RitualBlack Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 I recently watched the Borderlands 2 PhysX trailer and the fact that they had just about every cool eyecandy feature disabled unless you have a Nvidia card was a major letdown. My laptop has x2 AMD 6970m in it and I was looking into the possibility of using a card such as a gtx [460/550/560] for PhysX. I have seen cards like these used as external cards for laptops and I know there are modded drivers to allow the Nvidia card to handle PhysX with AMD cards as the primary so the big question is would it be possible? It seems a bit out there but I think it would be a pretty cool thing to have working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mujuro Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 I would think it would be possible. I used to play Oblivion from a laptop (had a GTX 200M or something like that as the main video) and then had some external card (can't remember which one) connected via a ViDock (mine was like their original "prototype/proof-of-concept" model, allowed for a single, external video hard). Note that this was like 3 years ago, I just checked the ViDock page and it appears they've significantly improved their offerings. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoofhearted4 Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 only problem is that Vidock thing costs as much as the card does! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ziitch Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 (edited) I thought that many NVIDIA GPUs still have problems running a large amount of PhysX anyways - Go look at the PhysX-centered UT3 maps for instance, and how bad the framerate can get. Edited September 13, 2012 by ziitch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RitualBlack Posted September 13, 2012 Author Share Posted September 13, 2012 Thanks for the feedback Mujuro. It is good to hear from an actual person that the external card actually can work. As for the PhysX performance a card like a gtx 460 would be enough to do that while my crossfire 6970m's would handle borderlands. I have seen some games where the PhysX was less than ideal to run but I am hoping Borderlands 2 will be fine (thank you for the reminder ziitch, I will definitely watch for that). I will wait until the release of Borderlands 2 before I even think of trying it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mujuro Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 No problem, and good luck! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RitualBlack Posted September 13, 2012 Author Share Posted September 13, 2012 I think I may be stopped before I can even get started. From what I have read the eGPU requires that you card(s) are turned off before you use it so it isn't likely that I will be able to run my 6970m's with the gtx 460 as a PhysX card at the same time :confused: . Thanks again though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mujuro Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 Hmm, is that something to do with the ViDock itself? I don't recall having this issue, but then again, I was using one of their earlier models (don't even see it listed anymore). Note that I'm not sure if the laptop build itself makes a difference (or the graphics card/chip on the laptop motherboard) ... I was using an industrial-strength Sager that basically was a desktop replacement (it was even running a desktop processor, i7 975X) with 3 HDDs, 12GB RAM, etc., and you could even swap out the video chip. It literally performed like a desktop, and I don't recall having issues configuring it to use both video cards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RitualBlack Posted September 14, 2012 Author Share Posted September 14, 2012 My laptop can be taken apart/upgraded just like the Sager 7200 (mine is also a very large laptop). When you set up and used the ViDock did it just get recognized having a second/third video card? The way I had intended it to work was to get a ViDock or equivalent device and a card like the gtx 460 to run Nvidia PhysX, set it all up and use it along with my crossfire 6970m through the modded hybrid drivers. My problem is that I have read about desktop crossfire 6970 working with a PhysX card, laptops using an external GPU but never a laptop with dedicated AMD mobility cards using a third Nvidia card solely for the purpose of enabling PhysX in games. I also read that a monitor is required for it so it is unlikely that I would be able to use my laptops screen. Would it be possible to utilize the HDMI in/out to allow the ViDock to use your laptops own monitor?. I can't honestly say I know all that much about this topic as I have never used an eGPU (or the HDMI ports on my laptop for that matter :tongue: ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mujuro Posted September 14, 2012 Share Posted September 14, 2012 It got recognized as a 2nd video card for me, but I was also using an external monitor rather than my laptop screen (external plugged into the laptop, not the ViDock). I was using both nVidia cards, but I'm not sure what would make a difference in your situation if you're using modded hybrid drivers. Regarding the HDMI out, I never really tried that, I was just using the DVI out. Unfortunately, I gave away my old ViDock or I'd be able to hop on my laptop and tell you how I had it configured. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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