PhysX: For those with NVidia 8 series cards or later

[crenn]

It only works in some games/benchmarks, so it's limited for now.
I've tested this on UT3 and I went from an avg of about 6FPS after a several minutes to around 19FPS avg. I played an entire map.

Ok, this is how you do it:
Download the latest PhysX (this is a leak) from here:
http://en.expreview.com/2008/08/05/driver-updatenvidia-physx-80718-driver/
Also most of you will need to install the latest beta drivers, pick your OS:
Windows XP 32-bit (http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_177.79_beta.html)
Windows XP 64-bit (http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp64_177.79_beta.html)
Windows Vista 32-bit (http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x86_177.79_beta.html)
Windows Vista 64-bit (http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x64_177.79_beta.html)

Ok, just check the PhysX settings panel to make sure Phys is enabled:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y81/crenn/GPU_PhysX.png

If you have UT3 and want to use PhysX, there is a couple of steps you need to follow:

To get the best experience with UT3 take the following steps to reach your goal.

1. Install full version of UT3
2. Install UT3 Official patch ver 1.2
3. Install Nvidia 177.39 drivers
4. Uninstall AGEIA PhysX that installs with the game
5. install new Nvidia PhysX 8.07.18 drivers
6. Install PhysX UT3 Modpack
7. Copy PhysXCore.dll from C:\Program Files\AGEIA Technologies\v2.7.3 to
the binaries folder of your UT3 install folder and overwrite the older file
8. Run UT3 and enable Hardware Physics in the video settings
9. Turn off framerate smoothing in Advanced Video settings
10. Run one of the Physics mods
Above quote can be found:
http://www.ngohq.com/news/14411-nvidia-physx-beta-driver-gt200-g92-g96-cards-leaked-2.html

[.Maleficus.]

Cool! Awesome news Crenn, +rep from me. I'll have to keep this in mind for when my new hardware/Vista get here and I can actually use UT3.

[nevermind1534]

I did this last night, after seeing it, and it actually worked on my 8800GT.

[The boy 4rm oz]

I will try it with a round of UT3 on my 8800GTX.

[nevermind1534]

I don't think I have any Physx games to test it on.

[Luke122]

I'm not up on this.. what does PhysX actually do for you?

[nevermind1534]

It's physics acceleration, like havock, but until now, it required an addon card. It takes some load off of the GPU, giving you better graphics.

[crenn]

I don't think I have any Physx games to test it on.
Warmonger is free.

[The boy 4rm oz]

I just remembered. I have warmonger. I will try that later on.

[nevermind1534]

I hope Warmonger will run on my P4.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Geeze ^reported

[nevermind1534]

Was there another spam post?

[The boy 4rm oz]

Yeah there was.

[TheGreatSatan]

Will it make any difference on regular games? Will it give me a better score on Aquamark/3DMark, etc.

[nevermind1534]

It will only improve preformance in physx games with physx support. It's the same thing for benchmarking software.

[TheGreatSatan]

Ok, just check the PhysX settings panel to make sure Phys is enabled:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y81/crenn/GPU_PhysX.png


How do you get to this screen?

[nevermind1534]

once physx is installed, go to NVIDIA Physx in the control panel, or start>all programs>NVIDIA Corporation>NVIDIA Physx

[The boy 4rm oz]

You won't get a dramatic score increase in 3DMark any more. People comp.lained that ist was unfair so they limited the point value.

[crenn]

PHYSX IS HERE!


http://www.nvidia.com/content/forcewithin/us/download.asp

[The boy 4rm oz]

Oh your good. Saw this over at Tech Power Up about an hour ago when I woke up. Already downloading. Only getting the driver however, I already have Warmonger and the other stuff doesn't interest me.

[crenn]

Because I'm at uni and there isn't a set download limit.... I downloaded it all including all driver revisions for each OS. One thing I find strange is they put the GPU driver and the PhysX driver together. I wonder if they'll separate it at a later date for those with ATi cards but the original AGEIA PhysX card.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Just had lunch. Time to install.

[.Maleficus.]

I got XP up and running on Shark again just to try this out. I have UT3 waiting for me go install but I downloaded Warmonger with the driver. The video decoder seemed pretty cool so I got the installer for that too but I haven't trried it yet. Warmonger is pretty fun for a free game, but TBH it bored me a little. It just seemed to UT like and since I have UT3 I'll play that instead. Other than that it was a good 950MB download (which thankfully took only 30 min).

[The boy 4rm oz]

I have to say Warmonger hates my PC. I load it up and it moves like 1 frame every 10 secs, with all the settings down, EVEN at the menu. I don't think it likes the Quad Core.

[TheGreatSatan]

Downloaded it. Kind of afraid to install it.

[.Maleficus.]

I have to say Warmonger hates my PC. I load it up and it moves like 1 frame every 10 secs, with all the settings down, EVEN at the menu. I don't think it likes the Quad Core.
That's weird, I have everything maxed out and it's 100% smooth.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Hmm I dunno. It did it before I installed the drivers also when I first got the game. Maybe I should try to find a patch for the game or download a new client.

[.Maleficus.]

So, I installed Badaboom, the video decoder that was available for download. I have to say, it looked pretty cool. It has built in "profiles" for iPhones, iPod Touches, iPod Classics/Nanos, Apple TV, Xbox 360s and PS3s. I don't have any videos on want on my Zune or iPhone so I didn't test it out but it seems basic enough that a computer illiterate user would be fine, yet has enough Advanced options available to statisfy a power-user.

[nevermind1534]

Did you enable hardware physx acceleration in warmonger?

[The boy 4rm oz]

I couldn't find the option. I may need to get the new client. The 1 I have was from the start of the year.

[TheGreatSatan]

I installed it, but it wouldn't let me play the demos. I updated the latest and greatest DX 9.0c and it works! Demos don't impress me though.

[crenn]

Good and bad news.

Good news: There is a new PhysX driver available on the Nvidia website, click here:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx_8.08.18_whql.html

Bad news: Remember how someone was apparently was making a ATi port for PhysX? It's got lots of red tape around it currently.... it's possible it may never get released.

[The boy 4rm oz]

I saw a review this moring where an HD3850 ATI card was used as the main GPU with a Nvidia 9600GT used as a second system card. The 9600GT took up the role of physics calculations while the HD3850 displayed the pic. Quite an interesting read.
Here is the link:
http://www.techpowerup.com/69792/Radeon_and_GeForce_Share_Work_PhysX_Applications_W in.html

[crenn]

As the 2nd comment points out, you can't do that in Vista.

[The boy 4rm oz]

For now you can't. It's something to try for those still using XP though. Crossfire with an Nvidia GPU for Physics mmmmmmmm.

[The boy 4rm oz]

New driver update out.
http://www.techpowerup.com/71511/NVIDIA_PhysX_System_Software_Version_8.09.04_Relea sed.html

[Crazy Buddhist]

It's physics acceleration, like havock, but until now, it required an addon card. It takes some load off of the GPU, giving you better graphics.

That's not quite right. It uses the parallel processing of the GPU to take load off the CPU by using the GPU stream processors to calculate the Physics of the game environment - and thus speed up whole system performance.

From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhysX):


PhysX is a proprietary (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprietary_software) realtime (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realtime) physics engine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics_engine) middleware (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middleware) SDK (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_development_kit) developed by NVIDIA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NVIDIA) (originally by Ageia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ageia), formerly known as the NovodeX SDK). PhysX can also refer to a PPU (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics_processing_unit) add-in card (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Add-in_card) designed by Ageia to accelerate PhysX-enabled video games (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game). Video games supporting hardware acceleration (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_acceleration) by PhysX can be accelerated by either a PhysX PPU or a CUDA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUDA)-enabled GeForce (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce) GPU (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_processing_unit), thus offloading physics calculations from the CPU (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_processing_unit) allowing it to perform other tasks faster, and as such, the whole system can provide a higher framerate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framerate), resulting in a smoother gaming experience.

The problem now for AMD is that Havok was their PhysX partner and Intel killed that, now Nvidia look like they are killing ATI access to the PhysX engine.

This looks very much like a stitch up between Nvidia and Intel against AMD such that only an Intel/Nvidia combo will be able to play games with the best software enhancement. See this post (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showpost.php?p=192701&postcount=36) for more background.

CrazyB

[nevermind1534]

I think I meant to say that it takes load off of the CPU.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Nvidia and Intel killing ATI??? Meh it was bound to happen eventually.