Railworks America

OMG, I just tried this out, what a fantastic treat! OMG, OMG, OMG! I put an old GTX9800+ in my board, along with my GTX670SC, went into the Nvidia controls, told it to use the 9800 as a Physix card, and holy carp! OMG! Holy carp!

(yeah, I know this was said before, but the search function on this board doesn't work) Wow, what a difference! Dang!

Details, details! I'm thinking of building a new rig, so is this "dedicated PhysX card" something we should all be doing?

Chris,what did it do?
My main card now is a GTX 670 FTW,and I still have my old GTX 275.


Greg

Tori, if you are still on a laptop, you can't do this. You have to use the built in crap.

Greg, what it did was off load all the Physix work from the main video card. No more stuttering, no more lag, all my games look just superb. I can now do RW at 1980x1024 with all the bells and whistles at full tilt.

arizonachris wrote:Tori, if you are still on a laptop, you can't do this. You have to use the built in crap.

Com'on, Chris, give me SOME credit! The reason I asked is that I am about to start planning/shopping for a homebuilt rig. I've only built a couple of hundred so hopefully I can figure it out.

What I need to know is, what do I need to shop for to ensure that I can do what you're doing? I take it this requires NVidia cards, drivers and software... any other requirements??? While we're here, what is the rec'd vid card model now-a-days? Granted, my knowledge is a little (ok, a lot, lol) dated.

Hi Tori, AFAIK the dedicated PhysX coprocessor cards were obsolete almost right when they were introduced since nVidia incorporated the PhysX core in its new GPU's shortly thereafter.

On my old Red rig I have a nVidia GTX560 as main GPU and a 9400GT as dedicated PhysX coprocessor (no monitor connected to this card, and no SLI either). Don't really know if it makes that much difference performance wise as I am unsure as to what the graphics drivers/RSC rendering engine actually unloads onto the PhysX. I have read once it was thought only to be the fancy "flying train" effect.

RSC's rendering engine still poorly utilises the GPU's more advanced anti-aliasing algorhythms, and to judge by the logos, favours nVidia over ATI.
The Red rig runs the COARW at 1920x1200 full screen with all settings max'd and SSAA 2x2 at around 8-12 fps using TS2012.

Question for Arizona: is there a program that monitors and logs GPU and PhysX loads?

_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha wrote:favours nVidia over ATI.

Yea, figured I'll get an nVidia for this new rig.

_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha wrote:The Red rig runs the COARW at 1920x1200 full screen with all settings max'd and SSAA 2x2 at around 8-12 fps using TS2012.

I assume that's worse-case, like around Ronceverte? Funny, on Pusher Trial under TS'13 I can get a little better than that... up to 14-17 fps as I'm leaving the eastern edge of town. That's even with that WB of empties going by. Far better than the 4-6 fps I saw on that run back in the Railworks days.

I use Readyboost with a 4G stick. It makes a noticeable difference (very few stutters and an overall "snappier" behavior) which makes sense as it is designed for speeding up the handling of a multitude of tiny files. I can't swear it does anything for fps, though.

So then guys... is this PhysX "dedicard" idea obsolete or not???

Greg, what it did was off load all the Physix work from the main video card. No more stuttering, no more lag, all my games look just superb. I can now do RW at 1980x1024 with all the bells and whistles at full tilt.

I just wonder if adding my old GTX 275 for that purpose would really benefit me.
I have AA set at 1 x 2 SSAA everything is at highest settings and I use my monitors default 1920x1200 resolution. Average fps is 60,I don't have lag (SSD),and the sim runs as smooth as glass. If I use the same settings and change the AA to 2 X 2 SSAA,my fps drop to average 40. So would I see any noticeable improvements?

Greg

Greg, I would go with a saying my grandpa used to say, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" Seems like your rig is more than up to the task of whatever you want to throw at it. I mean, you can install that additional card and give it a try. Windows and Nvidia will automaticaly see the new card and as what you want to do with it. You cannot do SLI without another same card. Plus, you need that SLI bridge connector. And you cannot mix Nvidia and ATI.

Tori, build your new PC, see how it runs. This is what I have, and it runs fantastic!
Gigabyte GA990XA-UD3 board
Phenom II 970CPU
8Gb G Skill 1600 RAM
2X 500Gb Western Digital Black drives (don't get the blue, the green or the Seagate) SSD is too darn expensive.
EVGA GTX670SC (super clocked)
My old 9800GT+ as the Physix card
cheap Samsung DVD drive
Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit

I think it was around $700.

Oh, Cooler Master HAF 922 case, CM psu, nice set of Logitech speakers (5.1) simple mouse, Wolf King gaming keyboard. I did use as many old pieces as I could.

I was intrigued by this so managed to borrow an Asus Geforce GT 630 to play PhysX support alongside my EVGA GTX 660 Ti. It installed okay and was recognised in Nvidia Control Panel as a card available for PhysX. However, despite many attempts to dump the PhysX onto either of the GPUs, the in-game PhysX indicator always showed PhysX being handled by the CPU. This seemed to be confirmed by the fact that running the same scenario over and over showed the same fps in the same spots, with the same stutters, shimmering etc in the same places. Is it possible to force PhysX onto a secondary card in TS2013 or does the actual card available have anything to do with it? Looks like the search for my TS2013 nirvana continues.

Greg, I have found out, thru trials and tribulations, it's a game thing. Some like it, some don't. And you won't know until you start the game. RW has kicked me several times with errors. I just play my other games. RW doesn't seem to really like my Physix card.

Planetside 2 loves my PhysX dedicated setup.

I have two 9800GTX with three monitors. I have tried SLI, which doesn't give any performance gain in RW. I guess I should try to offload Physix on the second GPU. But then I'll lose the side monitors, which I use to read manuals, display workorders, display signal charts, browse the internet, etc. during long runs. Decisions, decisions...

Video please, Chris! So. Fill me in. I have very little knowledge of what is being discussed here. I am also looking to buy a new desktop. Having no knowledge about the technical, tell me, what I should get to run RW the best I can.

arizonachris wrote:Greg, I have found out, thru trials and tribulations, it's a game thing. Some like it, some don't. And you won't know until you start the game. RW has kicked me several times with errors. I just play my other games. RW doesn't seem to really like my Physix card.

Thanks for the update Chris.
Being that it could be a go/no go deal, depending on the game/application,I'll just leave things as they are. I honestly don't think I would see any improvement anyway.

Greg