ED#95 : NVIDIA Launches PhysX!

Discussion in 'Reviews & Articles' started by Dashken, Jun 20, 2008.

  1. Dashken

    Dashken Administrator!

    When NVIDIA bought AGEIA in February 2008, everyone wondered what the outcome would be. Well, the wait is over.

    Today, NVIDIA officially launched GPU acceleration for PhysX when they released the PhysX driver version 8.06.12 which enables PhysX acceleration for the following cards...

    Here's a quote from the editorial :-
    [​IMG]

    Link : ED#95 : NVIDIA Launches PhysX!
     
  2. Iria

    Iria Newbie


    I don't see a link to that driver on NVIDIA's site. ?
     
  3. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    According to that statement, it meant that it's going to be released soon. :D
     
  4. Lacus

    Lacus Newbie

    hmm, i wonder the PhysX is hardware based or software emulated?
     
  5. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    It SHOULD be hardware based. If software, then it will still be using CPU.
     
  6. Lacus

    Lacus Newbie

    like you said...should be..well not sure if they implemented the thing on the card itself =/
     
  7. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    It has to be. :mrgreen:
     
  8. Mac Daddy

    Mac Daddy Pickin' Da Gitfiddle

    Interesting news :D
     
  9. g0tanks

    g0tanks Newbie

    Results look awesome.

    So if you bought a PhysX card before it's pretty much redundant now?
     
  10. DarKSeeD

    DarKSeeD BOG Translator

    Depends, it will be interesting to see how it performs. I still have an Ageia card from Asus and you bet I will do a lot of tests.
     
  11. Mac Daddy

    Mac Daddy Pickin' Da Gitfiddle

    And you bet we will be looking forward to the results ;)
     
  12. g0tanks

    g0tanks Newbie

    Yep. Will NVIDIA continue to make drivers for the PhysX card?
     
  13. Mac Daddy

    Mac Daddy Pickin' Da Gitfiddle

    Good question I have held off submitting questions to Derek til Monday have some other things going on. Want me to include this in the interview ?
     
  14. DarKSeeD

    DarKSeeD BOG Translator

    They stated somewhere on their site that the support will still be available for PhysX card owners. But I think they will cease that pretty soon because I don't think PhysX GPU will be backward compatible with old titles like GRAW - GRAW2...but also I could be wrong. Time 2 sleep...
     
    Last edited: Jun 21, 2008
  15. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Guys.. FYI, NVIDIA had trouble with the original driver. They have since uploaded the improved driver.

    Also, this is actually just a driver that allows PhysX to be accelerated by the GPU's stream processors. Because of the unified architecture, the stream processors can be used to do physics calculations.

    So, it is a software solution based on their current hardware. Unlike what we thought earlier (that NVIDIA would tack on PhysX circuitry), it's really using the standard stream processor.

    Incidentally, in games that support PhysX acceleration by the GPU, some of the stream processors will be used for physics calculations. That means lower shader and vertex performance. This should not be a problem for the higher-end cards but it will kill cards like the GeForce 8600 GTS. :D
     
    Last edited: Jun 22, 2008
  16. Dashken

    Dashken Administrator!

    ED#95 : NVIDIA Launches PhysX Rev. 2.0

    When NVIDIA bought AGEIA in February 2008, everyone wondered what the outcome would be. Would the new NVIDIA GTX 280 and GTX 260 come with an integrated AGEIA PhysX processor? Or will NVIDIA just use a software solution? Well, the simple answer to that NVIDIA went the software route. After all, the unified architecture used by NVIDIA since the G80 should have no problem handling physics calculations as well.

    NVIDIA has finally made public the "final" ForceWare 177.39 driver. Some of those who used the "earlier" 177.39 driver had trouble installing the driver. That problem has been fixed although the driver still retained the same revision number. You can get the "final" ForceWare 177.39 drivers at these locations...

    Here's a quote from the editorial :-
    [​IMG]

    Link : ED#95 : NVIDIA Launches PhysX Rev. 2.0
     

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