Dedicated Physx card question - Need advice

Hi all

I tried my old 9600 GSO (192-bit, 384MB, 96 stream processors) as a dedicated Physx card for my system. It gave great results, sometimes even 8FPS increase in Metro 2033(avg 4-5, which is great for such a demanding game). But it was too bulky and helped a heap to increase the temp and noise of my GTX 480 as it is a full size card. So I'm looking for an alternative.

I want a very small format card so the best contender at the moment is the Zotac GT 240 (128-bit, 1GB/512MB, 96 stream processors).

This might be a silly question, but it seems you don't need the SLI bridge for a dedicated Physx card to work. Is that right?

Will the 128-bit bandwidth hamper the performance by any means if I buy the 1GB/512MB GDDR5 version and will it handle the load of the more demanding games such as Batman - Arkham Asylum and Metro 2033?

Does anyone have any size specification for this card? (Height X Length X Depth). Also is it my imagination or is the Zotac GT240 512MB AMP edition smaller than the standard edition?

Thanks

 

no you dont need SLi birdge,

imo something like 450gts would be a perfect match, well Fermi has some better tricks when it comes to cuda /physx - more registers to store data (16kb +48kb compared to 240gts with only 16kb), thus faster calculations.

 

Ok thanks. I can only fit in a single slot card due to my Audio card. It is a micro ATX motherboard.

I also saw something about software SLI. Is that by any means slower than hardware based? (using the bridge)

 

hm yea that could be a issue, most of 450gts use 2 slots.. this one from Gigabyte looks the smallest,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125342
but yea it still eats up 2 slots..

About Software SLi i dunno, maybe you're thinking about SLI hack on non sli based mobos?

 

Yeah I would like to see some tests or something in that line that checks this and whether the difference is negligible or not.

 

The 450gts is more than enough for just physx. It only uses 75% of my card for fluidmark tests.

 

Hi

As I stated in earlier posts, I am limited to single slot cards.

Thanks

 

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=816

 

Thanks !...Now comes the task to see if I can source it locally

 

Hi there,do you have any games waiting to play ? Otherwise,I cant see nvidia not filling the huge gap between GT430 and GTS450 within too long.Hope for a retail version of GT440,but with GDDR5,it has 144 SP,and to me looks like the perfect physx card,but sadly not even announced
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-geforce-gt-440-oem-us.html
In Batman AA,you wont need a dedicated card,even my GTX460 was enough

 

You get very big gains in performance, which shows in Batman and Metro 2033.

I see sparkle has announced a single slot 450. Would have to see how that turns out.

 

Didnt mention metro,you might gain some in batman,but you wont need it at all,game is light compared to metro,mafia ao,thats what i meant

 

SPARKLE makes a single slot low profile GT 430 that can be had for around $65, I think that should stay out of your 480's personal space, as well as make one hell of a physX card without making much heat...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187121

 

I get very good results from a GT 430, I wouldn't be surprised if they were made in single slot version either.

Even then it probably wouldn't be too hard to mount a custom cooling solution to make it single slot.

 

Yeah, only issue is finding a card that will not increase your heat a fair amount but still offer you a decent performance increase.

I personally use this card for PhysX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133304

It offers a good amount of performance, handles all my PhysX games just fine, and doesn't need an extra 6-pin for power. That just limits how much you can overclock it, but any gain is better than none. Right now the GTS450 would be considered the sweet spot, but like stated earlier, no single slot version is available yet. That 260 card isn't gonna be a viable option either, although it's single slot, it uses 2 6-pins so it's definitely not gonna be the coolest running card, probably even hotter than the one you're using now.