UT3 & Physx maps [Archive] - Overclockers Forums

Puer Aeternus

05-14-10, 10:20 PM

Its been a while since I tried the Physx maps for UT3, last time was on my 8800gt and a e4400 proc...very poor performance. I figured at last I can finally play the maps w/ my new set up. Not so....tried all 3 physx maps and my FPS was the same as if I was running my old 8800. What gives? My frames were as low as 5fps in parts.
Is this common? Are they intended for an Aegia card? Something buggy about the maps?

>HyperlogiK<

05-15-10, 01:46 AM

The maps are intended for a machine with a physics card, it could be an Ageia or almost any of the Nvidia cards from the 8800 series onwards. In the case of your 8800GT the card was probably powerful enough for either UT3 at decent gfx settings OR accelerating PhysX, but it likely didn't have the grunt to do both [though you may not have enabled PhysX acceleration in the driver settings in the first place].

There isn't really any reason why a 4Ghz i7 shouldn't be able to run those maps in software [the FP performance of the i7s is almost in the same ballpark as some of the 8800 series] but the software implementations of PhysX tend to be crippled to make people go out and buy NV [or previously Ageia] hardware.

If you still have the old 8800GT you could add it to your system as a dedicated PhysX card, Nvidia try to prevent this with their drivers but there is a hack to re-enable it.

Puer Aeternus

05-15-10, 05:00 AM

I do have my 8800gt but the question is...how do you get a Nvidia card to work w/ an ATI card w/ out a Lucid Hydra chip on your Mother Board?
. Ive posted this before and I know a few people have managed to get both cards working but if it was easy or gave solid performance we would see more people doing it. The Lucid Hydra is the only solid option I know of at present and even then it needs some ironing out.

Mpegger

05-15-10, 05:26 AM

Lucid Hydra is supposed to be a means of getting two or more video cards working in tandem to render one scene, like SLI/Crossfire does, but without the need for both (or more) video cards to be exactly the same model, or even the same brand.

What you're looking to do is use the 8800GT as a dedicated PhysX card, which does not help in the rendering of the onscreen image, it just helps in processing the physics for the game. There is no need for SLI or Crossfire support in this manner.

Do a Google search, as there are numerous forums posts and how-to's on getting PhysX with a ATI+Nvidia card working.

Puer Aeternus

05-15-10, 05:42 AM

Well I certainly dont want to use 2 cards just for a ut3 physx map...it just seemed odd that my current set could not handle the (older) map and my frames were all over the place...as high as 60 as low as 5. Seemed like something was fishy w/ the map and I was wondering how other people fared.
But yes..i'd love to make use of my 8800gt and Ive looked for solutions before but nothing that seemed sure fire. I'll look again unless someone here has done it?

Puer Aeternus

05-15-10, 08:07 AM

I found instructions on how to run an ATI card w/ an Nvidia for Physx.....I tried it and it does not work for me ATM.
You can read about it here (http://physxinfo.com/news/942/hybrid-physx-mod-1-02-195-xx-drivers-and-win-xp-support/)

Puer Aeternus

05-15-10, 08:45 AM

I got it working...
Use the 197.xx nvidia drivers and then the 103 physx mod. Reboot...load up your nvidia control panel and turn on Physx!

Mpegger

05-15-10, 09:17 AM

Whats your FPS now?

Puer Aeternus

05-15-10, 10:15 AM

60 fps on Tornado as opposed to 5 fps before. However, I am still testing the card to see how it works in other games. unfortunately cell factor does not work, says I need a physX card...which I in theory now have.
Ive made a thread about how to do this here (http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=643553)

>HyperlogiK<

05-15-10, 10:48 AM

A few of the early PhysX games don't support Nvidia hardware and I think Cell Factor might be one of those. There are a bunch of newer [and much better] titles with some degree of PhysX though: Batman Arkham Asylum, Mirror's Edge and Metro 2033 are a few examples.

Puer Aeternus

05-15-10, 11:03 AM

that makes sense. I was worried that perhaps my card was not working after all. Unfortunately ive no other physX titles so I am questioning the value of the extra card...but for bragging rights, I'm stoked!

>HyperlogiK<

05-15-10, 12:03 PM

With how the prices of 8xxx series hardware has dropped it might be worth keeping even if it is only of occasional use.

Douken

05-15-10, 11:59 PM

Puer Aeternus

05-16-10, 12:20 AM

Ive gotten an extra 100 points on the Heaven benchmark, 1000 extra marks on 3dmark06, no noticeable diff in Metro 2033 (dx11), crysis, my 2 most demanding games. I think when Lucid Hydra matures it will be a better solution for mixing Nvidia/ati cards.

Douken

05-16-10, 02:48 AM

Whoa, I was going to play UT3 to test those maps out but an Earthquake (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2010wian.php) of 5.8 came in. 1st time I experience a tremor, it was kinda crazy, good thing nothing bad happened. So I'm gonna test that tomorrow because I'm really tired by now.

>HyperlogiK<

05-16-10, 03:54 AM

wow that's really nice, I still run on the 8800GT, gonna test that map and see how it runs. Last time I remember it didn't reach 20fps

Keep in mind that he isn't just running a single 8800GT, he is running a 5870 for gfx and an 8800GT purely for PhysX. These maps will murder a single 8800GT because it would have to do GFX AND PhysX and it only really has enough horsepower for either.

As far as Hydra goes I doubt that it will ever be well enough optimized to handle two cards that are SO different as yours [different GFX API, massively different spec] in any efficient way, also you would lose PhysX support.

Though I'm not convinced that either will take off I'd sooner gamble on accelerated PhysX becoming mainstream than on Hydra becoming good enough to effectively mix cards like those.