Thirith on 23/6/2009 at 10:17
As I posted in a different thread, I'm currently playing Mirror's Edge. My setup is an E8600 and a 260 GTX, so I would have expected to be able to activate PhysX without too much slowdown. This was also the case in the first one or two levels, but as soon as breaking glass entered the game things slowed down to a crawl: a felt 5-10fps.
I'm wondering now: I've got the latest PhysX drivers installed, but is it possible that the game isn't using my video card but rather my CPU to calculate the physics effects? If so, is there somewhere I can make sure that the game uses my GPU instead?
Or am I getting all of this completely wrong, and the idea is that you've got a second video card that is used as a dedicated physics accelerator? :confused:
bikerdude on 23/6/2009 at 12:36
Quote Posted by Thirith
Or am I getting all of this completely wrong, and the idea is that you've got a second video card that is used as a dedicated physics accelerator?
You need a second nvidia card (only 8800 or higher are supported) which will do all the physx. Fyi, even my over-clocked GTX280 cant do physx at the same time with out noticeable slowdown..
Ostriig on 23/6/2009 at 12:51
Quote Posted by Thirith
As I posted in a different thread, I'm currently playing
Mirror's Edge. My setup is an E8600 and a 260 GTX, so I would have expected to be able to activate PhysX without too much slowdown. This was also the case in the first one or two levels, but as soon as breaking glass entered the game things slowed down to a crawl: a felt 5-10fps.
Is the game patched? There is a known PhysX bug in the original release version that was reported to cause freezes at certain points in the game. Everyone running PhysX on had it, including myself. It might be the same thing, just that your rig kills the framerate, rather than lock up altogether.
Quote Posted by Bikerdude
You need a second nvidia card (only 8800 or higher are supported) which will do all the physx. Fyi, even my over-clocked GTX280 cant do physx at the same time with out noticeable slowdown..
Eh? PhysX Support enabled in menu:
Inline Image:
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb67/Ostriig/me1.jpgFlowing banner in-game:
Inline Image:
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb67/Ostriig/me2.jpgI forgot that Fraps hides its own fps counter when you make a screencap with it, and I'm not gonna start the game up again to use PrintScreen instead, but the framerate is in the 30-50 range. This is on a single 9800GT.
Thirith on 23/6/2009 at 12:57
Ostriig: that's what makes me think that my problem is with the setup, not with the hardware. I've checked out a number of benchmarks, and my machine should have a noticeable dip in framerate when I activate PhysX, but I shouldn't get single-digit fps! And I've really only noticed the effect in the level where you meet your sister and then SWAT teams shoot the glass as you're running away from them.
Unfortunately the connection at work filters most games-related websites, so I've been able to find mention of other people having the same problem but no solutions. Grumble.
Edit: Only now saw your comment about the patch. Will have to check whether it's the patched version of the game.
Ostriig on 23/6/2009 at 13:05
Quote Posted by Thirith
And I've really only noticed the effect in the level where you meet your sister and then SWAT teams shoot the glass as you're running away from them.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's the same bug, then. It's been a while since I went through there, but I seem to remember the exact same thing - horrid slow-down on that section, and then a full lock-up somewhere on the next level. The suggested fix was to patch the game and perform an update to PhysX (separate from the graphics drivers then). I
think that firmware update was later included with nVidia's graphics drivers, so you may not need to worry about it.
Thirith on 23/6/2009 at 13:25
Will try this when I get home. Usually I make sure I've got all relevant patches as soon as I've installed a game, but it may have slipped my mind in this case. Thanks!
Ostriig on 23/6/2009 at 14:07
No worries, hope it helps!
Thirith on 23/6/2009 at 16:28
It still didn't work - until I deinstalled PhysX and re-installed it. Now it's running just fine. The PhysX work isn't making a huge difference, but it is making the world feel more real. :)
