GenL has released updated mod for hybrid PhysX systems – now it works with recent 195.xx GeForce drivers and supports Windows XP/2003

UPDATE: Hybrid PhysX mod 1.03 released – with timebomb fix and lastest drivers support.

- added support for new checks in 195.xx drivers
- added support for XP/2003 drivers
- both x86 and x64 are supported by a single mod now

Notes about the mod:
- Both x86 and x64 are supported by a single file now. If you are using x86 OS, you should just skip patching 64-bit binaries (press No when asked for a search).
- Don’t forget that you must be able to access nvidia control panel. For this connect nvidia GPU to the second input port of your monitor – physically or virtually (i don’t know if this is possible), or any other way you find. There are community-generated tutorials for this, i can’t tell anything because i own only 1 GPU.
- Lite version may come later, if needed. Additionally, i can fix errors if you find them and release it with an update.

Notes about XP/2003 support:
- Only 195.62 drivers are tested for XP/2003 case. I can’t say anything about earlier versions, i didn’t even try them.
- It should work for XP/2003 x64 editions too, would be great if anyone will confirm.
- It will work for 2000 only if original XP/2003 package supports it.

You can download PhysX mod 1.02 directly from our server (not available) *

Mirror #1 (thanks to Alexandr82)

Update #2: 1.02 mod is working with new 196.21 drivers.

Update #4: 1.02 mod may not work properly with 196.75/197.xx drivers, users are also reporting incompatibility with 9.10.0222 PhysX System Software.

In addition, original post contains mod for PhysX drivers 9.09.30, that allows to use original Ageia PPU with ATI cards.

Please use commentaries to this post or thread at NGHQ forums to report errors, if they’ll occur. Reports with positive results are also appreciated.

Update: 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 | Link#9 (detailed) <- it’s recommended to start from newer links.

Hybrid PhysX systems benchmarks: HD4870/5870+9500/9600GT | HD4850/5750+9800GT | HD5870+GT220 | 2xHD5870 + 9800GT | HD5870/GTX285 + 9800GT

Dedicated PhysX GPU performance dependence on PCI-E bandwidth

Update #3: Catalyst 10.2 and extended display error fix – in addition, you’ll be able to use dedicated NV GPU for PhysX without necessity to extend display.

* PhysXinfo is not responcible for any harm this file can cause to your system. Use it for your own risk.

Adoption of hybrid ATI + Nvidia PhysX configurations is growing day by day. We wrote recently about some benchmarks using hybrid PhysX setup, and now BodNara website has published an article, that is investigating perfomance in games with GPU PhysX support using ATI HD 4850/5750 + NV 9800GT configuration.

Test setup: Intel Core I7 860 CPU, Asus P7P55D Motherboard, 2GB DDR3 RAM, 32-bit Win 7 Ultimate OS, Catalyst 9.9 and ForceWare 191.07 drivers

Read the rest of this entry »

Two questions may bother some people, interested in PhysX nowadays  – “Are those hybrid ATI+NV PhysX configurations really working ?” and “How new GeForce GT 220 can perform as dedicated PhysX card ?“. User soothepain from coolaler.com forums has performed a bunch of tests, that can answer both of those questions.

System, used for benchmarks includes Intel Core i7 975 Extreme CPU, 6GB DDR3 RAM, EVGA Classified X58 Motherboard, ATI HD 5870 and Nvidia GeForce GT 220 GPUs running on Windows 7 RC7100 64-bit OS.

Three setups were tested:

Single GT 220 (Both graphics and PhysX processing)

Single HD 5870 (CPU is calculating all PhysX effects in this case)

HD 5870 for graphics + GT 220 for PhysX (using GenL Mod)

Test results:

Read the rest of this entry »

Back again on banned ATI+Nvidia PhysX configurations situation.  Initially, all the hype was based on e-mail from customer care support, while Nvidia official motives were undisclosed.  In order to bring some clarity, we’ve asked Nvidia for commentaries a while ago and finally recieved some answers:

PhysXInfo: Is it true that PhysX capabilities of NVIDIA GPUs and/or Ageia PPUs are disabled with newest drivers when a Non-NVIDIA (AMD) graphics card is present in the system?
Nvidia: It is true that running an NVIDIA GPU for PhysX with an AMD GPU for graphics is not a supported configuration. This mode was inadvertently turned on in a beta version of our Win7 drivers and on some older XP drivers. AMD does not support PhysX for their customers, and we don’t QA this configuration. With no QA, it is risky to run this configuration so we removed this capability in a recent driver release.

PhysXInfo: Can you please explain to us what factors have led to such decision?
Nvidia: Today NVIDIA’s GPU and PhysX drivers are interconnected to optimize performance. In the future we expect this interdependence to deepen. This alone makes it difficult to support a third party GPU.

In order to make sure our customers have a great experience, we QA every release of our PhysX or Graphics drivers by testing approximately 14 NVIDIA GPUs for graphics processing with 8 GPUs for PhysX processing on 6 common platforms with 6 OS’s using 6 combinations of CPU and memory. This is over 24000 possible configurations. While we don’t test every possible combination, it should be clear that the work and cost to NVIDIA is substantial. AMD does not support PhysX for their customers. Adding AMD GPUs would significantly increase the necessary work and cost for NVIDIA. We prefer to invest in inventing new technologies that give our customers great new experiences.

Read the rest of this entry »

OCteam.fr has prepared nice video, showcasing how hybrid PhysX configuration (ATI Radeon HD 5870 for graphics and Nvidia GeForce 8800GT for PhysX) is handling latest GPU PhysX games using drivers, modified by GenL. Surprisingly it’s working pretty well – Batman Arkham Asylum, Cryostasis, Mirror’s Edge, Star Tales, demos from PowerPacks, even badaboom transcoding are running without serious glitches.

Update: the way with modified drivers looks wrong to you ? Try to convince Nvidia by signing “Returning PhysX to Nvidia customers“ petition.

Source: OCteam.fr

It seems that some enthusiasts are trying to bypass ATI (for Graphics) + Nvidia (for PhysX) hybrid configurations blockage using modified drivers.

We’ll try to keep an eye on all developments and update this post accordingly.

Update #4: New 1.02 mod – now with 195.xx drivers and WinXP support – it’s recommended to prefer this one over 1.01 mod.

Probe #1: Modded 190.62 WinXP 32-bit drivers (useless)

Report: “Someone just took old files (from 185.68) and changed their resources and version info, to make it look similar to real 190.62. Needless to say, this doesn’t give you real 190.62 with all fixes and changes.”
GenL, NGOHQ forums.

Probe #2: PhysX Mod 1.01 x86 (not available) and PhysX Mod 1.01 x64 (not available) by GenL

(no support for 195.xx drivers currently)

NVIDIA GeForce driver 19x.xx PhysX mod [x86/x64] v1.01

* DESCRIPTION:
This mod will enable hardware PhysX support for NVIDIA GPU, when non-NVIDIA GPU
is used as a primary display device.
- intended only for WDDM 1.1 OS (Windows 7).
- only for multi-vendor multi-GPU configurations.

Mod discussion at NGOHQ forums.

Update: Video, showcasing this Mod in the work.

Update #2: Officical Nvidia position on hybrid ATI+NV PhysX configurations.

Update #3: How to set ATI+NV hybrid setup guide

Please use comments if you want to report certain driver’s efficiency/uselessness