perfomance-dependence-on-pci-e-bandwidth/

Down to 4x PCIe bandwidth there is almost no difference.
x1 does take a hit though...

edit: and as can be seen, the number of shaders available changes the FPS considerably, between the 9800GT(112sh), 9600GT(64sh) and 9500GT (32sh).
I'm at 96sh, but i'm not sure shader speed is an issue. Something i'll have to look into...

[Evildead666]

Dark Void Physx seems to only be 210Mb.

The 310Mb I had before was when the game crashed, the guy got stuck in the scenery next to a water fountain. probably a little bug.

[Evildead666]

Some screen caps of PhysX in use:

[Evildead666]

Some FluidMark tests :
Already on the SemiAccurate forums, only because of a (personal (to me)) challenge

PhysX memory on 1280x1024 :


1680x1050 :


1680x1050 4xAA:


and screenies :

0xAA


4xAA

[Evildead666]

Well my Benchmarking self got hold of me this weekend, what with Stalker CoP and Metro 2033, so I lashed out on an Asus 5850, hopefully a voltage tweak edition, and settle on 1K/5K at 1.3V.

Will be keeping the 8800 as a PhysX card for Metro 2033, since it apparently has DX11 AND PhysX.

Hopefully a collegue will be able to take the 4870 off me for a fair price.

edit : Have also splashed out on the Full version of Win7 Ultimate. So I can re-Install as many times as I like

[Evildead666]

Well, firstly i'm surprised no one mentioned anything about the change of avatar, but anyways:

I tried 1K/5K 1.3V on 45% fan speed, and lasted about 45 seconds before a nice blackscreen and a forced reboot.
It could have something to do with XP, and the fact that everytime I boot up, the 'SmartDoctor' sets te voltage to 50% over spec at 1.5V, and I panic and set it back to default.
Gonna have to flash this sucker in DOS at some point, just have to find the fan sweet spot, like on the 4870.

Hopefully the Win7U install this weekend will solve some issues, and the 8800GTS can take place beside the 5850 for PhysX duties

edit : I also changed from standard IDE controller for SATA to AHCI without having to reinstall windows.

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=444831

I just had to change the registry file to my own values, ie, instead of
"0"="PCI\\VEN_8086&DEV_2922&SUBSYS_B0051458&REV_02 \\3&13c0b0c5&0&FA"

I had

"0"="PCI\\VEN_8086&DEV_2920&SUBSYS_82771043&REV_02 \\3&13c0b0c5&0&FA"
and
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Cr iticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2920&cc_0101]

the difference is the 2922 and 2920 parts. and the 0101.
You can find the values in the properties part of the standard IDE/SATA controllers.
Edit3 : Just noticed I am 2922 now when i was 2920 before...weird. After reinstalling the Matrix drivers...



edit2 : Works for Intel boards.



Where the 0101 came from, sort of (after the change, looks the same before tho)

[Evildead666]

Back to PhysX Memory benchmarking

Metro 2033, 1680x1050, Very High setting (all at max), DX11, only DX11 DoF left out since it cuts the fps in 2...
Catalyst 10.3 and Nvidia 197.13 with PhysX updated to 9100222.



Only 239Mb taken by the PhysX card.

Having some slowdowns atm during gameplay, not sure where its coming from.
Seems to be the 5850.
If you look at the bottom right gpu load, it goes to 0%, during the game, thats a slowdown. clocks etc stay the same.
Call of Pripyat played fne with it, but Metro 2033 is sure a very demanding game, graphics wise.

Getting 30-50 fps, roughly.
The slowdowns pull it to 3-12 fps

GPU-z shows no problems though...will investigate, as only just started playing and want to get past the first section

[Evildead666]

Slowdown was due to the Nvidia PhysX driver reverting to Software PhysX.

ReInstalling the 196.21 drivers, and then updating just the PhysX driver to 9100222 seems to work fine now.

Just about to see if it works with Metro 2033, works with Fluidmark...

[Evildead666]

Confirmed working in Metro 2033

edit : WHen updated to the 196.34 Beta drivers.
They already contain the 09.10.2220 PhysX drivers, and seem to work so far.

Have had some glitches, even on older games that worked, so have reinstalled the drivers for both cards multiple times (lost count) lol.
*fingers crossed*