Does PhysX diminish CPU performance?
Silicon Valley chip expert David Kanter has hypothesized that PhysX diminishes CPU performance by “exclusively” using an outdated x87 instruction set. “x87 has been deprecated for many years now, with [both] Intel and AMD recommending the much faster SSE instruction [set],” Kanter told TG Daily in an e-mailed statement. “On modern CPUs, SSE can easily run 1.3-2X faster than similar x87 code. By using x87, PhysX diminishes the performance of CPUs, calling into question the real benefits of PhysX on a GPU.” Kanter – who performed a detailed analysis of the instruction set – also acknowledged that Nvidia was free to “hobble” PhysX on the CPU by using single, rather than multi-threaded code “if it wished.” “[But] that choice does not benefit developers or consumers, and casts substantial doubts on the purported performance advantages of running PhysX on a GPU, rather than a CPU. “[Still], for Nvidia, decreasing the baseline CPU performance by using x87 instructions and a single thread make
