Nvidia GTX280/260 and 9800GTX/+ 177.39 Beta Driver with PhysX-Support

[Sr7]

If you just want a card to run PhysX you can get the Asus PhysX P1 card. It's designed to just do that =)

Slower than the GPU.

[allig4t0r]

ehh.. with 175.16 i haven't got support for physx, but 177.35 wont ever starting installation w/out modded inf .. ^^' (have 9800GTX)

[Luka_Aveiro]

ehh.. with 175.16 i haven't got support for physx, but 177.35 wont ever starting installation w/out modded inf .. ^^' (have 9800GTX)

Only 177.xx have the CUDA dll file, that's why PhysX doesn't work with those

[allig4t0r]

Only 177.xx have the CUDA dll file, that's why PhysX doesn't work with those

But i cannot figure out why the hell 177.35 drivers don't see my g92 o_O

[STaRGaZeR]

So there goes the nay-sayers who thought it would absolutely kill frame-rates currently.

In GPU bound scenarios you'll always see FPS decrease. Always. "Problem" is, currently those UT3 PhysX enabled maps are not GPU bound but CPU bound due to physics. Again, someone please test Cellfactor with all the eye candy turned on and you'll see what a GPU doing rendering+physics is capable of.

[takamishanoku]

But i cannot figure out why the hell 177.35 drivers don't see my g92 o_O

What they won't install? What inf are u using?

[allig4t0r]

What they won't install? What inf are u using?

177.35_geforce_winvista_32bit_international_whql from official nv download site without any different inf's (but almost now whql? smthing seems not to be true with this installer )

177.39 driver has finally installed now (but why xxx.35..? i don't know )

[adamsleath]

wot about gtx280 in 16x and 8800gt in 4x for physx on my p35

i'm serious

it should work, but maybe it wont

i had to change the .inf for 177.39 to install for my gt.

[takamishanoku]

I found 177.39 to be better. I had BIG drops in GOW with it.

[DilTech]

In GPU bound scenarios you'll always see FPS decrease. Always. "Problem" is, currently those UT3 PhysX enabled maps are not GPU bound but CPU bound due to physics. Again, someone please test Cellfactor with all the eye candy turned on and you'll see what a GPU doing rendering+physics is capable of.

Cellfactor definitely isn't gpu bound. I can fire up cellfactor and temps on my gpu only raise by like 3-5ºC above idle. It's so far CPU bound that it's just crazy(even at 1920x1080 with AA/AF), and that's on the maps that don't require a PPU... There's no way the frame-rate will drop with GPU physics on, if anything they'll triple to quadruple.

I don't think it currently supports gpu physics though, I'd test myself, but I'm still rockin out my 8800GTX. I'd imagine if done the same way it was done to make things work properly with UT3 though, it could likely be done and working with cell-factor as well.

As for how the frame-rate will be effected by using GPU physics when gpu bound, we'll probably see minimum rates increase and maximum rates decrease.

[Luka_Aveiro]

Did some quick tests

PhysX OFF

Physx ON

Stock clocks 8800GT, the games runs ok with Physx on, hope more games are supported

STaRGaZeR, in order to UT3 physx work through GPU, users have to substitute the physxcore.dll file from UT3 binaries directory with a similar one from v2.7.3 directory of Ageia Technolgies.

Do you know what file we should replace in order to have PhysX Hardware acceleration in Cellfactor? I'll install the game right now.

[STaRGaZeR]

Cellfactor without cloth and fluid effects (the flag in the top of the station and the fluid in the barrels) runs perfectly fine, 45FPS with slowdows during heavy combat in my modest 3870, because it's capped at that. You even have some unused GPU to do more work at times. If you enable the effects it turns into a freaking heavy physics test. Point is, without them it's a GPU bound game. With them, it's completely PhysX bound, it's not correct to say it's CPU bound because you're running something designed to run in hardware mode through software mode. Put them together and show me the power of the GPU doing rendering+real and complete PhysX effects. There are zero possibilities you'll see any gains.

I love Cellfactor and its complete PhysX set, but you need a dedicated GPU or PhysX card to run it smooth. And spending my money in another card just for a few games (1 or 2 with all the PhysX eye candy, that are techdemos?)... no. Put that engine in real games like Assassin's Creed, COD4, GRID, etc. and I'll buy 2 cheap cards if necessary

EDIT: Luka I'm going to reinstall it now, but PhysXcore.dll should be in the game directory. Download Cellfactor Combat Training, not Cellfactor Revolution (total POS). In orther to run it without an Ageia card you have to add "EnablePhysX=false" to the game executable, I don't know if you will be able to run it without this. This is only to bypass the PhysX card detection, it doesn't disable anything in game. Also in the direct access you can also configure resolution and shadows, turn everything on. The real deal is once you're in the game menu, for no PhysX card untick "Enable Cloth Effects", otherwise the PhysX engine will run in the CPU and you'll see a complete slowdown.

[Luka_Aveiro]

EDIT: Luka I'm going to reinstall it now, but PhysXcore.dll should be in the game directory. Download Cellfactor Combat Training, not Cellfactor Revolution (total POS). In orther to run it without an Ageia card you have to add "EnablePhysX=false" to the game executable, I don't know if you will be able to run it without this. In the direct access you can also configure resolution and shadows, turn everything on. The real deal is once you're in the game menu, for no PhysX card untick "Enable Cloth Effects", otherwise the PhysX engine will run in the CPU and you'll see a complete slowdown.

i couldn't find any Physxcore.dll, only Physxloader.dll /system directory.

I downloaded cell factor revolution...

[STaRGaZeR]

True, there is only a PhysXLoader.dll in there. So I assume you guys with NV cards can't run it?

[Luka_Aveiro]

True, there is only a PhysXLoader.dll in there. So I assume you guys with NV cards can't run it?

Well, i couldn't run it yet, it asks me to install netframework 2.0, but I can't do that because i'm on a x64 OS.

[STaRGaZeR]

Runs fine with Vista64, I've reinstalled it right now. Just install, add "EnablePhysX=false", untick "Enable Cloth Effects" in the game menu and enjoy. Amazing engine to say the least.

[Luka_Aveiro]

Runs fine with Vista64, I've reinstalled it right now. Just install, add "EnablePhysX=false", untick "Enable Cloth Effects" in the game menu and enjoy. Amazing engine to say the least.

I couldn't get it to work, i've tried to install netframework for vista x64 but it still asks me about a damn scriptingsystem.dll and netframework 2.0 install...

It says netframework.64 is allready part of the OS...

[AbelJemka]

Those still bringing up havok, PhysX has one huge advantage over it. You see, it costs money to license the havok engine
Havok is also free...
http://www.havok.com/content/view/582/53/

(thus, why we haven't seen it used by anyone recently that wasn't on the source engine, and there's only maybe one title coming that does use it)
Assasin Creed, Bioshock, World in confict use Havok...

You guys can keep saying this "if 100% of the market" spiel, but that really isn't how things work. 100% of the market would mean games are playable on old williamettes with TNT2 Ultra's. We know UBISoft has no problem leaving people out, with splinter cell: chaos theory they didn't even add a SM2 path for the x800's for almost 6 months after release while the 6800's had the SM3 path! Besides, using the novadex api doesn't mean leaving anyone out, as it still works on cpu's just fine, and is very well multi-threaded to boot. Especially considering if havok ends up working on ati cards but not nvidia cards, that would be leaving out a much larger section of the market, which these same people claim developers wouldn't do.
Havok alienate what? Basically Havok works on cpu and the cooeperation between AMD and Havok is for using Havok with GPU AND CPU.
http://www.havok.com/content/view/639/53/

[Luka_Aveiro]

The thing is GPU physics power obliterates CPU physics power...

Anyway, I think trying to make elder games work with PhysX on GPU is a waste of time, if the support comes, i'll be happy if it doesn't i'll just wait for the future ones that do.

Time to go destroy some walls

[STaRGaZeR]

I couldn't get it to work, i've tried to install netframework for vista x64 but it still asks me about a damn scriptingsystem.dll and netframework 2.0 install...

It says netframework.64 is allready part of the OS...

, it's indeed a part of the OS.

[Luka_Aveiro]

, it's indeed a part of the OS.

Anyway, I don't think we, as end-users, will be able to make PhysX run on GPU with games like CellFactor, either nVidia or the Original dev would be able to do that, I guess...

[STaRGaZeR]

Cellfactor was the techdemo of reference when Ageia launched PhysX. It would be an stupidity not to do it, so far CF is the only game that uses the PhysX engine in all its glory AFAIK.

[Luka_Aveiro]

Cellfactor was the techdemo of reference when Ageia launched PhysX. It would be an stupidity not to do it, so far CF is the only game that uses the PhysX engine in all its glory AFAIK.

Let's hope nVidia gives you a listen

I keeping my expectations low, if the PhysX GPU support comes I'll be happy, if it doesn't, lowered expectations mean less pain

(it just came to my mind the "Lowered Expectations" jingle from MadTV )

[STaRGaZeR]

If you want to be go here: http://www.cellfactorgame.com/cfct.html and download the real-time video (400MB). If NVIDIA has the power to do that at high FPS with only one card, or with one super low end card + normal one, then I'll say all this PhysX thing is worth the effort

[AbelJemka]

The thing is GPU physics power obliterates CPU physics power...

To prove...