[OT] Physics Processor?

EAGLE_01 · 07-03-07, 12:06 AM

Permission to come aboard?

I was wandering around, dreaming about my next PC, and saw this add.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...9&sku=B52-7834

Please post your thoughts/evaluations...

Does this thing really make a diffierence?
Calm Seas.

StandingCow · 07-03-07, 12:14 AM

There is sort of a debate going on about this.. nvidia and ati say that a 2nd card (SLI or crossfire) can do just as good a job as a physics card.

And on top of that, I am not aware of any games that can take advantage of one.

That said, I think graphics are getting close to the point where they are good enough, and physics will be the next big focus.

Rilex · 07-03-07, 12:15 AM

Only on games that take advantage of it. There are very few which do.

I'd wait until nVidia/AMD start to release GPUs that provide general purpose physics if you are looking for something new.

EAGLE_01 · 07-03-07, 12:32 AM

Thanks for the replies.

So, essentially, none of our simulations, (SH3/4, LOMAC/Black Shark, FSX,the next Oleg Maddox IL2/BoB) are currently written to use a PPU at this time? It's somewhere down the road?:hmm:

Wow.. it has a Lifetime Warranty...

XanderF · 07-03-07, 12:44 AM

While the physics card is really quite useless, the company also makes video cards, which ARE very important. And video cards from BFG, eVGA, and XFX have lifetime warranties.

XFX calls theirs 'double lifetime' - lifetime for you, and if you sell the card, the second hand buyer gets a lifetime warranty, too. eVGA and BFG also tend to 'upgrade' you if you have a much older part that dies (IE., if the card you have is out of production and they cannot replace it with the same model, they replace it with a similar model of the current gen).

EAGLE_01 · 07-03-07, 03:57 AM

I'm looking forward to my next video card. And, although I love AMD processors, I have always steered clear of ATI cards, and this last one I bought because it was all I could afford that was AGP, etc...is THE LAST ATI card I will ever buy.

NVIDIA is hands-down the best.

Typhaon · 07-03-07, 04:30 AM

The power of this Ageia PhysX card is impressive... but like the others said... it's limited to very few games... as the name says it's only for physics in games and it can handle a lot of objects at a time... and most impressive the ability to calculate fluids in real time... but at the moment it is not worth, because there are too few games to play with it...
But if you want to take a look you can watch some videos at their homepage:
http://www.ageia.com/physx/videos.html

JREX53 · 07-03-07, 10:08 AM

According to the Advertisement, it is a PCI card - which ancient history in the PC world, especially for video cards. The newest and greatest form is the PCI-Express which is an entirely different slot than the PCI slot..

SteamWake · 07-03-07, 10:25 AM

Only game that I know of that promotes this product is Rainbow Six GRAW.

I play GRAW without the physics processor and am happy with its performance.

I imagine though as games become more and more demanding it (the processor) will be a handy gizmoe and help with offloading the CPU to some degree.

Also note that games have to be designed to take advantage of the processor or else it is ignored.

EAGLE_01 · 07-03-07, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Typhaon

The power of this Ageia PhysX card is impressive... but like the others said... it's limited to very few games... as the name says it's only for physics in games and it can handle a lot of objects at a time... and most impressive the ability to calculate fluids in real time... but at the moment it is not worth, because there are too few games to play with it...
But if you want to take a look you can watch some videos at their homepage:
http://www.ageia.com/physx/videos.html

Thanks for that link. Some of those vids are pretty cool, but the one for "Heavy Rain" was VERY interesting.

I'm betting this will be weitten into most games before too long..I only hope Simulation Devs use it...

SingeDebile · 07-03-07, 01:42 PM

it still remains to be seen if this will become the new standard,

i think the biggest thing working against that is the dual, quad, and soon to come 8x processor cores

games will start simply dedicating one processor for physics, one for AI etc..... ( cant remember where i read a great article talking about this)

couple this with the fact there is a very limited support for the card... and because of this the games can only be designed with the card offering a bonus in the visual and not interactive area (so that the game is still playable without it), I would save my money for something else

EAGLE_01 · 07-03-07, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JREX53

According to the Advertisement, it is a PCI card - which ancient history in the PC world, especially for video cards. The newest and greatest form is the PCI-Express which is an entirely different slot than the PCI slot..

Roger that.

I was under the impression this was just a Physics processor..if not, why haven't the other big graphic card makers started pushing this along I wonder.

EAGLE_01 · 07-03-07, 01:47 PM

Just saw your post, SingeDebile.

That makes sense.

If you watch the Heavy Rain vid, I'm wondering if that detail would be present without the PhysX job..

It would be too great to have environments like that in our subs, or in flight sims..

Garion · 07-03-07, 02:39 PM

Quote:

According to the Advertisement, it is a PCI card - which ancient history in the PC world, especially for video cards. The newest and greatest form is the PCI-Express which is an entirely different slot than the PCI slot..

The physics card is not a graphics card, yoo need a separate graphics card, PCI-Express or AGP to actually display the graphics.

PCI slots are still fitted in modern PC's along side the PCI-express slots. I am currently running 2x nvidia cards in SLI mode and would put the Physics card in a spare PCI slot. But as as has already been said, the games have to actually support the physics cards for them to be usefull.

I also read in a tech journal that Nvdia and ATI may be adding physics chips to future graphics cards.. only time will tell though. :hmm:

Cheers

Garion

SteamWake · 07-03-07, 02:56 PM

Might want to consider one of these as well

1,000 watt power supply

http://store.pcpowerzone.com/pccotu1k10po.html

07-03-07, 12:06 AM	#1
EAGLE_01 Machinist's Mate Join Date: May 2007 Location: Dayton, OH. Posts: 127 Downloads: 46 Uploads: 0	[OT] Physics Processor? Permission to come aboard? I was wandering around, dreaming about my next PC, and saw this add. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...9&sku=B52-7834 Please post your thoughts/evaluations... Does this thing really make a diffierence? Calm Seas.

07-03-07, 12:14 AM	#2
StandingCow Weps Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 355 Downloads: 17 Uploads: 0	There is sort of a debate going on about this.. nvidia and ati say that a 2nd card (SLI or crossfire) can do just as good a job as a physics card. And on top of that, I am not aware of any games that can take advantage of one. That said, I think graphics are getting close to the point where they are good enough, and physics will be the next big focus. __________________

07-03-07, 12:44 AM	#5
XanderF Samurai Navy Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Portland, OR Posts: 554 Downloads: 14 Uploads: 0	While the physics card is really quite useless, the company also makes video cards, which ARE very important. And video cards from BFG, eVGA, and XFX have lifetime warranties. XFX calls theirs 'double lifetime' - lifetime for you, and if you sell the card, the second hand buyer gets a lifetime warranty, too. eVGA and BFG also tend to 'upgrade' you if you have a much older part that dies (IE., if the card you have is out of production and they cannot replace it with the same model, they replace it with a similar model of the current gen). __________________

07-03-07, 01:42 PM	#11
SingeDebile Seaman Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 33 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	it still remains to be seen if this will become the new standard, i think the biggest thing working against that is the dual, quad, and soon to come 8x processor cores games will start simply dedicating one processor for physics, one for AI etc..... ( cant remember where i read a great article talking about this) couple this with the fact there is a very limited support for the card... and because of this the games can only be designed with the card offering a bonus in the visual and not interactive area (so that the game is still playable without it), I would save my money for something else __________________ animal kingdom phylum

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07-03-07, 12:15 AM	#3
Rilex Sailor man Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 43 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	Only on games that take advantage of it. There are very few which do. I'd wait until nVidia/AMD start to release GPUs that provide general purpose physics if you are looking for something new.

07-03-07, 12:32 AM	#4
EAGLE_01 Machinist's Mate Join Date: May 2007 Location: Dayton, OH. Posts: 127 Downloads: 46 Uploads: 0	Thanks for the replies. So, essentially, none of our simulations, (SH3/4, LOMAC/Black Shark, FSX,the next Oleg Maddox IL2/BoB) are currently written to use a PPU at this time? It's somewhere down the road?:hmm: Wow.. it has a Lifetime Warranty...

07-03-07, 03:57 AM	#6
EAGLE_01 Machinist's Mate Join Date: May 2007 Location: Dayton, OH. Posts: 127 Downloads: 46 Uploads: 0	I'm looking forward to my next video card. And, although I love AMD processors, I have always steered clear of ATI cards, and this last one I bought because it was all I could afford that was AGP, etc...is THE LAST ATI card I will ever buy. NVIDIA is hands-down the best.

07-03-07, 04:30 AM	#7
Typhaon Sailor man Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 47 Downloads: 24 Uploads: 0	The power of this Ageia PhysX card is impressive... but like the others said... it's limited to very few games... as the name says it's only for physics in games and it can handle a lot of objects at a time... and most impressive the ability to calculate fluids in real time... but at the moment it is not worth, because there are too few games to play with it... But if you want to take a look you can watch some videos at their homepage: http://www.ageia.com/physx/videos.html

07-03-07, 10:08 AM	#8
JREX53 Frogman Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 300 Downloads: 353 Uploads: 13	According to the Advertisement, it is a PCI card - which ancient history in the PC world, especially for video cards. The newest and greatest form is the PCI-Express which is an entirely different slot than the PCI slot..

07-03-07, 10:25 AM	#9
SteamWake Rear Admiral Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 13,224 Downloads: 5 Uploads: 0	Only game that I know of that promotes this product is Rainbow Six GRAW. I play GRAW without the physics processor and am happy with its performance. I imagine though as games become more and more demanding it (the processor) will be a handy gizmoe and help with offloading the CPU to some degree. Also note that games have to be designed to take advantage of the processor or else it is ignored.

07-03-07, 01:47 PM	#13
EAGLE_01 Machinist's Mate Join Date: May 2007 Location: Dayton, OH. Posts: 127 Downloads: 46 Uploads: 0	Just saw your post, SingeDebile. That makes sense. If you watch the Heavy Rain vid, I'm wondering if that detail would be present without the PhysX job.. It would be too great to have environments like that in our subs, or in flight sims..

07-03-07, 02:56 PM	#15
SteamWake Rear Admiral Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 13,224 Downloads: 5 Uploads: 0	Might want to consider one of these as well 1,000 watt power supply http://store.pcpowerzone.com/pccotu1k10po.html