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PhysX Accelerators

platypus

platypus

platypus

Caporegime
Joined
25 Jul 2003
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Anyone have one of these? Just wondering if I can get any more performance out of my PC, as if I need it at the moment :p

Anyway: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-023-BG&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=594

Now, how useful are these now, not very I presume? But with games like Supreme Commander being hugely resource intensive, and upcoming games like Crysis/HG:L will they start to realise their potential? From what I've seen/heard of Crysis having one of these could become pretty important. In relation to this, do the games have to be phyiscally coded to support PhysiX cards, or can the cards 'help out' anyway?

Also, are these cards PCI-E or just PCI, cant seem to find much on that.
 
Red rags to bulls here :p

I bought one out of stupidity, though if the release of unreal 3 engine games starts to get exciting i might not look so stupid: looks at huxley :D
 
The games need to be coded for the card to have any use. Very few use it and im not certain that Crysis will make use of it. They are only PCI at the minute, but i wouldn't buy one. They have been proven to decrease the performance in games like GRAW because they add in more effects that slow the game down.
 
well i picked up a game the other day (forgot what it was) and looked on the back and noticed the PhysX logo, so games are starting to support PhysX
 
I don't see the benefit of paying £130 for better physics, what's wrong with Havok? If you look at HL2 and Garry's Mod you can see that you don't need to spend £130 for good physics, games with Havok don't cost extra.
 
Personally, i'd rather put the extra money towards a good CPU, then i know it can do almost any physics. Havok Physics is just as good as Ageia and it's more widespread. And it doesn't need a PPU. Perhaps they should be called POOP's instead
 
”Now, how useful are these now, not very I presume?”
Not very usefull unless you have/play lots of PPU enable games which is unlikely.



“Crysis/HG:L will they start to realise their potential? From what I've seen/heard of Crysis having one of these could become pretty important.”
Those games do not benefit from an Ageia PPU.




”In relation to this, do the games have to be phyiscally coded to support PhysiX cards, or can the cards 'help out' anyway?”
games have to be physically coded for support. The game list is currently very small so unless syou have a PPU game don’t buy the PPU.




”Also, are these cards PCI-E or just PCI, cant seem to find much on that.”
PCI-E is coming out later but it’s not worth it. PCI is better for a PPU. There will be no benefits or speed increase in using PC-E







“Check out the Ageia website for compatible games. “
That’s a waste of time the website is massively out of date and pretty much useless. http://personal.inet.fi/atk/kjh2348fs/ageia_physx.html is better but still not 100% right.




“I don't see the benefit of paying £130 for better physics, what's wrong with Havok? If you look at HL2 and Garry's Mod you can see that you don't need to spend £130 for good physics, games with Havok don't cost extra.“
Havok doesn’t boost your FPS by as much as 30% and it doesn’t provide lots of cloth or 3d liquids. Havok also costs developers over 100k more to use.





“Havok Physics is just as good as Ageia and it's more widespread.”
Havok isn’t more widespread and it’s not as fast. The effects you get in Ageia games would put Havok into single FPS digits. I have never seen a Havok game with the effects in Ageia games.
 
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am surprised ageia haven't gone bust, there is still nothing out there really that uses it, 2 years later, by the time physics kicks off everyone will be using that 3rd pci-e slot with an 'old' graphics card in there doing the physics calc, or we will be using multicore CPU's and assigning cores to physics
 
Combat squirrel said:
am surprised ageia haven't gone bust, there is still nothing out there really that uses it, 2 years later, by the time physics kicks off everyone will be using that 3rd pci-e slot with an 'old' graphics card in there doing the physics calc, or we will be using multicore CPU's and assigning cores to physics
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Come on man this whole issue has been through a million times!! CPU and GPU's arnt up to the job, plus i dont really fancy having a million watt psu so i can have my 2 r600's and the r580 pulling the national grid down :D
 
carlazai said:
Come on man this whole issue has been through a million times!! CPU and GPU's arnt up to the job, plus i dont really fancy having a million watt psu so i can have my 2 r600's and the r580 pulling the national grid down :D
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Ya right we've been through it a million times ! 8800 series cards are more than up to the job of calc physics (hell 7800 have enough processing oomph) ;) so is a 2nd or 3rd CPU core, the net results wont be any different if not better than what physX can do, if physX made the card around £60 and TONS of GOOD games used it and it made it awesome id get one, but there are no good games apart from GRAW but then all it does is add black particle dots to it, thats it :rolleyes:
 
”so is a 2nd or 3rd CPU core, the net results wont be any different if not better than what physX can do,”
How do you work that one out? CPU’s are a bad choice they lack a lot of what’s needed to be good at physics like haveing low internal bandwidth not being able to process lots of data in parallel e.c.t. One Ageia PPU is roughly 50 times faster then 1 CPU core (25x 2 cores) at physics spec wise. Even a GPU is a good x10 faster if not more then a CPU.

A 2nd or 3rd CPU core will not be the same as a good PPU or GPU.





“8800 series cards are more than up to the job of calc physics (hell 7800 have enough processing oomph) ”
That’s not been proven yet and spec wise is has a few problem areas like small internal bandwidth, which is something physics need lots of. Not that’s its going be rubbish its way better then using a CPU. Not sure the 8800 is up for calc physics as Havok FX say no gameplay physics via the 8800 which is a worry.




“am surprised ageia haven't gone bust, there is still nothing out there really that uses it,”
Game wise there are 100’s of games and lots of number 1 seller that sold in the millions. How you can think they should have gone bust by now is beyond me. They are doing way to well.
 
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There may be hundreds of games that use the PPU but I cant say I have seen a game to date that anyone has said "this games runs and looks 100x better with a PPU vs non PPU system". Just beceause something uses something doesnt make it any better than it not using it. if you know what I mean :p
 
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