PhysX - Nvidia: Automatic or GPU only in CP

[bogroll 10]

PhysX - Nvidia: Is it best to leave this at the default automatic setting, or perhaps select the GPU only in the Nvidia control panel? I know the common answer for most games would be Auto - but for Arma 3.. anybody seen any improvement? I've got a OC'd 3570k and a GTX 670 btw. Any opinions??

Many thanks:)

[spamurai 3]

Set it for automatic.

It is said that ArmA 3: Alpha is not utilizing GPU PhysX, and it is running it from the CPU only

Hopefully.... BIS would/could eventually enable it for Nvidia based cards some time into the future.

[bogroll 10]

Many thanks for the reply Spamurai > I'm really surprised by this that the alpha is not utilizing GPU PhysX!

[Pyrophosphate 1]

There is no reason to use GPU PhysX. The only physics work involved is simple vehicle dynamics, ragdolls, and maybe some particles. The ballistic physics system is almost certainly the same system BIS has spent a decade developing.

Vehicles and ragdolls run perfectly well on the CPU. GPU physics wouldn't actually help much, if at all.

[brfield 1]

That, and GPU PhysX would eliminate anyone with a Radeon card.

[metalcraze 290]

That, and GPU PhysX would eliminate anyone with a Radeon card.

That's a lie.

[brfield 1]

That's a lie.

No, it isn't. The PhysX SDK uses an API, and is run on the CPU. There is an option with NVIDIA card to run on the GPU. But, forcing the PhysX to the GPU means they are using the PhysX engine, thus eliminating AMD cards.

[metalcraze 290]

No, it isn't. The PhysX SDK uses an API, and is run on the CPU. There is an option with NVIDIA card to run on the GPU. But, forcing the PhysX to the GPU means they are using the PhysX engine, thus eliminating AMD cards.

So I take it you can't play games like Mirror's Edge, Unreal Tournament 3, Borderlands 2, Batman AA and AC etc. and pretty much every other Unreal Engine 3 game?

Have you ever heard about the thing called an 'option'? An 'option' to switch between software and hardware PhysX. They are not mutually exclusive.

[white 1]

There is no reason to use GPU PhysX. The only physics work involved is simple vehicle dynamics, ragdolls, and maybe some particles. The ballistic physics system is almost certainly the same system BIS has spent a decade developing.

Vehicles and ragdolls run perfectly well on the CPU. GPU physics wouldn't actually help much, if at all.

considering this game is cpu bound by bad code limitation, anything to aliviate the processor taking some of the load off of it would be helpfull.

[kremator 1065]

considering this game is cpu bound by bad code limitation

And you are still here? It's an alpha, white. It will get better AND we will hopefully have an option to use the GPU for PhysX.

[white 1]

And you are still here? It's an alpha, white. It will get better AND we will hopefully have an option to use the GPU for PhysX.

it didnt on arma 2, so the "its an alpha" argument is moot. its a core issue on the engine that might or might not be fixed unless enough people ask for it so it has enough weight. its not even on the known issues/sit rep yet despite the 550 bug report votes.

[Fuse 1]

It pretty much depends on the game. Running PhysX on the CPU is slower than the GPU, but only marginally. Mostly you want to put PhysX on which ever processor the game doesn't use as much. Arma hits you CPU much harder than your GPU (and GPU load is easily reduced with settings changes), so it will benefit from offloading PhysX to the GPU assuming your GPU isn't being overworked on low settings already... When Bohemia lets us.

At least this is how it has was explained to me long ago.

[tet5uo 4]

I dedicate one GPU to PhysX esclusively and still didn't see it get any usage. 0% on that one always.

I don't think GPU physX is enabled at all.

[Leon86 13]

Nope, purely cpu physX. Doesn't matter much for performance, it's only on the vehicles, some objects and maybe the ragdolls?

the truck and all the (couple hundred) boxes are physX, still playable, even though it's all cpu.

[NeuroFunker 11]

lol, nice one

[tet5uo 4]

Haha that's hilarious.

[brfield 1]

So I take it you can't play games like Mirror's Edge, Unreal Tournament 3, Borderlands 2, Batman AA and AC etc. and pretty much every other Unreal Engine 3 game?

Have you ever heard about the thing called an 'option'? An 'option' to switch between software and hardware PhysX. They are not mutually exclusive.

I meant by making the game use GPU PhysX you drastically increase the performance and eye candy on machines with NVIDIA cards. Especially in a game like ARMA3 where it hits the CPU super hard, not leaving much left for PhysX. I hope after the optimization that SHOULD come, the CPU hit would be less, thus leaving the CPU available to PhysX calculations faster and in more quantities.

[joebopie 1]

There is no reason to use GPU PhysX. The only physics work involved is simple vehicle dynamics, ragdolls, and maybe some particles. The ballistic physics system is almost certainly the same system BIS has spent a decade developing.

Vehicles and ragdolls run perfectly well on the CPU. GPU physics wouldn't actually help much, if at all.

this game is CPU heavy as many post will confirm and lacks propper multithreading. it seems odd to me to add another prosess to the CPU(unless its able to use the other cores) rather than use the underutilised GPU.

[FlyByNight 10]

Totally agree........................... let the horses run the horsepower

[Droikka 1]

http://gamegpu.ru/action-/-fps-/-tps/arma-iii-alpha-test-gpu/testovaya-chast.html

The game utilizes only two cores at best, the rest is spread around unevenly and underutilized...

[brfield 1]

http://gamegpu.ru/action-/-fps-/-tps/arma-iii-alpha-test-gpu/testovaya-chast.html

The game utilizes only two cores at best, the rest is spread around unevenly and underutilized...

That's why it's still in Alpha. Once it goes full release, we'll see better optimization and CPU utilization.

[gossamersolid 155]

It's probably not going to use more than 2 cores either, so get used to it

[f2k sel 164]

It's a bit daft to only use two cores, half the pc working over time and the rest twiddling it thumbs. It's very annoying to have to keep shelling for faster CPU's.

[joebopie 1]

sadly its not daft, its just very hard to change the programing of the game to do it.

personally I will be turning off more than half of my new CPU's cores and overclocking the rest.

both AMD and Intel are not making fast cores. they haven't really made them any faster in the last 3 or 4 years, there concentrating on multiple cores, witch is fine for things than are new and designed form the ground up to use them all, but not for things like ARMA's engine as its been built up since the days of only single cores

[tet5uo 4]

sadly its not daft, its just very hard to change the programing of the game to do it.

At this point, years and years after the engine was first built, it's starting to move into "daft" territory, i'm afraid.