Finally, NVIDIA has officially presented their new GPU – GTX 680, built on 28nm GK104 chip, which itself is based on next-gen Kepler architecture.

Many rumors were floating around Kepler and its physics acceleration capabilities, some were endowing new GPU with dedicated PhysX blocks, others were claiming ability to run CPU PhysX games in hardware – none of this happens to be true. Nothing special (like NVENC video encoder) for physics calculations, just general improvements to chip architecture, SM clusters, etc.

Nonetheless, we will try to gather all available information regarding PhysX computation performance of the GTX 680, in comparison to previous generation GPUs.

NVIDIA Kepler GPU GeForce GTX 680 Video Card Review by HARDOCP

Interesting results – in this case, GeForce GTX 680 performance is higher than Radeon HD 7970 even with GPU PhysX effects enabled. However, we can not directly compare GTX 580 and GTX 680 due to different resolution settings.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 (Kepler) by HardwareHeaven

At lower resolutions situation is quite different – enabled PhysX acceleration introduces significant penalty to GTX 680 performance.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Review by Eurogamer

GTX 680 is showing 15% performance improvement over its predecessor, but again on medium PhysX settings only.

Test: Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 by ComputerBase

GTX 680 vs GTX 580: similar results in Dark Void Benchmark (only “PhysX Low” settings are used – simple particle effects) and significant performance difference in Mars Benchmark (which contains more diverse PhysX content like fluids, particles and tearable cloth, but also produces very disputable results).

Nvidia’s GTX 680 arrives! “Faster, Smoother, Richer” by Alienbabeltech.com

Most comprehensive set of PhysX benchmarks comes from Alienbabeltech ! According to their numbers, average PhysX performance difference between GTX 680 and GTX 580 is around 11 %. Not as impressive as one might expect, huh?

Note: surpisingly, from several dozens of GTX 680 reviews we were able to find, only a few are containing actual PhysX benchmarks, majority of the reviewers just leave hardware acceleration disabled.

Update: more benchmarks !

GTX 680: PhysX and CUDA Testing by Playwares.com

First article where GTX 680 is tested as dedicated PhysX card – in this case, framerate is 17% better than with dedicated GTX 580.

(PhysX Test) GTX 680 vs GTX 580 vs GTX 480 in FluidMark by Geeks3D

In a synthetic test like FluidMark, GTX 680 shows decent PhysX performance.

In a recent promo video for upcoming GTX 560 GPU, NVIDIA has spoiled next game with support of GPU accelerated PhysX effects – Alice: Madness Returns, sequel to American McGee’s visionary classic “Alice” title.

UPDATE: Comparison GPU PhysX video

Starting at 1:34, comparison PhysX sequences are showcased. According to the video, GPU PhysX content in Alice will include (following list may be not full) destructible environments..

..volumetric fluid effects (for example, oil-like fluid from damaged enemies)..

..and additional smoke and particle effects.

According to GeForce.com article, single GTX 560 or similar GPU will be enough to play this game in Full HD with GPU PhysX effects set to High.

Alice: Madness Returns is due to be released June 14, 2011

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

Warmonger

As you may see, adding GT 240 as dedicated PhysX processor boosts fps up to 30-40% in GPU PhysX games. Therefore, if you are looking for dedicated PhysX card (as part of traditional or Hybrid PhysX system), GT 240 might be the right choice.

Source: PCPOP.com

EXPreview.com website has published detailed pics of EVGA GTX 275 CO-OP PhysX – card with exceptional design, which combines two different GPU,  G200 (GTX 275) and G92 (GTS 250), on one PCB.

55nm GT200b graphics-rendering chip (left one on a pic below) operates at a 633MHz core, 1296MHz shaders and has 896MB of GDDR3 memory, running at 2268MHz. 55nm G92b chip (right one), fully dedicated to PhysX processing,  runs at a 738MHz core, 1836MHz shaders, and has 384MB of 2200MHz GDDR3 memory.

Cooling system consist of two heatsinks with heatpipes, fan in the middle.

Source: EXPreview.com

EVGA GTX 275 CO-OP PhysX edition graphics solution was announced recently. As predicted, mysterious card turns out to be GTX 275 dedicated for graphics and GTS 250 dedicated for PhysX on single PCB.

Technical Specifications

Recommended price is 349$.

Update: some pictures from Launch Event

Source: EVGA