• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

NVIDIA Removes Restriction on ATI GPUs with NVIDIA GPUs Processing PhysX

I don't think you can really put a number to the amount of users they've alienated with this.

The days when PhysX were all about super realism tho are very much in the past, the last 3 years its been tweaked significantly towards robust physics that work well within gaming environments - you have to spend a lot less time worrying about your simulation "exploding" (technical term :D) with PhysX than most other physics implementations including Havok or sticking to or getting in the way of the player, etc.

The thing is the sort of physics that PhysX can provide, that can't be done on the CPU, require them to be an intrinsic part of the game engine rather than an incidental effect so we never really see the full capabilities of PhysX - capabilities that are mostly lacking in Havok.
 
I think it is a shame, i'm surely not the only one with spare NVIDiA cards lying around that could act as a dedicated phyx GPU. I'd rather have the option to have, than not to - even if it is such a small, under supported feature.

Having said that, while i would have liked it, it isn't anything massive - it would have been nice, but it isn't.
 
Rroff said:
I don't think you can really put a number to the amount of users they've alienated with this.

The days when PhysX were all about super realism tho are very much in the past, the last 3 years its been tweaked significantly towards robust physics that work well within gaming environments - you have to spend a lot less time worrying about your simulation "exploding" (technical term :D) with PhysX than most other physics implementations including Havok or sticking to or getting in the way of the player, etc.

The thing is the sort of physics that PhysX can provide, that can't be done on the CPU, require them to be an intrinsic part of the game engine rather than an incidental effect so we never really see the full capabilities of PhysX - capabilities that are mostly lacking in Havok.
Click to expand...

And Nv knows that it will not get used fully & they really don't care about that because incidental effects PhysX are still selling the card anyway.

And why sell you one card when they can sell you 2 when a single card is not satisfactory to some with gfx & PhysX on a single gpu & that second card they would like to be another NV card so make sure that any other make of GPU cant be used & if it really has to be just a single card then buy an NV card anyway.
Profit before substance as they have no more to gain if real physics were used or not, the card was sold regardless. .
 
Last edited:
physx is pretty bleh really although i've been quite impressed with it on high in batman arkham asylum, mafia 2 though looks like a big showpiece game for physx. definitely gonna be an either or situation though with 3D vision and physx judging by those framerates unless you got gtx 480 sli

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adzXEQTP8tQ&hd=1
 
Final8y said:
incidental effects PhysX are still selling the card anyway.
Click to expand...

It's amazing how many people around the net think that Physx is a good reason to buy NV cards. They seem to think that they are missing out if they don't, which is exactly what NV want them top think. It's so laughable when you see the difference between physx on and off in the games that use it. Have you seen the Metro2033 physx comparison video? As if I would really notice the difference while playing the game. :rolleyes:
 
Well that's crappy news, i thought they had finally seen sense.

Hopefully this current PhysX driver will still work with Mafia 2, that game looks absolutely amazing.
 
Bahahahaah, lol, so its a bug that they did something that even a shedload of Nvidia only users said was a good thing and maybe was showing Nvidia were taking a sensible path, no, its the old, one driver team not doing what the other driver team is doing. Ie one feature in other drivers missing in a new one because it was just overlooked.

Complete morons, to see the widespread talk on many forums saying its a good move by Nvidia...... they could have said, yup, we did it, how nice are we.

Instead, not only do they dissappoint everyone, they do it while also admiting they made a mistake with the driver, double fail.

I really doubt Physx will be prevelant, despite what PR video's say, in Mafia 2, yes the software api will probably handle most stuff, but that runs fine. Its the needless excessive extra bits that don't do much except kill FPS that won't run without hardware acceleration, seeing as the game is also on consoles its unlikely it will have heavy usage of effects only capable with acceleration seeing as neither consoles can use it.

Praying though that Mafia 2 is as good as the first game, if it is it could be the best game to come in years, and for years. Mafia 1 was one of the best games of all time, largely because it focused on the story, characters, mission settings/ideas than graphics and gimmicks, if its overly consolified up, or sabotaged to only run well with physx acceleration on PC's, I'll probably through my PC out the window.

EDIT:- Also remember that Nvidia can simply force an update to the physx driver for a game, so a new physx driver will only work with a specific Nvidia driver. IE, to run Mafia 2 or Game X/Y/Z, you might have to get a new physx driver, which simply won't work with this beta.

It really shouldn't be surprising, but is surprising that Nvidia never, ever learn, they really had nothing but good press all day on all forums for "removing" the restriction, who on earth would not jump all over it and just claim it as on purpose and they'll announce it with the official drivers or something, why do they insist on shooting themselves in the foot in every concievable situation?
 
Last edited:
I don't have any fears of Mafia 2 sucking, Illusion Softworks are one of the best developers around imo. The Hidden and Dangerous games and Mafia were all amazing, my favourite PC games ever made alongside Deus Ex and Morrowind.

I'm just so annoyed that Enemy in Sight was cancelled when Atari kept the rights after the 2K buyout. That game sounded like it had serious potential :(
 
I read the news thinking that nVidia had finally recognised the error of its ways and that it might actually be worth installing the old 8800GT I have lying about, only to discover that nVidia are just are despicable as ever and that this was simply a bug.
 
They were never going to allow physx with ATI cards present, given they are in the situation with fermi that they have worse performing cards than ATI they need every USP they can get
 
cool may mean i can use my 9800 as a pysX card when i update my pc finallyalso its a good move to sell more cards than restrict your market was always a bad move by nvidia to isolate this as it halfed there market.

I dont thinkthey will let ATI put it on there cards yet tho or if they do maybe they can pay royaltys to nivida for using it if they nee abit of money.

I been with nividia ages now but probably going ATI just hope that i dont have many problems when i get 1 as a few games i play theres a lot of bugs with ATI at the moment. but then again theres bugs with lots of cards and for ever 1 post where someone has a problem with a card theres probably a 1000 who dont. sometimes its the luck of the draw or something you downloaded conflicted with something or just some people dont really maintain there computers well :).
 
Wow, disappointment city. I was hoping that nv were finally about to change their ways and this was the beginning of a return to form - uh uh! I was even tempted for a short while (about two pages of reading comments) to get a cheapo nv card to go with my 5770!
 
drunkenmaster said:
EDIT:- Also remember that Nvidia can simply force an update to the physx driver for a game, so a new physx driver will only work with a specific Nvidia driver. IE, to run Mafia 2 or Game X/Y/Z, you might have to get a new physx driver, which simply won't work with this beta.
Click to expand...
+1 There usually is a new physx update required each time a new AAA title comes out that uses physx, probably imo so that you can't use your ati/nvidia hybrid setup if you have been using the physx hack, until they hack it again.

Stupid move again by Nvidia to publicly say that it (ahem)forgot to lock down the driver, as how many out of the 100 posters on this thread from this forum alone was thinking about buying a nvidia card.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom