AGEIA PhysX - useless? - Page 5

Chai · 28th Jul 2006, 06:26 PM

The reason why we have given Editor's Choice is because of great price and performance. But it's far from being the best card. The target for 7300GT buyers will probably not have the high end monitor or the fastest system. They will probably not going to buy PPU card as well. It's only decent for 1280x1024 gaming without PPU enabled.

But I need nothing less than 1600x1200 for my Dell 2001FP.

So I will definitely have at least 7900GT and above for any decent gaming.

Olle P · 28th Jul 2006, 08:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Papercut

Which do you think will give you ... a better gaming experience, ...? I daresay the 7900GT will be the answer...

Not if the software is designed to make good use of the PhysX...

Then we have the question about brute processing power.
What's the flops-rating for the PhysX-processor? What is it for various GPUs? I have no idea. I do think that the demand for all types of calculations often goes up simultaneously in games when things get rough. So with the GPU assigned to "other" tasks as well, the demand for such tasks to be carried out temporarily increase when the demand for more graphics calculations also increase and you'd normally get a drop in frame rate anyway. Now the drop in frame rate will just be deeper and more prolonged.

Cheers
Olle

Olle P · 28th Jul 2006, 08:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chai

I need nothing less than 1600x1200...

I've tried 1280x960 on my 19" CRT, but thought the text and other stuff got too small to read properly at my typical viewing distance of about arms length plus 10cm. Therefore I went back to 1024x768 and feel fine with that...

/Olle

The_YongGrand · 29th Jul 2006, 10:30 AM

The seperate Physics engine will still help the processor, and the processor wouldn't have to do so much. Even the graphics card. But one seperate Physics engine just for the gravity of the game? Watched the Cell Factor trailer (that exploits the wonders of the Physics engine) and all I can see is falling buildings, collapsing buildings, rolling barrels, people got washed/pushed/ejected out by huge impacting explosion only.

They should add more stuff inside, like the texture and lighting processor and all the eye candy stuff. More fun that way.

P.s: the card is still useful for simulating car crashes and important simulation in research and development. Maybe.

Max_87 · 29th Jul 2006, 12:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_YongGrand

They should add more stuff inside, like the texture and lighting processor and all the eye candy stuff. More fun that way.

then you would need a more powerful GPU instead of a PPU

ZuePhok · 29th Jul 2006, 12:49 PM

aiya..

u can have PPU, GPU..but if the stories sux, the games still sux.

take WoW for example. fantastic game. but do u need a ppu??? nooooooooooooooo

that's why PS2 can still sell 400k units per month. that's like 6 years after the launch. where is..er..u know

Papercut · 29th Jul 2006, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Olle P

Not if the software is designed to make good use of the PhysX...

That's a big "if"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Olle P

I've tried 1280x960 on my 19" CRT, but thought the text and other stuff got too small to read properly at my typical viewing distance of about arms length plus 10cm. Therefore I went back to 1024x768 and feel fine with that...

/Olle

Do remember that Chai uses a 20" LCD...that's quite a bit more screen space than a 19" CRT

Chai · 30th Jul 2006, 12:28 AM

And 20" LCD is true 20" viewable space, unlike 19" CRT. Seriously, does it really matter with games at high res? Things are sharper at high res, I see no reason why one should run at lower resolution in games, and isn't PPU meant for gaming?

The_YongGrand · 30th Jul 2006, 10:34 AM

What about intergrating the PPU inside the Graphics card, and also some inside the processor (like processor instructions)? Or add another new math-co-processor for the complex physics calculations?

aussie FX · 30th Jul 2006, 11:02 PM

I don't have a problem with the idea, just the price. After all, why do most serious gamers use soundcards?
I think this might be a wait and see thing.
I can't see why you would want to offload any vga capabilities to physics because lets face it, when a new line of vga cards come out, most of us run out and buy them and you might argue that we don't really need their power, but I just went out and got a 2nd 7900gt for SLI and it's one of the better investments I have made.
I for one, wouldn't look twice at physx at the moment. It's waaay overpriced but like all things tech, it will come down as more units hit the market. It will certainly be interesting to see who comes out the winner. VHS/Betamax anyone?

Just my two cents

28th Jul 2006, 06:26 PM	#41 (permalink)
Chai Administrator Join Date: 6 Oct 2002 Location: Maranello Posts: 28,125 Reputation: 4649 Rep Power: 82	The reason why we have given Editor's Choice is because of great price and performance. But it's far from being the best card. The target for 7300GT buyers will probably not have the high end monitor or the fastest system. They will probably not going to buy PPU card as well. It's only decent for 1280x1024 gaming without PPU enabled. But I need nothing less than 1600x1200 for my Dell 2001FP. So I will definitely have at least 7900GT and above for any decent gaming. __________________ Chai (Contributor & Forum Admin) http://www.techarp.com/

29th Jul 2006, 10:30 AM	#44 (permalink)
The_YongGrand Hyperactive Join Date: 12 Feb 2005 Location: Somewhere in 甲洞... Posts: 2,880 Reputation: 1187 Rep Power: 19	The seperate Physics engine will still help the processor, and the processor wouldn't have to do so much. Even the graphics card. But one seperate Physics engine just for the gravity of the game? Watched the Cell Factor trailer (that exploits the wonders of the Physics engine) and all I can see is falling buildings, collapsing buildings, rolling barrels, people got washed/pushed/ejected out by huge impacting explosion only. They should add more stuff inside, like the texture and lighting processor and all the eye candy stuff. More fun that way. P.s: the card is still useful for simulating car crashes and important simulation in research and development. Maybe. __________________ Intel Core 2 Duo E7200, 2GB DDR2-667 RAM, Gigabyte 945GCMX-S2, Sapphire ATi Radeon HD4850 512MB DDR3 Intel Pentium Dual Core E2140, 2GB DDR2-667 RAM, Asus P5B-E Plus, nVidia Geforce 7950GT 512MB DDR3 Last edited by The_YongGrand : 29th Jul 2006 at 10:37 AM.

29th Jul 2006, 12:49 PM	#46 (permalink)
ZuePhok Hold me back! I can't stop posting!!! Join Date: 16 Dec 2002 Location: Floating Island Of Mandango Posts: 8,810 Reputation: 3294 Rep Power: 48	aiya.. u can have PPU, GPU..but if the stories sux, the games still sux. take WoW for example. fantastic game. but do u need a ppu??? nooooooooooooooo that's why PS2 can still sell 400k units per month. that's like 6 years after the launch. where is..er..u know __________________ my motto: poison first, think later.

30th Jul 2006, 12:28 AM	#48 (permalink)
Chai Administrator Join Date: 6 Oct 2002 Location: Maranello Posts: 28,125 Reputation: 4649 Rep Power: 82	And 20" LCD is true 20" viewable space, unlike 19" CRT. Seriously, does it really matter with games at high res? Things are sharper at high res, I see no reason why one should run at lower resolution in games, and isn't PPU meant for gaming? __________________ Chai (Contributor & Forum Admin) http://www.techarp.com/

30th Jul 2006, 10:34 AM	#49 (permalink)
The_YongGrand Hyperactive Join Date: 12 Feb 2005 Location: Somewhere in 甲洞... Posts: 2,880 Reputation: 1187 Rep Power: 19	What about intergrating the PPU inside the Graphics card, and also some inside the processor (like processor instructions)? Or add another new math-co-processor for the complex physics calculations? __________________ Intel Core 2 Duo E7200, 2GB DDR2-667 RAM, Gigabyte 945GCMX-S2, Sapphire ATi Radeon HD4850 512MB DDR3 Intel Pentium Dual Core E2140, 2GB DDR2-667 RAM, Asus P5B-E Plus, nVidia Geforce 7950GT 512MB DDR3

30th Jul 2006, 11:02 PM	#50 (permalink)
aussie FX Just Started Join Date: 25 Apr 2006 Location: Western Australia Posts: 51 Reputation: 30 Rep Power: 0	I don't have a problem with the idea, just the price. After all, why do most serious gamers use soundcards? I think this might be a wait and see thing. I can't see why you would want to offload any vga capabilities to physics because lets face it, when a new line of vga cards come out, most of us run out and buy them and you might argue that we don't really need their power, but I just went out and got a 2nd 7900gt for SLI and it's one of the better investments I have made. I for one, wouldn't look twice at physx at the moment. It's waaay overpriced but like all things tech, it will come down as more units hit the market. It will certainly be interesting to see who comes out the winner. VHS/Betamax anyone? Just my two cents __________________ Asus Crosshair AMD X2 6000+ @3430 EVGA 8800gtx superclock 2gb OCZ DDR2 800 Platinum r2 2xWD 120gb SATA striped Creative X-FI Extreme Music/Logitech Z5500 OCZ Gamexstream 700 Dell 2407-HC

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
NVIDIA Buys Over AGEIA!	Dashken	Reviews & Articles	4	5th Apr 2006 07:31 PM
ATI Says It Can Do Physics Better Than AGEIA and NVIDIA	ZuePhok	Graphics Cards & Displays	15	30th Mar 2006 01:17 AM