Overall the GT 430 matches up well and does allow you to enable Physx in Physx titles when playing with an AMD graphics card. There is a pretty big performance hit compared to having Physx disabled but in all cases frame rates were still playable. There is a pretty substantial upgrade when comparing Physx On with the GT 430 added, it made the difference of being playable or not. The GTX 460 does show it’s extra power compared to the GT 430, you will get a few extra FPS using the GTX 460, I noticed between 2-5 FPS increase in most games tested after “upgrading” to the GTX 460. It is also worth noting that the EVGA GTX 460 1GB FTW edition is heavily overclocked out of the box, I ran this card at the factory defaults of 850/1000 which may account for the additional FPS scored, as well as some of the additional power usage. I can only guess, but I would think using a stock clock speed GTX 460 would result in slightly low FPS and slightly lower power draw. There is potential that the FPS performance of a stock clocked GTX 460 could be identical to the GT 430, however the power usage will always be lower on the GT 430. Remember the stock speeds for a GTX 460 is 675/900 and the GT 430 I used is 700/800 which the GTX 460 I used is 850/1000.
With all things considering I think the GT 430 is a very good solution if you must have Physx support with a AMD card. The results are playable frame rates with Physx enabled, something AMD can’t do on its own. If you decide to go with a higher GPU like the GTX 460 you may get some extra performance, it is a very small 2-5fps but there is some performance increase. It is difficult to say if this is due to the extra clock speeds, 256-bit memory bus (compared to 128-bit GT 430), or the extra CUDA cores (336 vs 96). The bottom line is that I cannot justify the cost of a GTX 460 when you consider the minimal increase in performance compared to the GT 430, especially if you value power consumption and case temperatures. The GTX 460 will most certainly require extra power and generate extra heat, this costs you extra money on your electrical bill. The GT 430 is also available in a large variety of single card solutions, the GTX 460 does have some single slot designs but they are expensive and add extra heat due to a poorer cooling solution.
1.05ff – 26/10/2011:
- added support for fixing new limitations introduced in 285.xx drivers and PhysX System Software 9.11.0621
- mod will now delete all application 3D settings profiles from NVIDIA Control Panel (prevents problems with known PhysX games)
- updated old patterns
* INSTALLATION STEPS (Windows 7):
1. Install the needed GeForce driver 256 package. Update PhysX SS (only 9.10.0223 or later) if needed.
2. Use the mod to patch all needed files and registry values automatically.
3. [optional] Use command line files to set a desired configuration.
* INSTALLATION STEPS (Windows XP/2003):
1. Install the needed GeForce driver 256 package. Update PhysX SS (only 9.10.0223 or later) if needed.
2. Use the mod to patch all needed files and registry values automatically.
3. Extend the display assigned to NVIDIA GPU. Or make sure it is extended already.
4. [optional] Use command line files to set a desired configuration.
* NOTES:
1. If you update PhysX System Software after using the mod, you should use it again to patch the updated PhysX files.
2. It is safe to use the mod several times – all needed files will be patched only once.
3. If you still have problems with fake displays and desktop extension, try to delete a fake display and create it again.
4. To let the mod correctly patch all needed files on x64 versions of Windows XP/2003, install KB942589 hotfix first.
YouTube user sir0wnsalot has made a very nice video showing off the Torque 3D PhysX demo on his system running a Hyrbid PhysX setup. Sirownsalot uses an ATI Radeon 5850 as his main graphics renderer and an Nvidia 8400GS as a dedicated PhysX card to offload the PhysX calculations. Check out the video below. For more information about the Torque 3D engine that uses the PhysX SDK to add PhysX into the development of games check out the Torque 3D website here.
NVIDIA has updated the PhysX fluid Demo to 1.0.1.3. The demo is basically a demo to show off PhysX based water or the more technical term, Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH). This is a great little program( less than 20MB) that can be used to quickly test out a new PhysX setup such as a dedicated PhysX card or a Hybrid ATI and NVIDIA PhysX setup. Using a simple toggle you can easily switch between Hardware(GPU) and Software(CPU) PhysX to not only to see if your dedicated PhysX card is working but to also see how a GPU helps improves PhysX performance. When I am installing a new PhysX setup I always install this program along with PhysX FluidMark to make sure everything is up and running properly.
You can download the demo here from the NVIDIA Power Pack page and in the event that it is not working PhysXinfo.com always has the latest PhysX Files. You can download it here.
From NVIDIA:
Fluids: Technology Demo
The primary purpose of the NVIDIA® PhysX™ technology Fluid Demo is to illustrate Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH). The demo contains two different scenes, the Outdoor and the Logo Scene.
Outdoor Scene
This scene showcases SPH fluid flooding an outdoor area. As soon as the demo is started, a flood occurs and interacts with a stack of rigid bodies. Switch from dark water to clear water, to oil, or just show the real nature of fluids: spheres.
New Updates to 1.0.1.3:
Updates in this release:
1. Allocate only 64MB of VRAM heap instead of 128MB
2. Adjusted text output to not conflict with the PhysX Visual Indicator
3. Added option to toggle the display of all text (in screen space) on/off.
If you have never seen this demo before the below video from NVIDIA shows the demo in action.
Ever since we saw the Glowball PhysX demo and the Floating Castle Physics Demo running on Tegra 3 powered tablets we have been pretty excited about physics on Tegra powered devices. Back in November NVIDIA announced the released of their new Quad-Core mobile Tegra 3 chip that uses “four CPU cores and its new GeForceRead More
I know that Batman Arkham City has been out for awhile now and this is old news but as I have been extremely busy with work and finishing up school I never got a chance to post these. These are some cool Batman Arkham City PhysX comparison on/off videos from both EVGA and YouTube userRead More
Krishna Kumar – YouTube user krishx007 who runs gfxguru.net has made a pretty cool physics/PhysX demo level with Unity 3D called Physics Wonderland. The level is basically a huge playground with PhysX objects that you can destroy and play around with to show off the different PhysX features in Unity 3D. Check it out belowRead More
The Game Developers Conference 2012 is going to have a session that really interests us. The “Physics for Games Programmers” session/tutorial is going to cover the “tools and techniques developers should know when implementing physics in their games.” According to the information on the GDC 2012 site, the session will take place on Tuesday, MarchRead More
With all of the excitement about rumored hardware being used in the next-generation consoles, some very disappointing news has come today. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sony has no plans to unveil the Sony Playstation 4 at this years E3 and is going to stick with the 10-year life cycle plan. If thisRead More
Here are some cool physics videos that have been uploaded to YouTube over the past week. Cryengine 3 Tornado Physics by club4ghz UDK – Destructible objects and Physics! by Shotbix07 Ice Engine Destruction Test by LordOfTheBytes
I came across a few cool Havok physics videos on YouTube. YouTube user kosteckip has made a pretty cool Castle Siege type demo using PhysX and Havok physics with physics based water, cloth, and destruction. Meanwhile, the official Havok Physics YouTube channel has uploaded a series of Havok Simulation videos and one interesting video showsRead More
Maximum PC has a nice article up about the top game engines being used to create today’s games. Along with the engines they also pointed out the top Middleware being used and PhysX and Havok were listed as the top physics Middleware. Check out the entire article here. From Gamers, Start Your Engines! 6 TopRead More
Phymec is making some cool physics tools for Bullet Physics and Blender to enable some awsome fracture and destruction effects. Two awesome videos showing this off have been uploaded to YouTube. The first shows off the creation of the fracture objects in Blender and the newer video is an awesome collection of fracture objects beingRead More
An interesting rumor has surfaced this past week that Microsoft is developing two next-gen Xbox 720 consoles. According to the rumor on TECHSPOT, Microsoft “is said to be developing an entry-level system as well as a true next-generation hardcore gaming console.” What is important to us for the future of physics is the reports thatRead More
I posted about this awesome level several months ago – Some Cool NVIDIA APEX Physics Tests Done with the UDK now mfsksa, who is the creator of this level, has given me the UDK files required to play the Apex PhysX test level he made. I made a cool video showing it off some moreRead More
Ever since we posted the Battlefield 3 Physics and Destruction Videos with the BF3 destruction video showing the Antenna in Caspian Border coming down we have been wondering how to do this or when it would be allowed through a patch. Today we have learned through an awesome YouTube Video that the main Antenna canRead More
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