phys-x

[Durrthock]

Ok im thinking of getting a phys-x card any info on the diffrence between the 256mb version and the 128mb version

[public_eyesore]

why spend 300 on somthing that only enhances when it looks like your setup could use some upgrading elsewhere?

[DaveW]

I thoughy Phys-X cards weren't out for a couple of weeks?

As a new technology, i'd let it take root first, especially as the Phys-X is linked closely with the software running on it. I think on any current games the Phys-X processor will just run as another pixel pipeline or something; it won't therefore make a difference to any current game's performance.

I believe Asus are the only people making the 256MB version of the card as well, so if you have money to burn and decide to get one, the double memory will give you a massive performance boost over the 128MB ones: and as ASUS are pioneering the technology (i think...could be wrong?) their cards will probably be to a better standard for the moment, at least until the engine takes off.

Note: All the above may be based on flawed info, it's just off the top of my head and from what i read concerning the technology.

-Dave

[public_eyesore]

I thoughy Phys-X cards weren't out for a couple of weeks?



you can get them right now in online botique shops like alienware and dell.

[Slug Toy]

dave, you might be right about asus making the 256 card. ive been hearing rumors (although they're very hard to confirm right now) about that kind of thing. as for asus pioneering the technology, that depends on your definition of pioneering. ageia designed the processor, and asus and bfg are just doing exactly the same thing as they do with video cards. think nvidia, except in physics.

now, to talk about performance gains you get from going to 256, you wont see any framerate gains or anything like that. what it will let you do is upload twice as much static info about the world you're in, so you wont have to refer back to the hard drive as much (if at all). so basically it will just store more things to be executed, and possibly stop those horrible pauses you get in games when the hard drive is loading more stuff.

oh, and yes, these cards are out now, and they also wont be out for two weeks. confused? dont be. they're available to computer makers like the ones public eyesore mentioned. they wont be widely available to the public as a lone add-in board until may though.

as for price, ive been hearing a buzz that it went down to about 250, but 300 is still fair game.

so all in all, id say wait until the end of may or early june if you really want one of these. you probably wont gain anything from doing that, but at least it allows for a buffer time between release and purchase where you can see what other people are saying about it.

[DaveW]

Thanks for the update on those cards, I'm always a little behind with Graphics technology but fairly up to date with CPU tech.

I think the Phys-X technology will be great when it gets a chance to perform the way it's intended, which it probably won't get for a while. Does anyone know if TES 4 Oblivion uses Phys-X?

-Dave

[Rankenphile]

I don't think so. From what I understand, Phys-X and Source Physics are completely separate beasts, and will sort of be competing physics engines over the next year or so. TES: Oblivion uses Source.

From what I was able to eke out of the ExtremeTech podcast, a lot of the physics programming will be taken care of in future GPUs, especially in rigs with dual PGUs in SLI/Crossfire. I may be wrong, however, as I was litening to it while I drove and may have missed some points.

In my opinion, this is a brand new technology that is probably best left to the uber-hardcore that have money to burn. it will take at least a year for things to really settle down to a clean set of standards that becomes integrated and common in games that will take full advantage of it. Otherwise, it's jsut a really expensive thing that works on one or two games, kinda. The cost/benefit ratio is still way to out-of-whack for me to see much reason to go shopping at this point.

[onelegout]

I beleive it is already being used in the new Ghost Recon for pc
http://physx.ageia.com/footage.html
check it out, pretty cool! :)

edit: also check out a list of supporting games
http://physx.ageia.com/titles.html

Double edit: WOOOOOOOOOOOOAH!!!! Check out the other videos further down that page!!! Thats the most insane game footage ive ever seen! where the ship bursts through the material flag thingy in the cellfactor footage! thats mindblowing!

[DaveW]

I'd love to check it out but my laptop crashes while decoding ALL video formats. I have no idea why-i'd love ideas?

It's not specific to any kind of media player or media format. Any movie file causes the system to lock. I suspect it may be due to a problem with part of the CPU's instruction sets, but it being an AMD, doesn't it not have the accelerated media instruction sets? Ah, it's late and i may be talking nonsense.

-Dave