Worthwhile getting a 2nd GPU to dedicate to PhysX?

tr1cky271 · 5th February 2012, 2:12 PM

Hello there, is adding a Gainward GTX 560 Ti to my existing rig to be a dedicated PhysX GPU of any real benefit? AND if so, does my PSU meet power requirements?

I'd consider buying another Gainward GTX 590 but this would mean I'd have to purchase a bigger PSU and because my current PSU has been faithful, I wish to remain loyal. Plus, it was free! Anyway, I digress.

The reason I'm considering the above mentioned:

Just over a week ago I bought my brother a Gigabyte GTX 560 for $192 from umart 8mp but under full GPU load one of the fans makes a horrible noise and it's not the screaming whirl of a fan spinning at 100%! This noise indicates a physical issue and I'm leaning towards a faulty fan ball bearing or loose sleeve causing a audible 'ticking' or vibration.

I either plan to buy an aftermarket VGA cooler fron PCCG to fix the problem, or; I buy a said mentioned GTX 560 Ti for him to use in the meantime whilst his card is getting RMA'd. Then I'll put the 560 Ti in my rig as a dedicated PhysX GPU...

Opinions welcome.

tr1cky271 · 5th February 2012, 2:17 PM

BTW I run BF3 on ULTRA with 16x AA @1080 res and I honestly get a minimum of 50fps, AVERAGING ~70FPS and maxing out @120 FPS!

It's great, runs fine and looks eye-catchingly beautiful.

Frag · 5th February 2012, 4:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tr1cky271

Hello there, is adding a Gainward GTX 560 Ti to my existing rig to be a dedicated PhysX GPU of any real benefit? AND if so, does my PSU meet power requirements?

I'd consider buying another Gainward GPU but this would mean I'd have to purchase a bigger PSU and because my current PSU has been faithful, I wish to remain loyal. Plus, it was free!

Just over a week ago I bought my brother a Gigabyte GTX 590 for $192 from umart 8mp but under full GPU load one of the fans makes a horrible noise and it's not the screaming whirl of a fan spinning at 100%! This noise indicates a physical issue and I'm leaning towards a faulty fan ball bearing or loose sleeve causing a audible 'ticking' or vibration.

I either plan to buy an aftermarket VGA cooler fron PCCG to fix the problem, or; I buy a said mentioned GTX 560 Ti for him to use in the meantime whilst his card is getting RMA'd.

Opinions welcome.

There is a bug with nvidia drivers that do make the 590 fan spin up to 100%, i think the new betas fix it.. but your issue does sound different.

Meh if you paid $192 for it, spend that $60 and get aftermarket fan who cares

Or sell it to me as is

Dave2972 · 5th February 2012, 5:27 PM

A GTX590 is rated @365Watts and the 560Ti is rated @ 170Watts for a total of 535watts. Your overclocked CPU is probably using close to 200Watts so the rest of your system does not have much head-room from an 850Watt PSU.

I have done a few experiments with a pair of GTX570s and a GTS250 in a couple of combos using Futuremark crap as a bench. A 570 + 250 PhysX is slower than a single 570 in PhysX and everything else. A 570 + 570 PhysX is slower than 2 x 570s in SLI in PhysX and everything else. A pair of 570s in SLI + a 250 as Physx is slower than SLI 570s.

I was tempted to substitute a GTX285 for the GTS250 but the 285 is a 210W card and the GTS250 I used is less than 150W. My 750Watt PSU could have been overloaded with the pair of 570s and the 285.

Is it worth it getting another card for PhysX, I seriously doubt it.

It would be great if you could Tri-SLI a 570 with your 590 but I don't think it would work. I don't think nVidia's drivers allow this, which is a bummer.

Probably the best solution would be to wait for a while and save up your brass razzoos for the next nVidia card if you need PhysX.

Flamin Joe · 5th February 2012, 6:20 PM

This is how I decided if it was worth it to go for PhysX. Take a look at this list of supported games and decide for yourself:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhysX#PhysX_in_video_games

My conclusion, not worth it. Just not enough support.

Dr Evil · 5th February 2012, 7:13 PM

Another 'Is PhysX worth it's own dedicated card?' thread..

no, it is not. experiment for yourself if you think otherwise.

Fortigurn · 6th February 2012, 4:19 PM

The repeatedly reached conclusion is that SLI is a better solution. I've just purchased a second GTX 560 Ti 2GB myself, so I will be interested to compare my before and after experiences.

tr1cky271 · 6th February 2012, 6:51 PM

Thank you all. I've ordered the Artic aftermarket VGA cooler from pccg for my brother's Gigabyte GTX 560. This will fix the noisy fan issue. Upgrading is so addictive. I've spent too much of late.

5th February 2012, 2:12 PM	#1
tr1cky271 Member Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Gold Coast Posts: 386	Worthwhile getting a 2nd GPU to dedicate to PhysX? Hello there, is adding a Gainward GTX 560 Ti to my existing rig to be a dedicated PhysX GPU of any real benefit? AND if so, does my PSU meet power requirements? I'd consider buying another Gainward GTX 590 but this would mean I'd have to purchase a bigger PSU and because my current PSU has been faithful, I wish to remain loyal. Plus, it was free! Anyway, I digress. The reason I'm considering the above mentioned: Just over a week ago I bought my brother a Gigabyte GTX 560 for $192 from umart 8mp but under full GPU load one of the fans makes a horrible noise and it's not the screaming whirl of a fan spinning at 100%! This noise indicates a physical issue and I'm leaning towards a faulty fan ball bearing or loose sleeve causing a audible 'ticking' or vibration. I either plan to buy an aftermarket VGA cooler fron PCCG to fix the problem, or; I buy a said mentioned GTX 560 Ti for him to use in the meantime whilst his card is getting RMA'd. Then I'll put the 560 Ti in my rig as a dedicated PhysX GPU... Opinions welcome. __________________ i7 3930K @4.5GHz 1.37v H100 (4x NF-F12-PWM) SABERTOOTH X79 3305 16GB RipjawsZ 2x 4GB GTX 680 DirectCU II in SLI 2x 240GB Intel 520S RAID0 (2TB WD Black & 60GB Intel 520S caching) 2x 2TB WD Black's HCP-1200 Win7 Pro 64bit 800D 3x U2711 BlackWidow Ultimate Imperator 2012 Z623 beyerdynamic MMX2 & ATH-AD700 Corporate 5000 Bigboy seat iPhone 5 64GB Telstra Prepaid Last edited by tr1cky271; 5th February 2012 at 4:55 PM.

5th February 2012, 2:17 PM	#2
tr1cky271 Member Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Gold Coast Posts: 386	BTW I run BF3 on ULTRA with 16x AA @1080 res and I honestly get a minimum of 50fps, AVERAGING ~70FPS and maxing out @120 FPS! It's great, runs fine and looks eye-catchingly beautiful. __________________ i7 3930K @4.5GHz 1.37v H100 (4x NF-F12-PWM) SABERTOOTH X79 3305 16GB RipjawsZ 2x 4GB GTX 680 DirectCU II in SLI 2x 240GB Intel 520S RAID0 (2TB WD Black & 60GB Intel 520S caching) 2x 2TB WD Black's HCP-1200 Win7 Pro 64bit 800D 3x U2711 BlackWidow Ultimate Imperator 2012 Z623 beyerdynamic MMX2 & ATH-AD700 Corporate 5000 Bigboy seat iPhone 5 64GB Telstra Prepaid

5th February 2012, 5:27 PM	#4
Dave2972 Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 1,073	A GTX590 is rated @365Watts and the 560Ti is rated @ 170Watts for a total of 535watts. Your overclocked CPU is probably using close to 200Watts so the rest of your system does not have much head-room from an 850Watt PSU. I have done a few experiments with a pair of GTX570s and a GTS250 in a couple of combos using Futuremark crap as a bench. A 570 + 250 PhysX is slower than a single 570 in PhysX and everything else. A 570 + 570 PhysX is slower than 2 x 570s in SLI in PhysX and everything else. A pair of 570s in SLI + a 250 as Physx is slower than SLI 570s. I was tempted to substitute a GTX285 for the GTS250 but the 285 is a 210W card and the GTS250 I used is less than 150W. My 750Watt PSU could have been overloaded with the pair of 570s and the 285. Is it worth it getting another card for PhysX, I seriously doubt it. It would be great if you could Tri-SLI a 570 with your 590 but I don't think it would work. I don't think nVidia's drivers allow this, which is a bummer. Probably the best solution would be to wait for a while and save up your brass razzoos for the next nVidia card if you need PhysX. __________________ FX 8350 H-100 Sabertooth 990FX 16G G-Skill Sniper DDR3-1866 2 x Gigabyte GTX 570 SLI 1x256 Samsung 830 SSD 1x500, 1x1TB SATA CPU-z

6th February 2012, 6:51 PM	#8
tr1cky271 Member Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Gold Coast Posts: 386	Thank you all. I've ordered the Artic aftermarket VGA cooler from pccg for my brother's Gigabyte GTX 560. This will fix the noisy fan issue. Upgrading is so addictive. I've spent too much of late. __________________ i7 3930K @4.5GHz 1.37v H100 (4x NF-F12-PWM) SABERTOOTH X79 3305 16GB RipjawsZ 2x 4GB GTX 680 DirectCU II in SLI 2x 240GB Intel 520S RAID0 (2TB WD Black & 60GB Intel 520S caching) 2x 2TB WD Black's HCP-1200 Win7 Pro 64bit 800D 3x U2711 BlackWidow Ultimate Imperator 2012 Z623 beyerdynamic MMX2 & ATH-AD700 Corporate 5000 Bigboy seat iPhone 5 64GB Telstra Prepaid

5th February 2012, 6:20 PM	#5
Flamin Joe Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Brisbane Posts: 2,391	This is how I decided if it was worth it to go for PhysX. Take a look at this list of supported games and decide for yourself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhysX#PhysX_in_video_games My conclusion, not worth it. Just not enough support.

6th February 2012, 4:19 PM	#7
Fortigurn Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: taipei.tw Posts: 11,959	The repeatedly reached conclusion is that SLI is a better solution. I've just purchased a second GTX 560 Ti 2GB myself, so I will be interested to compare my before and after experiences.