thales100 Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 Nvidia Oficial Physx Power Pack + Forceware 177.83 Driver There is a cool review about it at guru3d (GRAW 2 analysis on page 4): http://www.guru3d.com/article/physx-by-nvidia-review/ PhysX Extreme brings a completely new atmosphere to GRAW 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walter Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 I'm a little short on time so I haven't fully read up on this but are these individual patches for games will installing the driver enable PhysX in all games that support Ageia? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thales100 Posted August 12, 2008 Author Share Posted August 12, 2008 All you need is a NVIDIA GeForce 8-series, 9-series, and 200-series desktop GPUs, including the newly released GeForce 9800 GTX+, 9800 GT, and 9500 GT GPUs, plus the new 177.83 driver (wich includes the PhysX software). I have played GRAW 2 and Gears of War. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 Holy cow this sounds awesome, all GRAW 2 gamers with 8 series cards need to know this. Hmmm, will installing these drivers unlock Ageia Island then...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thales100 Posted August 12, 2008 Author Share Posted August 12, 2008 Yeah, Ageia Island is unlocked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 Right, call me a nerd, but I'm off to take some benchmarks and footage before installing these new drivers, then repeat with drivers installed and Physx on! Thanks for the update Thales! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thales100 Posted August 12, 2008 Author Share Posted August 12, 2008 Thanks, its really great stuff and news to the PhysX supported games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thales100 Posted August 12, 2008 Author Share Posted August 12, 2008 Another link. http://www.nvidia.com/content/forcewithin/us/download.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 Eh?! Almost 3Gb? And it beats me what the download java window is telling me lol, is it too much to ask for a progress bar? Edit > Hang on, this is download about 6 files, only one of them is the driver, the rest look like warmonger and UT3 files, at 500Mb each... Welcome, Thank you for downloading the first NVIDIA GeForce Power Pack! Please follow these installation instructions: 1) GeForce v177.83 graphics driver a. Install this first. This driver is required for GPU hardware acceleration in the following applications. b. This driver package will also install v8.08.01 PhysX System Software. c. The PhysX control panel can be accessed through the Windows Start Menu under 'NVIDIA Corporation'. 2) Unreal Tournament 3 - PhysX Mod a. Install the full retail game (sold separately) b. Install the UT3 v1.2 official patch (http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_ut3_downloads.html) c. Install UT3_PhysXModPack.msi d. Launch UT3 e. Make sure ‘Hardware Physics’ is enabled in the UT3 video settings. f. Turn off ‘Framerate smoothing’ in the UT3 advanced video settings (optional – ensures maximum frame rate) g. Play one of the three new PhysX levels: - Deathmatch or Duel: "Heat Ray PhysX" (not “Heat Rayâ€) - Capture the flag “Lighthouse PhysX†- Capture the flag “Tornado PhysX†3) Badaboom Video Transcoding: 30-day Trial Beta a. Install BadaBOOM_v0.9.exe b. Launch Badaboom 4) Warmonger – Full Game a. Install Warmonger_v2.1.exe b. Launch game and set the desired Video options c. Play the Multiplayer game (Warmonger is a multiplayer game. Practice in the Tutorial or Offline Training) d. Warmonger Servers: You can find the NVIDIA servers by logging into GameSpy Comrade or by using one of the following IP Addresses: - 216.228.119.11:31729 - 216.228.119.12:31729 - 216.228.119.13:31729 5) Join The Fight Against Cancer a. Install Folding@home_GPU_v620nv.msi b. Launch Folding@home from program files c. Join the NVIDIA folding Team and start folding*: Team #131015 d. Note: The NVIDIA Folding client uses significant GPU compute resources. It is not recommended to run folding when full GPU performance is needed for other applications. e. Note: To contribute and achieve maximum points it is recommended to leave the folding display option off. 6) Sneak Peak: Nurien Demo a. Install Nurien_Alpha_v0.7.exe b. Launch Nurien Demo Loop c. Note: GeForce 9600 GT or higher is recommended for this demo. 7) Sneak Peak: Metal Knight Zero Demo a. Install MKZBenchmark_PreAlpha_v0.6.exe b. Launch either: - MKZBenchmark_lowresolution demo loop (WARNING: Required resolution is 1280x1024 for this loop). - MKZBenchmark_highresolution demo loop (WARNING: Required resolution is 1920x1200 for this loop). 8) The Great Kulu: Technology Demo a. Install The_Great_Kulu_v1.1.2.exe b. Launch The_Great_Kulu c. Note: GPU PhysX acceleration is only enabled for GeForce GTX 280 and GeForce GTX 260 GPU in this demo 9) Fluids: Technology Demo a. Install Fluid_demo_v1.0.msi b. Launch Fluid demo (press F1 within the demo for shortcut demo keys) Enjoy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 I've just given it a quick go, and I would advise everyone to HOLD OFF on installing these drivers. I've a pretty powerfull rig with the newer 8800GT and a Quad Core processor, and these drivers slashed my frames in GRAW from 100 to 27. It also crashed to desktop the first time I went to open fire. Crash in application version: 30899.3048 Unhandled exception - -529697949 C STACK: kernel32 (???) : RaiseException graw2 (???) : ??? graw2 (???) : ??? Renderer: threaded Physics : threaded Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 Hmm, here's the really crappy thing, if you go to the Physx settings in GRAW2 and set it to it's lowest setting (Normal), the FPS do not recover, they are still HALF what they were before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRIN_Wolfsong Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 Probably because you have dedicated half you GPU to physics with the driver. Isn't there a tool for it to turn it off on the GPU? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 I've looked in the Nvidia CP and I can't see any Phsyx options at all... It's a pity GRAW2 doesn't seem to have a way to totally disable it in the options. There are Nvida Phsyx and Nvidia Drivers entries in Add Remove Programs, so if no-one comes up with anything better, I might just uninstall them ans reinstall the previous drivers. On a brighter note, the Ageia island map actually runs okay at abour 40FPS, compared to the campaign maps lol! And CoD4 doesn't seem to have been affected in the slightest, although that's perhaps stating the obvious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thales100 Posted August 12, 2008 Author Share Posted August 12, 2008 It runs smooth as butter here at 70+ FPS all max settings including 16xA, at 1680 x 1050 and PhysX Extreme (without PhysX and same settings i had 120 FPS). There is a price to be paid for extra cool stuff, you know. BTW ive played all campaign without any CTD with these settings. PhysX control panel youll find at "Control Panel", then "Additional options" in your PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 Thales, I could buy a car for the price of that graphics card you have It better run smooth as silk LOL! Where's that jealousy emoticon... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thales100 Posted August 12, 2008 Author Share Posted August 12, 2008 It better run smooth as silk LOL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsonedecker Posted August 13, 2008 Share Posted August 13, 2008 Where things will get interesting is if you pop in a cheapo ($50) 8500 card to run the PhysX. You don't even need a SLI capable MB.... just drop it into a free slot and tell the driver what to do with it and it should offload all PhysX to that card, leaving your main one for just rendering. It's basically just another dedicated PhysX card, but A LOT cheaper then the previous version. I haven't tried it yet mind you... just what I have read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FI_FlimFlam Posted August 13, 2008 Share Posted August 13, 2008 Rocky, There is a dedicated PhysX control that I think you might be able to turn it off with. Go into your start menu under Nvidia Corporation (the default install location) and look for Nvidia PhysiX Properties. There is a settings tab where you can turn off Physx acceleration (or select GeForce Physx or AGEIA PhysX). I haven't benchmarked it but try turning it off and see what happens. After I turned it off, Agiea Island was no longer available. I did notice that my in game Physics settings were still set to High however I did not notice a drop in FPS at all from enabling Physics or off. I have an 8800GTS (the newer G92 chipset). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted August 13, 2008 Share Posted August 13, 2008 I'll try that tonight, we have the same card G92 8800GTS! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thales100 Posted August 13, 2008 Author Share Posted August 13, 2008 More info about Nvidia PhysX. "This new driver also adds support for PhysX-accelerated features in the commercially available Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 game." http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?...&highlight= Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thales100 Posted August 13, 2008 Author Share Posted August 13, 2008 I did not notice a drop in FPS at all from enabling Physics or off. You should have PhysX enabled at the control panel (start menu under Nvidia Corporation ) and inside game menu (PhysX High and PhysX Extreme options available). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted August 13, 2008 Share Posted August 13, 2008 Rocky, There is a dedicated PhysX control that I think you might be able to turn it off with. Go into your start menu under Nvidia Corporation (the default install location) and look for Nvidia PhysiX Properties. There is a settings tab where you can turn off Physx acceleration (or select GeForce Physx or AGEIA PhysX). There is no apparent setting there for turning it off. All it lets you do is specify what is which piece of HW is going to handle the PhsyX. The first option though is "No Acceleration" - which to me means that neither our GPU nor the Nvidia PhysX driver will handle the physX, so anyway I tried that expecting the frames to drop even further, but actually FPS were returned to normal. It's a bit strange though, because if you go into the GRAW2 settings, the PhysX options are actually enabled, but the only choice available is the "Normal" setting. It's strange because if you go back out and re-enable the Nvidia PhysX, go into GRAW2 and set the PhysX to "Normal", you'll end up with crappy FPS again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thales100 Posted August 13, 2008 Author Share Posted August 13, 2008 Mmm, thats the way it seems to work: No acceleration = no PhysX = FPS "normal" ----- > Only Normal options in GRAW 2 menu, cause there is no PhysX accelaration enabled GPU PhysX enabled = PhysX activated = FPS "low" cause you have PhysX extra features running, your GPU is processing it + graphics ----- > Normal, PhysX High and PhysX Extreme options in GRAW 2 menu, cause there is PhysX acceletaration enabled in the PC So, resuming, if your GPU cant handle PhysX running GRAW 2 and you want to install Nvidia latest driver 177.83, the correct way to disable it and run with "normal" FPS you had before is to disable PhysX in its control panel (into your start menu under Nvidia Corporation and look for Nvidia PhysiX Properties). But if your GPU can run PhysX, specially the Extreme option, youll have a much richer and more immersive game experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted August 13, 2008 Share Posted August 13, 2008 No acceleration = no PhysX = FPS "normal" ----- > Only Normal options in GRAW 2 menu, cause there is no PhysX accelaration enabled That's what I mean, PhysX is enabled when you set the Nvidia PhysX to "No Acceleration" - it is set to PhysX Normal, which is different to no PhsyX at all...? In GRAW you can now have 4 settings, I think... 1. No PhysX options at all. Anyone without these drivers and without a PhysX card - get NO options at all. 2. Physx = Normal, needs Nvidia Physx or card, adds minor effects (or no effects?) 3. Physx = High, needs Nvidia Physx or card, adds more effects 4. Physx = Extreme, needs Nvidia Physx or card, adds extreme effects Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thales100 Posted August 13, 2008 Author Share Posted August 13, 2008 I think its not "PhysX Normal", its just "Normal", what means no PhysX. If you disable in PhysX control panel the PhysX acceleration, you wont have PhysX in GRAW 2. So thats the best option if you have only one GPU and it cant handle running GRAW 2 + PhysX High or Extreme. If you have two GPUs you can have one running graphics and the other PhysX (selection is made in PhysX control panel), or if you have a powerful GPU it can perform graphics + PhysX. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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