Archive for the ‘Benchmark’ tag
EVGA GTX 275 CO-OP PhysX Edition: Reviews roundup
EVGA GTX 275 CO-OP PhysX – unique dual card with GTX 275 (G200) and GTS 250 (G92) GPUs – combined on one PCB. While GTX 275 is doing graphics work, GTS 250 is dedicated solely for PhysX. Several benchmarking articles were published on the web today:
EVGA GeForce GTX 275 CO-OP PhysX Edition: Physics Onboard by Xbit Labs
Includes package and PCB design overview, power consumption, noise level and GPU temperature measurements, lots of tests with GPU PhysX (Dark Void, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Darkest of Days) and non-PhysX (Crysis Warhead, Fallout 3, etc) games.
Update: recently, this article was expanded – few new GPUs and Hybrid PhysX system (ATI HD 5850 + NV GT220) added to tests.
Hybrid PhysX Test: by Fudzilla
Hybrid PhysX related article with provoking title “Nvidia helps the HD 5870 beat the GTX285 in PhysX” can be found at Fudzilla today.
Article itself is nothing particularly special, from our opinion – only one dedicated PhysX GPU was tested, old 1.01 PhysX mod (while 1.02 is available for several months) and old installation guide (while much more detailed can be found easily) were used – still, fact that Hybrid PhysX is now recognized by such popular website like Fudzilla, is memorable enough.
Other Hybrid PhysX links you may refer to:
Installation instructions – Link#1 | Link#2 | Link#3 (Please note that most of them refer to old PhysX mod 1.01 – use 1.02 mod instead, download link above) | Link#4 | Link#5 (video guide) | Link#6 (specific details) | Link#7 (Italian video guide) | Link#8
Hybrid PhysX systems benchmarks: HD4870/5870+9500/9600GT | HD4850/5750+9800GT | HD5870+GT220 | 2xHD5870 + 9800GT
PhysX commands you to dance !
There are some titles with GPU PhysX support we haven’t mentioned before, due to their specific nature (oriented on Chinese inner market) and, thus, lack of information about them. Now, as we collected enough data, we are ready to present detailed description.
Hot Dance Party from Perfect World is 3D casual style MMO dancing game, with micro-transactions-like business model. Besides dancing, game includes appearance personalization, pet raising and make-up systems.
Title is using in-house engine called “Angelica 3D“, which is augmented with PhysX SDK based cloth simulation support – dancer’s hairs, ribbons, dresses and skirts are simulated as dynamic cloth objects.
Interesting detail – apart from other GPU PhysX games, which are unplayble with extra PhysX effects enabled and without appropriate GPU from Nvidia, this title runs fast enough with all physics calculated on CPU, while presence of Nvidia GPU only boost framerate.
Dark Void: benchmark and PhysX patch available
Dark Void page at nzone.com was updated with two new downloads:
Dark Void – PhysX Patch (337 mb)
GeForce users who purchased a retail (boxed) copy of Dark Void. In order to play Dark Void with enhanced PhysX features, a patch must be installed.
Dark Void – PhysX Benchmark (901 mb)
Download the Dark Void PhysX Benchmark and get a taste of this dynamic third-person shooter experience!
Important Notice: Benchmark does not include APEX Turbulence based smoke and particles, so effects amount is equal to PhysX “Low” in-game setting.
If you are insterested in full scale GPU PhysX effects overview, refer to out PhysX comparison video.
Update: Some details on CPU utilization (Intel Core 2 Quad 9400 used)
Dark Void: PhysX benchmarks roundup.
Dark Void release is very close, and PhysX benchmarks are starting to emerge. We’ll try to gather all available info on one place.
You can check out game performance by yourself, using Dark Void PhysX bencnmark.
[18.01.10] Dark Void: Physx-Shooter im Test by PCGameshardware.de (English Version)
That’s right – single GTX260 can’t handle Dark Void with APEX Turbulence effects enabled (Medium and High PhysX settings). Actually, dedicated GTX260 and above – official recomendation for High PhysX settings.
[22.01.10] Dark Void Review with PhysX Analysis by Gaming Heaven
Apart from game review itself, containts brief description of GPU PhysX effects and some benchmarks (test system – Core-i7 975, 3x 2GB DDR3 1600, NVIDIA GTX 295, NVIDIA GTX 260 PhysX)
Hybrid PhysX: 2x HD5870 + 9800GT in Batman Arkham Asylum
Pretty interesting video emerges on YouTube today. Batman: Arkham Asylum built-in benchmark was used to demostrate that Crossfire setup (2x HD5870) is actually working along with Nvidia GPU (9800GT), dedicated for PhysX calculations (author was using GenL PhysX mod, I guess).
However, with PhysX effects set to High, fps is bottlenecked with PhysX simulation, as it went from average 301 (with PhysX disabled), to average 125. Still, more than enough to play the game without any inconvenience.
GT 240 as dedicated PhysX card: benchmarks
PCPOP.com website has published a bunch of benchmarks where GT 240, low-end 40nm GPU from Nvidia, is used as dedicated PhysX card alongside with GTX 260. System used for tests.
Performance with PhysX content, running on dedicated GT 220 (marked yellow on graph) is compared to a single GTX 260, calculating graphics and PhysX effects simultaneously (marked green).
Batman: Arkham Asylum.
Cryostasis
Star Tales
Recent PhysX benchmarks overview
Recently, bunch of PhysX related articles have emerged on several chinese websites, like yesky.com or EXPreview.com. They all have similar structure and idea – benchmarks of Nvidia GPUs vs ATI GPUs in games with hardware accelerated PhysX content. Typical result is looking like this..
.. and can mislead inexperienced user – “How can it be, that low-end GT240 outperforms hi-end HD5850 ?! Is GT240 better thus ? I’ll buy it as Christmas present instead“. Answer is simple – in ATI’s case supplementary PhysX content is calculated on CPU, while accelerated on GPU in Nvidia case. Therefore, playing with extra GPU PhysX effects enabled on ATI GPU will result in low fps regardless what setup you have – old X1800XT or two HD5970 in crossfire.
Appropriate Nvidia GPU – it’s the only way currently to enjoy games with GPU PhysX support. Is it worth ? It’s up to you to decide. And don’t forget compromising solution - officially unsupported, but popular Hybrid PhysX systems.
Related articles: EXPreview.com | yesky.com | beareyes.com.cn | sanhaostreet.com | vga.zol.com.cn | mydrivers.com
Back to Hybrid PhysX systems: new benchmarks
It seems that today Hybrid ATI+NV PhysX systems (ATI GPU for graphics, Nvidia GPU for PhysX) are even more popular than Ageia PPUs in their time. Not officially supported (and chased) by Nvidia, such configurations are possible using custom patch.
This time, our colleagues from PCgamesHardware.de have published results of Hybrid PhysX tests in Batman: Arkham Asylum built-in benchmark.
To built a Hybrid PhysX System, you’ll need mobo with two PCI-E slots (regardless to SLI/Crossife support; PCI-Ex8/x4 is enough for PhysX), appropriate Nvidia GPU (something like 9600/GT240), Win XP/Win 7 OS and PhysX mod 1.02, which you can download here.
Installation instructions – Link#1 | Link#2 | Link#3 (Please note that most of them refer to old PhysX mod 1.01 – use 1.02 mod instead, download link above) | Link#4 | Link#5 (video guide) | Link#6 (Italian video guide) | Link#7
Dedicated PhysX GPU performance dependence on PCI-E bandwidth
Using a mid- or low-end GPU as dedicated PhysX card is quite popular idea today (even among ATI owners), while PCI-E bandwidth requirements for dedicated PhysX GPU are not absolutely clear. Everyone knows, that x8 and even x4 would be enough, but what about PCI-E x1 ?
PCPOP.com has published article today, that investigates PhysX performance of GTX295 + 9800GT setup, with 9800GT used in PCI-E x1/x4/x8 cases (unnecessary pins were taped).
And, surprisingly, even PCI-E x1 usage isn’t affecting performance as much as it should at a glimpse.
You can read rest of the article here
BTW, users with old mobos (or lack of free full scale PCI-E slots) are asking sometimes – “What if I just put my old 9600GT in PCI-E x1 slot ? Would that be enough for PhysX ?“. Now they have some clarity. Of course, mechanical “adjustment” will be needed to make it fit, that can result in GPU/mobo malfunction, so we don’t recommend even to think about it until you are clearly sure.