Is there any evidence you can provide for this? I don't necessarily dispute it, but I don't entirely buy that it's just for rendering - I thought some games were starting to offload particle systems and physics.
Can I use an NVIDIA GPU as a PhysX processor and a non-NVIDIA GPU for regular display graphics?
No. There are multiple technical connections between PhysX processing and graphics that require tight collaboration between the two technologies. To deliver a good experience for users, NVIDIA PhysX technology has been fully verified and enabled using only NVIDIA GPUs for graphics.EDIT: I'm talking about game development
Some games (many actually) are using gpu accelerated particles, but they're pretty much purely for rendering.
Remember that frame times are super tight on games (16 and 33 ms per frame for 60 and 30 FPS respectively), and consoles are notoriously underpowered.
Working in games, none of my colleagues or companies we work with have much interest in offloading physics to the GPU at the expense of rendering performance.
https://blogs.unity3d.com/2014/07/08/high-performance-physic...