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is Physx a big factor?
- Thread starter nlr
- Start date
Soldato
Physx plays literally no role the card I buy. Neither does CUDA or any Nvidias supposed bells and whistles. I go purely for performance vs price.
With anything like this I always have the approach: does it make the game better? does it make any difference to the game while I play it or not? does the game change if it's not present?
You know what none of this crap ever makes the blindest bit of difference to me when i'm playing a game.
A good game has never needed fancy anything for it to be appealing. Look at the fidelity of crysis, it's amazing no doubt and looks brilliant in screenshots when you can sit and spend time looking at the details,
but how much is noticed while actually concentrating on playing the game?
So many effects and fidelity are going unnoticed while your playing that half this gump doesn't matter a jot.
While your clearing a room full of enemies who is really paying attention to how glass shatters?
Really I doubt many if any notice or would notice its absence.
I'd much rather see people concentrate on making better games and i've yet to see an example where physx has made a game better.
You know what none of this crap ever makes the blindest bit of difference to me when i'm playing a game.
A good game has never needed fancy anything for it to be appealing. Look at the fidelity of crysis, it's amazing no doubt and looks brilliant in screenshots when you can sit and spend time looking at the details,
but how much is noticed while actually concentrating on playing the game?
So many effects and fidelity are going unnoticed while your playing that half this gump doesn't matter a jot.
While your clearing a room full of enemies who is really paying attention to how glass shatters?
Really I doubt many if any notice or would notice its absence.
I'd much rather see people concentrate on making better games and i've yet to see an example where physx has made a game better.
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Soldato
when it comes to linux however........its possible to get ATI drivers to work but ya know what most people can't be bothered to try.
in windows they are as bad as each other
in windows they are as bad as each other
Caporegime
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 33,188
For me, honestly, most driver issues are........ user error.
Most Nvidia users who move to AMD then slate the drivers do so because they are more used to forcing one method of doing something, don't bother looking around the control panel and don't realise that a decade of using Nvidia means they are used to loading up program X, Y or Z to do all their overclocking, game tweaking, fixing refresh rates(pretty much a thing of the past though), forcing trip buffering and not realise that, and vsync are only opengl options in the control panel, etc.
What you've gotten used to over a decade and forget you even do doesn't make another product you aren't used to bad, simply different.
Its been since a 8800gtx that I've had an Nvidia card(of any substance I actually use on a frequent basis, got laptop Nvidia gpu's), so when I next have one(if ever) I simply won't be used to the control panel, I won't automatically know that forcing options x,y and z works in very few games and often in most new games will cause bugs and texture glitches and I WON'T instantly decide the drivers are crap.
I know through experience that forcing anything but AF to max, vsync, trip buffering(and using a 3rd party program to do those two for dx games), and forcing anything but standard AA methods will be FAR more likely to cause issues with new games, flickering or buggyness, especially with the increasing number of games that don't actually have AA as standard anymore.
If I leave 16xaa, vsync off(better done ingame often, just cause 2 sucks on both Nvidia and ATi with vsync on, its laggy as crap, its smoother by far when not vsynced) and box AA and I literally never have game issues, well haven't in as long as I can remember now.
I'm also completely used to having my own profiles for clock speeds in various situations and takes a minute to sort out when I first install windows as usually profiles stay working fine with a driver reinstall.
These little things tend to be missing, and its literally just EXPERIENCE with how the drivers work. I wouldn't know if forcing 8x Aa with some fancy mode often causes issues with new unoptimised games, because I'm not used to the drivers, nor would I be used to dealing with clock speeds that aren't detecting full 3d in certain games, windowed, maybe with aero on or aero off, or in various other situations.
People too often confuse lack of experience or complete familiarity with one driver style, with a driver being crap.
People also lack some basic common sense, AMD have several driver teams, the guys working on this months release will move on after to work on probably a release in 3 more months, with a team working on a feature for next months and a separate team working on the driver for in 2 months time. Thats how software works, Nvidia take just as long to fix problems, its just in one driver set instead of 3, its still only one release since a problem picked up.
Also 98% of AMD's driver issues, most users don't have, and are almost all fixable with clock speed fixes, IE powerplay causing issues, and remember the grey screen problem only happened AFTER a powersaving Windows update that changed how powerstates were recognised marginally, you stick your clock speeds to full 3d(especially with dual monitors, something Nvidia has to do by default now) then ALL these issues dissappear, this has been a widely available and known fix since a day after the 5870 launch and STILL people can't fix something incredibly simple themselves, not a perfect world, but thats life, its not even a "fix" to me, its just in my list of standard things I do when I install windows now, again, experience trumps most driver issues.
ANyway, AMD seems to have another huge win over Nvidia in the coming weeks/months, Apple to take on their Apple TV with an AMD gpu AND CPU, which is immense. Apple using an AMD cpu only strengthens the ties between the companies and only makes it ever more likely Apple will push Nvidia even further out in the future.
Most Nvidia users who move to AMD then slate the drivers do so because they are more used to forcing one method of doing something, don't bother looking around the control panel and don't realise that a decade of using Nvidia means they are used to loading up program X, Y or Z to do all their overclocking, game tweaking, fixing refresh rates(pretty much a thing of the past though), forcing trip buffering and not realise that, and vsync are only opengl options in the control panel, etc.
What you've gotten used to over a decade and forget you even do doesn't make another product you aren't used to bad, simply different.
Its been since a 8800gtx that I've had an Nvidia card(of any substance I actually use on a frequent basis, got laptop Nvidia gpu's), so when I next have one(if ever) I simply won't be used to the control panel, I won't automatically know that forcing options x,y and z works in very few games and often in most new games will cause bugs and texture glitches and I WON'T instantly decide the drivers are crap.
I know through experience that forcing anything but AF to max, vsync, trip buffering(and using a 3rd party program to do those two for dx games), and forcing anything but standard AA methods will be FAR more likely to cause issues with new games, flickering or buggyness, especially with the increasing number of games that don't actually have AA as standard anymore.
If I leave 16xaa, vsync off(better done ingame often, just cause 2 sucks on both Nvidia and ATi with vsync on, its laggy as crap, its smoother by far when not vsynced) and box AA and I literally never have game issues, well haven't in as long as I can remember now.
I'm also completely used to having my own profiles for clock speeds in various situations and takes a minute to sort out when I first install windows as usually profiles stay working fine with a driver reinstall.
These little things tend to be missing, and its literally just EXPERIENCE with how the drivers work. I wouldn't know if forcing 8x Aa with some fancy mode often causes issues with new unoptimised games, because I'm not used to the drivers, nor would I be used to dealing with clock speeds that aren't detecting full 3d in certain games, windowed, maybe with aero on or aero off, or in various other situations.
People too often confuse lack of experience or complete familiarity with one driver style, with a driver being crap.
People also lack some basic common sense, AMD have several driver teams, the guys working on this months release will move on after to work on probably a release in 3 more months, with a team working on a feature for next months and a separate team working on the driver for in 2 months time. Thats how software works, Nvidia take just as long to fix problems, its just in one driver set instead of 3, its still only one release since a problem picked up.
Also 98% of AMD's driver issues, most users don't have, and are almost all fixable with clock speed fixes, IE powerplay causing issues, and remember the grey screen problem only happened AFTER a powersaving Windows update that changed how powerstates were recognised marginally, you stick your clock speeds to full 3d(especially with dual monitors, something Nvidia has to do by default now) then ALL these issues dissappear, this has been a widely available and known fix since a day after the 5870 launch and STILL people can't fix something incredibly simple themselves, not a perfect world, but thats life, its not even a "fix" to me, its just in my list of standard things I do when I install windows now, again, experience trumps most driver issues.
ANyway, AMD seems to have another huge win over Nvidia in the coming weeks/months, Apple to take on their Apple TV with an AMD gpu AND CPU, which is immense. Apple using an AMD cpu only strengthens the ties between the companies and only makes it ever more likely Apple will push Nvidia even further out in the future.
Soldato
Never had any problem with drivers and the 5870, same with the 480...well not entirely true, my game profiles willl not stick but no big deal, I will say that I prefer the simplicity of Nvidia's control panel, that is one area AMD can sharpen up on.
or for them to make it a true open api
PhysX is not an important factor in my decision to buy nVidia or ATI... I played through Mirror's edge on a console (so no PhysX, gpu accelerated or otherwise), after seeing videos of gameplay with PhysX enabled. I can honestly say, it did not detract from the gameplay experience.
Soldato
Its better to have than not to
I would honestly consider a Nvidia for it if the price was good.
Not if its hammers the performance for what you getting & is no different from what most people do when the performance is lowered to much at a given setting, they turn it down or off, just like most people don't run everyone game at max quality setting & they don't seem that bothered about it.
I personal like to run every game at max quality setting & i have paid to have it so but sometimes i don't because i don't like the effects at the highest setting. bloom is one that i don't like so BFBC2 is running with everything max except for the effects that are on the lowest setting.
Also the same has been said with some of the effects with phyics in some game where i thought i would turn that off if i had that game & funny enough i found a post where a teenager had played a game on the xbox than played it on his dads PC with phyics effects & asked how to turn them off because he did not like them.
So im just saying dont assume that physx & everything turned on would be to everyone's liking.
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Soldato
can't understand the people who say 'i go for price/performance over features', why not get a 4870X2 or GTX 295 then, since they still spank most of the cards on the market? hell the GTX 295 beats the GTX 480 on numerous occasions and has reasonable power-draw and temperatures. 
sorry it just seems a little 'contradictory' thats all
sorry it just seems a little 'contradictory' thats allIts better to have than not to
I would honestly consider a Nvidia for it if the price was good.
Your only encouraging them. FizzX is a dead horse.