Patch restores PhysX to NVIDIA GPUs when ATI card present

Robert Hallock (Thrax) Enterprising software modders have brought PhysX back to certain ATI configurations.

October 5, 2009 10:33 AM ET in News, , , , ,

A modder has released a patch which restores PhysX support to NVIDIA GPUs operating in a system with an ATI card.

Over the last few weeks, it has come to light that NVIDIA GPUs completely disable PhysX if an ATI card is also detected in the system. It’s a matter of R&D cost, says NVIDIA.

NVIDIA performs extensive Engineering, Development, and QA work that makes PhysX a great experience for customers. For a variety of reasons–some development expense some quality assurance and some business reasons–NVIDIA will not support GPU accelerated PhysX with NVIDIA GPUs while GPU rendering is happening on non-NVIDIA GPUs.

The stance has irritated gamers as, prior to ForceWare version 186.x, NVIDIA cards happily functioned as a PPU even if an ATI card was acting as the primary renderer. Similarly, NVIDIA cards configured as the primary renderer would perform physics even if an ATI card happened to be installed (such as for a third display). Now neither is officially true.

But not all is lost, however, as an enterprising modder has released a patch which at least partially restores PhysX to systems with a mixed-GPU environment.

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.

At time of writing, the patch is on version 1.04. It seems only a matter of time until NVIDIA slaps this mutiny down, so make sure to grab the patch quickly if you need it.

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7 Comments:

  1. lordbean
    5 Oct '09, 11:45 am

    Grabbed it to save, just in case I leave my GTX 285 in with my HD5850. If Windows 7 does split video load well, it's possible I could fold on the 285 without a performance loss on the 5850.

  2. tom
    11 Oct '09, 11:01 am

    BAD NVIDIA. I hate NVIDIA. We hate u NVIDIA.
    WDDM 1.1 is cool. It support multi-vendor/multi-GPU configurations, but vista WDDM is a crap. If NVIDIA block this patch we(poor existing customers of nvidia) have to develop a new patch or put their GPU and PhysX into a dust bin and use ati GPU only . BAD NVIDIA BAD NVIDIA BAD NVIDIA.

  3. chizow
    11 Oct '09, 1:10 pm

    Another case of AMD offering its users the "Power of Community", ie. the power of hacks and workarounds in lieu of proper vendor support. At some point AMD fans and customers will realize all their misdirected complaints and finger pointing directed at the competition changes nothing. They're still getting inferior support from AMD and that won't change until they properly focus their angst and anger at the only party that can and should do anything about supporting their hardware....AMD.

    Oh and here's another lead for you Thrax, the Community has provided more workarounds and hacks to get PhysX "to work" without GPU acceleration. It only requires downloading DRM circumvention hacks from torrent sites to accomplish such a "seamless" workaround...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUOr4cFWY-s#t=1m10s

    And no, all that trash glued to Batman isn't normal, nor are the horrible frame rate drops.

  4. ardichoke
    11 Oct '09, 5:49 pm

    tl;dr - rabid nvidia fanboyism

  5. chizow
    11 Oct '09, 10:00 pm
    Quoting ardichoke

    tl;dr - rabid nvidia fanboyism

    So you're in favor of this kind of workaround being passed off as support for AMD hardware? I'd say that would characterize rabid fanboyism more than anything I've suggested.

  6. Thrax
    11 Oct '09, 10:03 pm

    I don't think anyone but the foolish characterizes it as support. More than anything, most see the revocation of two PhysX techniques that NVIDIA previously blessed as disingenuous.

  7. chizow
    11 Oct '09, 10:18 pm
    Quoting Thrax

    I don't think anyone but the foolish characterizes it as support. More than anything, most see the revocation of two PhysX techniques that NVIDIA previously blessed as disingenuous.

    But Nvidia didn't bless either previously, AMD as a primary graphics card with a secondary Nvidia card for PhysX was never officially supported by Nvidia, in fact, it was impossible in Vista, and only possible on a legacy OS in XP and a RC non-GA release of Win7. Not totally sure what the second technique is you're referring to.

    In any case, I wasn't referencing an explicit pledge of support for these workarounds, I was referring to the responses in this thread and others along with Ardichoke's reply in this thread that show AMD supporters would rather expend energy finding fault in my posts or blaming Nvidia rather than directing that angst toward the only party that is truly culpable and capable of affecting change for their own hardware, AMD.

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