Hybrid PhysX with 6950CF + GT520 @ PCI-E 1x!

Discussion in 'Videocards - Intel ARC & ARC Driver section' started by CLass, Feb 15, 2012.

  1. CLass

    CLass Guest

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    Hey Everybody!
    Since i have a SandyBridge System with 2 x 8x PCIE only and theyre already used, i looked for a solution for a dedicated physx card. Well i only had one free PCIE 1x 2.0 slot and thats it. So either i try to "open" (looking at my tiny saw) the slot for a longer pci-e card or i buy a new mobo! But then i found this: http://www.amazon.com/Zotac-GeForce...5UO4/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1329315800&sr=8-4 :banana:

    Ok so i thought before asking anbody and/or looking for some threads, i just order the card and try it myself, easy! 14days is enough for testing (i needed 30mins, from unpacking to see the physx arrow in gpu-z, i had a physx hybrid system before, so it was nothing).

    What can i say, it runs really really well! here are some numbers:

    Batman AC ALL Maxed 1080p:

    Min 15
    Max 60 (vsync)
    Avg 35

    Batman AA ALL Maxed 1080p:

    Min 34
    Max 180
    Avg 80

    I get about 80% GT520 GPU Usage! Nice!

    Tested also Metro, Sacred 2 and runs really great i never thought a GT520 on PCIE1x 2.0 would make it but i was clearly wrong!

    So for everybody with the same problem, go ahead! Just try it yourself, i can def. say it works and everygame i tested been playable at least with absolute maximum physx + ingame settings.

    If you need more Information let me know, no Problem. Main reason for this threat is that Pcie-1x 2.0 does work sufficient for PhysX dedicated cards.:biggun:

    Have great day guru's!
     
  2. Pill Monster

    Pill Monster Banned

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    Thanks for the info.
     
  3. XBEAST

    XBEAST Ancient Guru

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    And what framerate do you get without this card? Some comparisons would be nice :).
     
  4. CLass

    CLass Guest

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    New Bench: Mirrors Edge Everything Maxed, 1080p, 8xMsaa, GPUPhysX on: constant 60fps!
     

  5. CLass

    CLass Guest

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    without this card most games are completely unplayable 5-15fps mostly as soon as any PhysX visuals are shown, Batman AC with PhysX MEDIUM based on CPU = avg fps 22 ! lol GT520 ruls
     
  6. Agonist

    Agonist Ancient Guru

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    Im using a GT 520 myself in a 4x slot. Little thing kicks ass for physx. Mine is a galaxy. Really didnt see any slow down or drop in fps when i took out my 9800gtx+ used for physx
     
  7. CLass

    CLass Guest

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    nice, really i couldnt believe it, im so happy because this card is the ONLY solution for physx @ pcie 1x 2.0 ! i havent seen any similar cards! its so tiny and my 6950's are 10times bigger lol, i will make a picture and upload it :)

    i bought alice madness returns and im downloading it now, will return with results soon
     
  8. automaticman

    automaticman Master Guru

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    Nice find on the gfx card.

    I have a very similar setup to you (2500k @4.4, 6950 CFX, 9800gt physx) and saw some interesting numbers in Batman AC in regards to running with Crossfire, DX11, and Physx on and off. I wrote a whole thread about it here:

    http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=357407

    basically I saw a frame rate drop when I enabled crossfire with both physx and dx11 on. Your numbers seem about on par with mine. I'm curious what kind of numbers you will see if you play around with your CFX and dx11 settings. In the end I just left DX11 off as it didn't seem to be worth the FPS hit in that game.
     
  9. CLass

    CLass Guest

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    Hey buddy,

    sorry as i stated everything maxxed means DX11 ! The Bench Above was with DX11, PhysX High, 8xMsaa, Tessellation High so everything maxxed.

    If i compare DX9 vs DX11 i dont see any Big FPS Improvements and im glad, it wasnt like that when the Game was released, DX11 totally broke, but now runs perfect! :)
     
  10. automaticman

    automaticman Master Guru

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    The main issue I was having was that if I turned both DX11 and Physx on High, my fps was:

    Crossfire off
    min 18
    max 72
    avg 49

    Crossfire ON
    min 13
    max 96
    avg 41


    Crossfire actually seemed to hurt my fps rather than help in that situation. This was the thing that aggravated me the most and what I was curious about. Does deactivating CFX help or hurt your FPS?

    (I just made a custom profile in CCC to disable crossfire for the BatmanAC.exe for testing)
     

  11. CLass

    CLass Guest

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    Hey here are the requested results, i get in DX11 absolutely no Scaling, ridiculous!

    All @ 1080p, Extreme Settings, 2xMSAA, Cat 12.3RC + 12.1cap3

    DX11 NO PhysX Crossfire:

    Min. 15
    Max. 97
    Avg. 61

    DX11 NO PhysX NO CrossFire:

    Min. 16
    Max. 84
    Avg. 66

    DX11 PhysX High Crossfire:

    Min. 4
    Max. 61
    Avg. 31

    DX11 PhysX High NO Crossfire:

    Min. 11
    Max. 64
    Avg. 35

    DX9 PhysX High Crossfire:

    Min. 11
    Max. 66
    Avg. 37

    DX9 PhysX High NO Crossfire:

    Min. 11
    Max. 67
    Avg. 37

    DX9 NO PhysX Crossfire:

    Min. 74
    Max. 231
    Avg. 147

    DX9 NO PhysX NO Crossfire:

    Min. 69
    Max. 153
    Avg. 115

    Cheers!:bang:
     
  12. automaticman

    automaticman Master Guru

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    Great, thanks! So you are seeing the same thing I am. (so maybe not so great)

    The other nice thing is that, because the rest of our system is so similar, we can use the FPS difference to see how much difference the dedicated physx card brings to the table.

    for instance:

    [​IMG]



    When I look at both of our numbers with crossfire ON I see they almost don't change at all, which supports the fact that the dedicated PhysX card is the limiting factor in both cases.

    What it doesn't explain is why, with PhysX off, DX11 still doesn't scale. Without the PhysX card holding it back there is no reason we should no see decent scaling. Yes DX11 introduces more advanced features like tessellation, but those would all benefit for a second card as well.


    I'd still like to reinstall my GT430 for PhysX and see how it fits into the chart above. A GT520 with more PCIe lanes would also be interesting to see if limiting to x1 lane is making any difference.
     
  13. CLass

    CLass Guest

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    Wow nice chart! Damn that i sold my 9800GT, i could just pull one 6950 out and test, we should get same numbers, would be nice to see if theres any difference :) GT430 would be also very interesting for me because i bought that card for a non gaming friend of mine and i could easily change the GT520 for it, he wouldnt mind, i could make some tests with 1 6950 + 430GT, funny, are we hardware soul twins or something? :D :eek:c:

    The DX11 scaling is a real joke, like you said, even without physX theres absolutely no scaling..i will redo some Benches and watch gpu-z on the 2nd screen how the 2nd card is behaving, i mean there should be no workload at all like it scales, but what is the card doing? some random data transfering stuff? could be an explanation for the negative scaling? we will see :) thanks for the work, i just love that stuff!
     
  14. automaticman

    automaticman Master Guru

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    I think in this case it's not really a crossfire driver issue as much as the way that DX11 was implemented in the game. After all, crossfire scales just fine in DX9 mode and I was seeing plenty of usage on the second card when I ran the tests (can't remember how much now, I think the cards had even usage but looked bottlenecked by something).

    Not to mention all the issues DX11 had when the game came out. I think the game itself is causing the issue the way DX11 is coded. Actually, now I wonder if SLI users see the same issue.
     
  15. CLass

    CLass Guest

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    hey, just wanted to inform everybody that AMD HD3D games dont work with PhysX hybrid Systems, as far as i can tell. All the Native 3D Games (DiRT3, BF3, Two Worlds II, Deus-EXHR) didnt work anymore! Tridef worked ! Due to this, I removed the GT520 because HD3D is more important to me than PhysX.:bang:
     

  16. automaticman

    automaticman Master Guru

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    Really, what happened? What if you just disabled the card in device manager and re-enabled it for PhysX? What did the games do when you turned on 3D?
     
  17. CLass

    CLass Guest

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    yea i tried to set CPU physx, disabling GPU in device manager nothing worked, only deinstalling driver+device let me games be HD3D :(
     
  18. automaticman

    automaticman Master Guru

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    Odd, I wonder if the games detect an Nvidia GPU and try to use 3D Vision instead of HD3D. Personally my only experience with 3D gaming was walking by a display at Fry's.
     
  19. CLass

    CLass Guest

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    im using a Samsung Syncmaster S27A750D 27" 120hz with Displayport, it works really great! Games like Alice, which i ran with PhysX and Tridef 3D Driver, worked perfectly! But the Native HD3D Games, like you guessed, maybe the AMD Quadbuffer was not recognized or something, who knows! I gave my GT520 back due to 14day money back feature =)
     
  20. Keitosha

    Keitosha Ancient Guru

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    Such a shame. The GT520 is quite good for just Physx and not power hungry. It uses about 25W @ max load and way less when in idle. I'm running mine @ PCI-e 2.0 x16 @ x4, because my second PCI-e slot is only x4. All games are running quite well except Alice 2 with certain moments, but all cards are having trouble running Alice 2 with acceptable fps.

    Perhaps your HD3D issues are driver related? Problem is that not many games are using HD3D (i can only think of Deus Ex 3 atm), so finding a solution might be difficult.
     

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