Worth using a 1060 as a PhysX card

[danrey84]

I have some Amazon vouchers too spend and was wondering if using a 1060 as a dedicated PhysX card is worth it I'm just intrigued and wouldn't mind testing it out. 

[Frostshield]

Well, basically all Nvidia cards have Advanced PhysX as a part of their card, rather than being an entirely different card dedicated to PhysX like they used to decades ago. Basically, any Nvidia GTX should be a good PhysX card for gaming.

[79wjd]

No, it's not worthwhile. Modern GPUs are so powerful that they can manage PhysX themself.

[Skiiwee29]

no, I dont think its worth it honestly. Not very many games actually take advantage of PhysX iirc. 

[Enderman]

No, save it or buy something actually useful.

[Zyndo]

If you had one sitting around on your shelf collecting dust, then maybe. but its certainly not worth going out and buying one

[danrey84]

Yea I just wondered and was wanting to get some thought on the matter. I know the 1070 I have can handle it but was wondering if by taking away some off the pressure of it and placing that on the 1060 would have been cool too see. 

[i_build_nanosuits]

1 minute ago, danrey84 said:

Yea I just wondered and was wanting to get some thought on the matter. I know the 1070 I have can handle it but was wondering if by taking away some off the pressure of it and placing that on the 1060 would have been cool too see. 

not really...since not that many games make extensive use of advanced physx in the first place...just get yourself a nice SSD or some fancy fans or an NZXT hue lighting kit or something instead...

[catzambia]

Just now, Zyndo said:

If you had one sitting around on your shelf collecting dust, then maybe. but its certainly not worth going out and buying one

Now who would have a 1060 sitting on a shelf collecting dust? Sitting in a rig collecting dust maybe.

[danrey84]

No but I did have my 980 until last week gathering dust but am feeling slightly salty as could have used that haha never mind. I wonder why developers don't use physx more extensively ??

[Zyndo]

3 minutes ago, catzambia said:

Now who would have a 1060 sitting on a shelf collecting dust? Sitting in a rig collecting dust maybe.

not necessarily a 1060. but maybe an old 960 or whatever. I'm not saying he should have a backup 1060 sitting around gathering dust... I'm saying he shouldn't go out and buy one to use only as a PhysX card.

[catzambia]

Just now, Zyndo said:

not necessarily a 1060. but maybe an old 960 or whatever. I'm not saying he should have a backup 1060 sitting around gathering dust... I'm saying he shouldn't go out and buy one to use only as a PhysX card.

But he was simply asking about using a 1060 for physx, and you didn't say any specific card, so one would assume you meant 1060. I was joking though lol

[dalekphalm]

11 minutes ago, danrey84 said:

No but I did have my 980 until last week gathering dust but am feeling slightly salty as could have used that haha never mind. I wonder why developers don't use physx more extensively ??

Developers don't use PhysX more for several reasons:

1. Only NVIDIA GPU's can hardware accelerate PhysX. Systems with AMD GPU's, even ones powerful enough to handle the load, will run PhysX calculations on the CPU instead, which is vastly slower at Physics simulations. So your PhysX performance is worse, and it also defaults to lower quality effects too, so you get worse looking physics (in some cases).

 

So that immediately means that 30% of your userbase cannot take advantage of this feature.

 

2. PhysX takes time and skill to implement heavily. It's pretty complicated to use well. Most games that even use PhysX, do so only in very specific, tiny ways. Like Borderlands, which used it to create better particle effects, etc.

[Katsunaka]

Just wait. 

 

Luke has a video up on Vessel about this very topic.  

 

Id rather not spoil it for those who dont care for spoilers even in a YT video. 

 

Spoiler of Vessel video... Below. Youve been warned... 

Spoiler

Luke disproved it with a much better card than a 1060. 

 

Save your money, buy something else than a PhysX card. Buy better monitors, buy some clothes, buy something else other than a PhysX card. 

 

[danrey84]

Thanks is everyone. I won't get 1060 as a physx card but if i see maybe a 970 going dirt cheap in the future I may give it a whirl. Thanks again. 

[SLAYR]

2 minutes ago, danrey84 said:

Thanks is everyone. I won't get 1060 as a physx card but if i see maybe a 970 going dirt cheap in the future I may give it a whirl. Thanks again. 

Physx is pretty dead at this point, rarely anything actually uses it, you are better off just getting a better primary gpu, or SLI. 

[Convar]

So few games support Physx it isn't worth it and the games that do support it are a bit on the older side now and any modern Nvidia GPU can handle it without the need of a dedicated GPU for it. 

[Praesi]

You dont need a physx card. Modern cards can handle it and atm. Physx is almost not existing.

[AlphaPolack]

6 hours ago, Enderman said:

No, save it or buy something actually useful.

Like a yuuuuuuuge SSD

[dalekphalm]

10 hours ago, danrey84 said:

Thanks is everyone. I won't get 1060 as a physx card but if i see maybe a 970 going dirt cheap in the future I may give it a whirl. Thanks again. 

Don't even bother with a GTX 970. Using a dedicated PhysX card won't give you a noticeable increase in performance.

[Masada02]

I'd just like to say that while PhysX is mostly useless at this point, when it is implemented correctly it is glorious.

 

Killing Floor 2 + PhysX is just about the best use of the tech yet (especially if you play Demo like I do...)