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    Alienware m17x R4 AMD 7970m has Nvidia physx installed ?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by tharindur, Jul 6, 2012.

  1. tharindur

    tharindur Notebook Enthusiast

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    Did anyone notice that Alienware M17x machines with AMD 7970m GPU has Nvidia physx drivers installed, you can see this if you goto control panel -> Add/Remove programs. Is Nvidia physx any use for AMD cards ?
     
    tharindur, Jul 6, 2012
    #1
  2. littlecx

    littlecx Notebook Deity

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    at least 3dmark vantage need physx to run
     
    littlecx, Jul 6, 2012
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  3. tharindur

    tharindur Notebook Enthusiast

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    So it's there only for compatibility ?
     
    tharindur, Jul 6, 2012
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  4. steviejones133

    steviejones133 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    As littlecx said, it's installed along with 3dMark benching software so that the benchmarking tool works properly. It wont serve any other purpose for your AMD gpu's. You would need an Nvidia gpu to take advantage of PhysX capabilities.
     
    steviejones133, Jul 6, 2012
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  5. tharindur

    tharindur Notebook Enthusiast

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    gotcha.. thanks..
     
    tharindur, Jul 6, 2012
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  6. StZu

    StZu Notebook Evangelist

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    So when we turn on phys x in games like. Metro, its still not on?
     
    StZu, Jul 6, 2012
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  7. Doctor Magneto

    Doctor Magneto Notebook Consultant

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    it is ON, but processed by the CPU
     
    Doctor Magneto, Jul 6, 2012
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  8. littlecx

    littlecx Notebook Deity

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    that means games with physx running on amd cards will have heavier load on cpu than those with nvidia?
     
    littlecx, Jul 6, 2012
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  9. zoolian982

    zoolian982 Notebook Deity

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    Amd with PhysX - Run by processor
    nVidia with PhysX - Run by gpu.
     
    zoolian982, Jul 6, 2012
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  10. black-bean

    black-bean Notebook Consultant

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    what if you have a very powerful CPU?

    btw, long live cactuar!!!
     
    black-bean, Jul 6, 2012
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  11. Prasad

    Prasad NBR Reviewer 1337 NBR Reviewer

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    It still won't compare to GPU physics processing, from what I understand. After all, it is a proprietary nVidia technology. You think they'd optimize it for anyone but themselves?
     
    Prasad, Jul 7, 2012
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  12. MickyD1234

    MickyD1234 Notebook Prophet

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    You have the option in the nvidia driver of using the cpu or gpu (or a dedicated second card if you had a lower power nvidia chip on-board like some early machines). I built a quad sli desktop with a dedicated physx card - 2x295's+9600. Boy did that make for long benchmarking sessions moving the processes around :eek:
     
    MickyD1234, Jul 7, 2012
    #12