Get your PhysX card now...

[darkswordsman17]

Title says it all.

 

[blurredvision]

Woohoo! Let's spend $250 on this card so we can run a bunch of demos for the next few months!!

Seriously though, are there any games that are coming out fairly soon to take advantage of this thing? The Unreal 3 engine perhaps? If it turns out to be worth it's weight in gold in a game like UT2007, I'm all over it like ugly on an Aztec.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Yeah, it needs a killer app before I'll pick one up, but we'll see. Hopefully it doesn't turn out to be like those x64 extensions in Far Cry where the hardware in place is already capable of doing it, but they just want you to buy the product so they lock it.

At least the price is better than I was expecting, although far from great. Of course this is an OEM Dell version of the card, so it'll probably retail for $349 or maybe $299.

Another thing I noticed is that I really wish they would've just slapped a big aluminum heatsink on it instead of putting the dinky little fan and heatsink it has. The last thing I want is another little annoying whiny fan, although I guess you're not likely to hear it over your quadSLI setup going full-tilt.

I do have to give them credit though. If you want people to adopt something have dell put it in their systems. This will help get them out there so that they can hopefully get an installed base, however good or bad this may end up being.

 

[Acanthus]

UE3 supports it natively, theres 20+ titles right there.

 

[seanp789]

Remeber guys, this is just the first generation of PPU. Think of it like the first 3dfx card, it only gets better from here.


http://physx.ageia.com/footage.html
The Cell factor HD footage is very cool and will give you an idea of what to expect from first generation PPU.

Eventually this will all lead to fully destructable environments but that will probably be 2 or 3 generations down the road.

They have not introduced soft body dynamics and several other high end physics features that are planned for the future.

This is a very informative article on how physics calculations are made. Quite different than what I thought originally.
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=226&type=expert&pid=3

 

[framerateuk]

I cant wait for this card!

Itll be the reason i leave my XPC case behind and go back to full ATX!

I agree with seanp789, this is just like when 3DFX released the first Voodoo card, in a few years time we'll probably have competing companies releasing different cards. Itll add another item to a very long list of expensive things that gamers need

 

[BrownTown]

whoever thought up the idea of a physics card is gotta be the msot optimistic person in the world. They honestly think they can convince people to spend 250$ on this sh|t?, I wouldn't get it if it were free. Actually i would, then ebay it to a bunch of computer illeterate people whoa actually think it isnt just a waste of space.

I mean, even if physics cards become widespread (highly unlikey), this first generation card will not cut it by the time any games out out that even really fully support it. UE3, UT2007?, great, i can waste my money now and only have to wait a year or 2 to get the games.

Anyone who buys this card should also buy the some bridges that i can sell you on the cheap .

 

[framerateuk]

How do you expect to get more realistic physics without the hardware? Apart form the obvious graphics advancements, physics are one of the most important things in games today, and especially future games, and they will certainly drive realism forward in games.

Can you remember when you played HL2 and realised how many possibilities there were with the physics engine? I would never have expected to knock over the drawbridge to get past in a game before HL2

The processing power to make these physics happen needs to be huge, my P4 2.53 just couldnt cope with the physics in HL2 and ground to a halt when anything major happened. Granted that my current processor has no trouble with that, but i cant even turn the physics in Fear on full without the game slowing down.

I cant wait to see the full capabilities of this card.

 

[linkgoron]

Originally posted by: BrownTown
whoever thought up the idea of a physics card is gotta be the msot optimistic person in the world. They honestly think they can convince people to spend 250$ on this sh|t?, I wouldn't get it if it were free. Actually i would, then ebay it to a bunch of computer illeterate people whoa actually think it isnt just a waste of space.

I mean, even if physics cards become widespread (highly unlikey), this first generation card will not cut it by the time any games out out that even really fully support it. UE3, UT2007?, great, i can waste my money now and only have to wait a year or 2 to get the games.

Anyone who buys this card should also buy the some bridges that i can sell you on the cheap .

UT2007 is coming out this year. There are already games that support this, and what are you talking about "this first generation card will not cut it" :roll: .
Just look at the demos, this looks amazing.

 

[BrownTown]

Well, my 1.6G Banais does just fine with HL2, so i don't know what your problem is with that game. So far I've seen no proof that this card gives any kind of advantage in any game. If there is then please show me the benchmarks. As for what can do all this physics, the pretty stuff that don't affect the game can be done by the GPU. As for stuff that actually effects the game, that would be the only point of having a dedicated card, but if you are getting a huge speedup out of it than it will be requried in order to run the game. The added gameplay better be pretty darn special if you expect me to pay 250$ for it. As for demos, I ain't exactly impressed with some pretty pictures, anyone can make those, untill i see theird party reviews of games with benchmarks I'm not touching the thing with a 10ft pole, and niether should any other consumer who doesn't have money to burn...

 

[framerateuk]

You seriously cant see whats special about the physics in those tech demos?

Benchmarks arent the issue, the card can clearly do things which arent possible without dedicated hardware. Its not "pretty stuff" at all, as its something that genuinly affects the way the game works, its not about graphics.

Did you by any chance say that 3D cards wouldnt catch on back in 1995 too?:roll:

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: BrownTown
Well, my 1.6G Banais does just fine with HL2, so i don't know what your problem is with that game. So far I've seen no proof that this card gives any kind of advantage in any game. If there is then please show me the benchmarks. As for what can do all this physics, the pretty stuff that don't affect the game can be done by the GPU. As for stuff that actually effects the game, that would be the only point of having a dedicated card, but if you are getting a huge speedup out of it than it will be requried in order to run the game. The added gameplay better be pretty darn special if you expect me to pay 250$ for it. As for demos, I ain't exactly impressed with some pretty pictures, anyone can make those, untill i see theird party reviews of games with benchmarks I'm not touching the thing with a 10ft pole, and niether should any other consumer who doesn't have money to burn...

Fluid and cloth dynamics and the hundreds of other things the physx ppu calculates cant even be rendered in real time on most current hardware.

The fact that 10x as much is going on in the side by side videos shows you the difference.

 

[fliguy84]

this calls for PhysicsMark06

 

[jamesbond007]

Meh...I'm all about gameplay and enjoyment factor. Graphics come dead LAST in my book! It's why my buddies and I still play Quake 3. I personally loved Half-Life 2 and Halo (my favorite games) because they were intense, thrilling, and captivating. Not because they were pretty in any way. That was just a bonus.

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: BrownTown
Well, my 1.6G Banais does just fine with HL2, so i don't know what your problem is with that game. So far I've seen no proof that this card gives any kind of advantage in any game. If there is then please show me the benchmarks. As for what can do all this physics, the pretty stuff that don't affect the game can be done by the GPU. As for stuff that actually effects the game, that would be the only point of having a dedicated card, but if you are getting a huge speedup out of it than it will be requried in order to run the game. The added gameplay better be pretty darn special if you expect me to pay 250$ for it. As for demos, I ain't exactly impressed with some pretty pictures, anyone can make those, untill i see theird party reviews of games with benchmarks I'm not touching the thing with a 10ft pole, and niether should any other consumer who doesn't have money to burn...

The physics in HL2 is arcane to what this thing can do. HL2 for the most part will look like what software rendering looked like compared to the Voodoo1.

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

people don't want to buy more add-in cards, and for those with SLI setups it's likely that all their slots are unusable anyways. if this card was under $100 people might jump on it, but $299+ is a pricetag almost nobody will pay. if they keep prices where they are they are simply shooting themselves in the foot.

 

[framerateuk]

This isnt about the looks of a game though, its about the whole way the physics engine is handled, and that brings up so many more possibilities for gameplay. If you fired a tank shell at a wall, instead of just having a load of effects and smoke, but having the house still stand, the entire wall would explode, and the graphics would just depect this.

The PhysX wont improve the graphics, but the graphics will show that the physX is doing. Obviously though, with all the more objects in a game (like bits of shrapnel, or more barrels!) youll need a more powerful graphics card to display it all.

 

[concernedsophist]

I am so surprised at how many ?anti-physics people? are around here! Come on people. Obviously it will enhance game play! Even if the first generation of cards is overpriced and underutilized it is a stepping stone to bigger and better things (read cheaper and more powerful). So don?t buy the $300 card this year. However, it is a necessary step to make these cards to make advances in physics hardware, software, and market penetration. Imagine the future games where the cpu is almost entirely free to do AI! This will lead to huge advances in game play. How can you be a computer and game enthusiast and not be excited about the prospect of this technology, even if you are not going to purchase an early version of the hardware?

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: Sudheer Anne
people don't want to buy more add-in cards, and for those with SLI setups it's likely that all their slots are unusable anyways. if this card was under $100 people might jump on it, but $299+ is a pricetag almost nobody will pay. if they keep prices where they are they are simply shooting themselves in the foot.

It really depends on the titles they have lined up. If they have compelling titles people will buy it, including myself.

My only concern however is not having enough PCIE slots but I am thinking we should start seeing more that two x16 slots on these MBs. If not this is a great opportunity for Nvidia to get their duo cards out for people who want to SLI, but also want a PPU.

 

[Creig]

Originally posted by: Genx87
My only concern however is not having enough PCIE slots

There's no reason why they couldn't simply make a 1x PCIe version so we can actually use those empty motherboard slots for a change.


PCI, 32-bit, 66MHz = 266 MB/s
PCIe x1 = 250 MB/s

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: Sudheer Anne
people don't want to buy more add-in cards, and for those with SLI setups it's likely that all their slots are unusable anyways. if this card was under $100 people might jump on it, but $299+ is a pricetag almost nobody will pay. if they keep prices where they are they are simply shooting themselves in the foot.

They need to make this PCIe-1x instead of PCI. They're shooting themselves in the foot because many motherboards only have 1 or 2 free PCI slots, and someone with dual graphics cards is going to have a dedicated audio card as well. Anyone with a rig modern enough to play the latest games is going to have PCIe slots.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: Creig

Originally posted by: Genx87
My only concern however is not having enough PCIE slots

There's no reason why they couldn't simply make a 1x PCIe version so we can actually use those empty motherboard slots for a change.


PCI, 32-bit, 66MHz = 266 MB/s
PCIe x1 = 250 MB/s

32bit PCI on desktops is 33Mhz so = 133MB/s as a shared resource with all other devices.

PCIe is full-duplex so the theoretical is actually 500 MB/s

http://www.interfacebus.com/Design_Connector_PCI_Express.html

 

[Duvie]

yeah I am wondering if the PCI slot is the right way to go....Is it just tempporary and one of the evoltuions of this card over the next 2 generations of it will go to pci-e slots or application of pci-x slots in desktops....I will have a pci-x slot and 2 pci (66mhz) slots in my Iwill dual opteron board...

 

[aka1nas]

I saw that their dev-board was both PCI-E and PCI (you just flipped the card, one connector was on the top), so they obviously plan to release that one. Most likely, they did some research and found that almost no one has a free 1x PCI-E slot. Most people still have a few PCI slotseven on high-end motherboards and for the most part, nothing to go in them.

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: concernedsophist
I am so surprised at how many ?anti-physics people? are around here! Come on people. Obviously it will enhance game play! Even if the first generation of cards is overpriced and underutilized it is a stepping stone to bigger and better things (read cheaper and more powerful). So don?t buy the $300 card this year. However, it is a necessary step to make these cards to make advances in physics hardware, software, and market penetration. Imagine the future games where the cpu is almost entirely free to do AI! This will lead to huge advances in game play. How can you be a computer and game enthusiast and not be excited about the prospect of this technology, even if you are not going to purchase an early version of the hardware?

I'm an enthusiast, but I'm not some rich fat bastard with more money than brain cells. Ageia is in this business only for one reason - to make money. They tell you that a physx processor will make games so much more realistic because it's in their best interest. No games even fully use the two cores on my cpu, and you want me to believe that the cpu is too weak and slow to handle physics? What kind of physics does a game require to warrant a dedicated processor? Until I see a game that justifies the cost of a physx chip, I will not support it.