alternatives to Physx

[F60Outrunn]

As i am sure you all know (likely alot more than me), Physx is not designed to run on AMD GPU's any more (thanks alot Nvidia!).

But researching i found that AMD cards support open source alternatives such as OpenCL and stuff like that, i was wondering does every game support this alternative? I am looking to buy Batman Arkham City at somepoint, and i know it supports Physx, and looks very good with Physx enabled too from what i gather, but does it (and other games for that matter) support any alternatives for AMD graphics card users? Any help is useful because otherwise i feel like that its kind of unfair for any AMD graphics card users (me included) any help is useful thankyou.

my graphics card: XFX Radeon HD 6850 1gb

[cannondale06]

Physx is not designed to run on AMD GPU's any more

hardware physx has never run on AMD gpus. what you must be referring to is the fact that Nvidia does not support one of thier gpus being used for physx in a system where an AMD card is being used for graphics. that is called hybrid physx and can still be done with hacked drivers. not worth the hassle IMO though.

[F60Outrunn]

Originally Posted by cannondale06

Physx is not designed to run on AMD GPU's any more

hardware physx has never run on AMD gpus. what you must be referring to is the fact that Nvidia does not support one of thier gpus being used for physx in a system where an AMD card is being used for graphics. that is called hybrid physx and can still be done with hacked drivers. not worth the hassle IMO though.

i knew that there was still alot to learn, but do you know if the likes of batman AC, bf3, stuff like that support alternatives such as OpenCL or any others?

[rotNdude]

Every game utilizes a specific game engine. That game engine may contain its own physics engine or it may utilize a third party physics engine. PhysX can use the CPU instead of the GPU for the engine. Valve uses the Havok engine.

If you don't know about a particular game, I would first do a google search for the particular engine that the game uses or post in the specific game forum area.

[Washell]

OpenCL is a programming language/framework AMD uses to program the general purpose cores on their GPU's. Nvidia uses CUDA for the same purpose.

PhysX is a physx engine which uses CUDA to run the physics math on the general purpose cores. Since it uses CUDA, it'll only run on Nvidia GPU's

Nvidia won't make a PhysX version that uses OpenCL. AMD won't make a driver that makes their GPU's work with CUDA. There are no alternatives. It's Nvidia or nothing with these titles.

[cannondale06]

physx is just a physics engine like any other where the effects are done on the cpu but for some games it offers optional hardware effects too. those optional effects are intended to be run on an Nvidia gpu of course. if you enable those optional hardware effects without an Nvidia gpu then your cpu will have to handle them which is not ideal at all. in fact you will be lucky if the game is playable in most cases when you do that. those optional hardware effects are becoming more cpu friendly though and Batman AC can actually run them on the cpu if you have something like a newer i5/i7. that was not possible in the first Batman game as running those effects on any cpu pretty much tanked.

[F60Outrunn]

Originally Posted by cannondale06

physx is just a physics engine like any other where the effects are done on the cpu but for some games it offers optional hardware effects too. those optional effects are intended to be run on an Nvidia gpu of course. if you enable those optional hardware effects without an Nvidia gpu then your cpu will have to handle them which is not ideal at all. in fact you will be lucky if the game is playable in most cases when you do that. those optional hardware effects are becoming more cpu friendly though and Batman AC can actually run them on the cpu if you have something like a newer i5/i7. that was not possible in the first Batman game as running those effects on any cpu pretty much tanked.

ok thanks, so would a AMD Phenom II 965 x4 BE 3.4ghz CPU handle those effects? (my CPU)

[cannondale06]

Originally Posted by F60Outrunn

ok thanks, so would a AMD Phenom II 965 x4 BE 3.4ghz CPU handle those effects? (my CPU)

well the only game where your cpu would stand a chance of running those hardware effects would be Batman AC. even my 2500k at 4.4 gets only about 40-45 fps though so I doubt it would be playable doing those effects on your cpu.

[F60Outrunn]

Originally Posted by cannondale06

well the only game where your cpu would stand a chance of running those hardware effects would be Batman AC. even my 2500k at 4.4 gets only about 40-45 fps though so I doubt it would be playable doing those effects on your cpu.

ok thanks, that may explain a problem i have been having with mirrors edge, that uses PhysX, i enable it and the game runs fine, but when it reaches a specific point on a map the game fps drops to single figures, if the PhysX is being done via the CPU and not the GPU that would make alot of sense. thanks again

[HL2-4-Life]

Enabling PhysX can take a toll on framerate as well, and there's a difference between hardware (GPU) PhysX and software (CPU) PhysX. Take Just Cause 2 for example, on my AMD system (2x HD7970), I do not have the option for GPU Water Simulation. I'd just run JC2 Desert Sunrise benchmark with max setting on my SLi'ed GTX670's, with and w/o PhysX, @1080P.
First, w/o GPU Water Simulation enabled, I get 117fps -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...JC2noPhysX.jpg

Next' with GPU Water Simulation enabled, I get 75fps, yes, quite playable but quite a framerate hit, docha think?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...g/JC2PhysX.jpg

I cannot run Batman AC smooth with PhysX at High, even with these two cards in SLi with PhysX setting at 'Auto Select', with PhysX>GeForce GTX670(2), which I take to mean PhysX's done by the 2nd GTX670 as well. IF these have trouble doing it smooth, Hybrid PhysX must crawl. I do wish there were something better in the horizon....