As many folks may be aware, the PhysX technology by Nvidia which is used in a number of games is not avaiable on or with ATI cards.
It is easy to think that simply dropping in an Nvidia card in next to an ATI card would resolve this issue, sadly Nvidia have setup restrictions in the PhysX packages which disable GPU-PhysX when the package detects any other graphics card other than Nvidia, this includes onboard graphics cards also.
Thankfully some smart cookies over at ngohq.com have developed a patch for the PhysX package which removes these resrictions allowing users to use an Nvidia card for dedicated GPU-PhysX calculations, while using an alternative brand graphics card for the main 3D rendering.
This proves extremely usefull for anyone whom uses ATI as there main GPU and have an Nvidia card (series 8 or above) kicking around that they would like to put to use.
To achieve this please follow the steps below:-
Restrictions:-
Win 7 supported only.
Nvidia 8 series or greater.
Steps:-
1). Install both graphics cards into the motherboard.
2). Install ATI drivers (any version).
3). Install Nvidia Drivers - any driver above 256 series should work, I am currently using 257.21.
4). Install the Nvidia "PhysX System Software" package - any version greater than 9.10.0223.
5). Patch the "PhysX System Software" package with GenL's physx mod v1-04ff from ngohq.com.
6). Restart PC.
7). Enjoy PhysX support in your games(those that support it) while you use a non Nvidia card to render your games! :D
Running some benchmarks can confirm that this patch has worked, below are some screenshots of a PhysX benchmark before and after the steps above are applied.
Here we can clearly see that when PhysX can only run on the CPU that the CPU usage goes though the roof.
When we apply the patch and use the GPU to calculate the PhysX we can see that we regain a vast chunk of our CPU usage, peaking back into the single digits.
Specs for test:-
CPU: i7-930 @4ghz
GFX1: ATI 5870 E6 2GB (driver 10.10)
GFX2: Nvidia 8800GTS (driver 257.21)
CPU = 23FPS and 143points @90%+ CPU usage.
GPU = 36FPS and 220points @5% CPU usage.
As a result this can give you an extra performance boost in a number of games, specially when running in eyefinity where games can often be more CPU hungry.
Before: PhysX run on CPU only.
Before: PhysX results using CPU.
After: PhysX running on Nvidia GPU.
After: PhysX results using GPU.
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