nVIDIA PhysX discussion thread
This thread will hopefully serve the purpose of all PhysX related discussions, questions and answers, without further ado, lets get started.
Frequently Asked Questions:
1. What is PhysX?
Answer: PhysX is a proprietary realtime physics engine middleware SDK developed by Aegia which was later acquired by nVIDIA, it is used for accurate physics simulations in video games, such as rigid body dynamics, soft body dynamics, ragdolls and character controllers, vehicle dynamics, volumetric fluid simulation and cloth simulation including tearing and pressurized cloth, which brings life and depth into video games and enhances gameplay experience.
Middleware physics engines allow game developers to avoid writing their own code to handle the complex physics interactions possible in modern games, and the PhysX SDK is provided to developers of all platforms for free, both for commercial and non-commercial use.
2. Does my computer and the operating system on it and/or my console support PhysX?
Answer: The PhysX engine and SDK are available for Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS X, Linux (not GPU accelerated), Wii, PlayStation 3& Xbox 360.
3. What is PhysX acceleration?
Answer: Video games supporting hardware acceleration by PhysX can be accelerated by either a PhysX PPU or a CUDA enabled GeForce GPU (if it has at least 32 CUDA cores), thus offloading physics calculations from the CPU, allowing it to perform other tasks instead. This typically results in a smoother gaming experience and additional visual effects.
4. How do I know what type of PhysX acceleration/capability my computer is capable of?
Answer: If it's equipped with Any CUDA-ready GeForce graphics card, as of series 8 and newer, with a minimum of 32 cores and 256MB of video memory can take advantage of PhysX without the need to install a dedicated PhysX card.
5. What is dedicated PhysX?
Answer: Previously, under Aegia's development, Physics Processing Unit or PPUs for short, were basically processors that were capable of calculations involving Physics and off loading the work of calculating physics from the CPU, enabling the CPU to complete other tasks. After nVIDIA acquired Aegia, they left the PPU route and integrated the ability of the physics calculation to the GPGPU capabilities of the modern days GPUs and officially dropped support for the earlier dedicated physics calculation processor aka PPU from the version 2.8.3 of the PhysX SDK and has been providing hardware accelerated physics calculation support since the release of the 8 series nVIDIA line up of graphics cards consisting of 32 CUDA cores, in short, nVIDIA hardware capable of calculating and doing the physics calculation which is dependent on the PhysX SDK can be called a dedicated PhysX unit.
6. What is Hybrid PhysX?
Answer: Since the 186 version of nVIDIA ForceWare, PhysX acceleration is disabled if a GPU from a different manufacturerer other than nVIDIA is present in the system. This decision led the communities to come up with a workaround to bypass this security measures put by nVIDIA within their drivers, is called Hybrid PhysX. In simple words, using an nVIDIA GPU to provide it's hardware PhysX calculation capabilities while another GPU from a different manufacturer is present within the system and used as the primary graphics adapter, is called Hybrid PhysX. (Note: as long as the nVIDIA card is used as the primary graphics adapter, PhysX acceleration through hardware will be available despite the presence of a GPU from a different manufacturer)
7. What're the minimum requirements for Hybrid PhysX?
Answer: Hybrid PhysX is supported on Microsoft Windows XP and on Windows 7, but is not supported by Windows Vista due to the WDDM limitation that doesn't permit vista to work with two seperate GPU drivers, and from hardware's perspective, A motherboard capable of accommodating two individual graphics cards at the same time (meaning you'll need atleast two PCI Express X16/X8 or X4 slots) a nVIDIA PhysX capable GPU and any AMD GPU of your choice, and of course, a capable power supply unit which would be able to power the system.
8. What're the benefits of Hybrid PhysX?
Answer: As the current market for GPU is very competitive, and a large number of high end and mid range GPU consumers being gamers, the industries' giants, nVIDIA and AMD offer different business strategies. PhysX hardware acceleration is exclusive to nVIDIA's line up of GPU starting from the 8 series, whereas the AMD GPU is not capable of producing hardware accelerated PhysX effects. Thus, in PhysX supported games, computers equipped with just AMD GPUs are unable to provide the special effects that nVIDIA has to offer, or even if these effects are enabled on an AMD GPU, the overall performance of the particular PhysX supported game title suffers, because me the extra workload is left to handle by the CPU, hindering the gameplay experience. But with the help of Hybrid PhysX, gamers can enable and accelerate the PhysX calculations and enjoy the special effects with ease, with the help of a nVIDIA GPU which supports hardware PhysX, being present in the system along with the Hybrid PhysX workaround installed.
9. Will there be any gains if I use a cheaper nVIDIA graphics card along with my primary high end/mid range graphics card?
Answer: The gains are subjects to certain variables, PhysX effects are indeed intensive calculations, if another hardware PhysX capable GPU/PPU is used to alleviate the workload of the primary GPU, there should be overall performance gains with the PhysX effects enabled, in comparison with the Primary GPU doing all the graphical calculation and PhysX. For example, a GTX 260 would be benefited with the presence of a 9800GT/9600GT card present and doing the PhysX calculations in PhysX supported game titles, and if you have two GTX 260s then simply using the two as SLI would benefit the most as both the GPUs are doing all the graphical and PhysX calculation.
10. Will the use of a secondary nVIDIA graphics card for PhysX (not SLI) improve my overall gaming experience/performance?
Answer: No, the use of a secondary nVIDIA GPU present in the system will not increase the overall gaming performance, but it'll certainly benefit/improve performance for applications and game titles that takes advantage of CUDA and PhysX.
**This FAQ is written with the help of Wikipedia and my own understanding of the matter, if you find information provided here which are inaccurate, do not hesitate to point out and I'll correct the FAQ asap, also suggestions on improving this FAQ are most welcomed.
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Originally Posted by Z!mM3r
Good enough GAMING RIG
