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Ageia PhysX Accelerator

No, it hardly makes a difference and not a lot of games is capable of actually using the technology so its not worth the money.
 
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It makes a large difference in the games it works in just it only works in about 25 to 30 games and demos. So unless you have a decent amount of PPU games its not wroth it. In games that support it you get depending not the game extra level(s). extra weapons, up to a 30% performance boost and nice effects like wind, cloth, liquidsm soft metal and more.

There are a lot of poster on here that like to make it sound far worse then it is. http://www.ageia.com/physx/graw2.html watch the video and read what it does then judge for your self it.

The problem with the PPU isn’t that it does nothing. Its that there’s only a small amount of games that use it.
 
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That and physics are being incorporated onto graphics cards now anyway so the card is already obsolete.
 
I checked the game list on Aegia's site of the games out and the games coming and it was pretty unimpressive with one or two actually just being showcases for the technology! Shame tbh :(
 
Never really took off imo. They should have teamed up with nvidia or ati. I am waiting for the big two to get their implementation of it sorted.

Richie.
 
GOOD games like crysis and ut3 have gone out of their way to say they WONT support the physx card.

GRAW looks crappy with it aswell, hundreds of particles fly around (looks unrealistic) then disappear after 2 seconds. such a pointless accessory. if it had a dedicated card to do this, you would think it could keep the particles on screen just that bit longer.
 
No long term support, several large developers saying the technology is fundamentally flawed and not worthy of development effort to support, and market pressure from much larger competitors (ATI and nvidia both saying they will do physics).

So, no. No prospects for the technology. Not worth the money.
 
I'd say 10 actually, there are 9 5 star reviews by customers on overclockers and good ol pottsey.

The short answer is as always if you play the games it supports then get it, if you don't then don't.

Remember an 8800GTX/GTS isn't worth it if you play on a 17" monitor. You can get away with an 8600 and most people here will tell you that an 8600 is crap as well.

Long term I don't see the Ageia PPU being around as a seperate system, it will get migrated into the Graphics Cards same as the Video Decoding has done. Microsoft are supposed to be bring a physics section to DirectX, if the Ageia PPU supports it then it may survive, however Nvidia and ATI are both pushing Havok which apparently has less features then Ageias SDK but is apparently easier to program on and is more CPU friendly.

Interestingly though ATI and Nvidia both talk about using a seperate card to do the physics still rather then onboard your display card, ie 8800GTX for the display or 2 for SLI and then an 8600 to perform the physics. This is why the 680i chipset has developed that 3rd PCI-e x16 slot.
 
Unreal Tournament 3 will use PPU.

And most the games on the Unreal 3 Engine.

And it is all well and good saying ATI and Nvidia are making the graphics cards do the physics but you won't see anything from them for decades.
 
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When PPU cards were first talked about / launched, I always felt they would sit well with a soundcard (in the same way that you used to get gameports on soundcards). Reason being that it would actually give people more of an incentive to be spending £100+. For example if I could get a PCI / PCI-E card which was like an X-Fi Gamer and PhysX bolted together for £100 then I might be interested.

As it stands they shot themselves in the foot with excessive pricing to begin with (£200). Price has now more than halved down to under £90 but the horse has bolted as it were. Maybe I might be tempted if it dropped another £20 and a free game was bundled but at some point they would be making a loss.
 
mdjmcnally said:
Remember an 8800GTX/GTS isn't worth it if you play on a 17" monitor. You can get away with an 8600 and most people here will tell you that an 8600 is crap as well.
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That's sarcasm right?
Fanatic said:
Unreal Tournament 3 will use PPU.
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Too bad you can't enable the effects of a PPU unless everyone else has one, making it useless for online play.
Fanatic said:
And most the games on the Unreal 3 Engine.
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No they won't just because one game does, does not mean others will.

Crysis doesn't use a PPU and that has far superior physics to anything I've seen from the amazing PhysX.
 
My opinion on the whole PPU thing is that it is a good idea. However, a lack of games, many of which are mediocre games as well as the presence of quad core processors which can theoretically do the same job means that the PhysX card is quite unappealing to the average gamer.

Unreal Tournament 3 I believe will be judgement day for the PPU. As this game is really all about the online multiplayer and everyone else in the server must have a PPU, I don't think the PPU sales will be that great when the game arrives. Of course there can be PPU only servers but I don't think theres going to be many of them. Thy physics are still going to be impressive anyway without the PPU.

Overall, do not buy it unless one of the few games that makes use of it is something you know you really like.
 
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