AGEIA PhysX processor $$$

[Elcs]

I think the extra physics could put some really nice touches into games. More realistic weather effects (wind affecting projectiles), realistic hair/clothing movements, more realistic bouncing limbs and water splatterings, more realistic water motions.

I dont think its going revolutionise our gaming world but it could add some really nice touches to games to make them more realistic (Simulation games such as CS simualting current warfare) or more unrealistic (futuristic titles such as The Matrix).

 

[0roo0roo]

well the thing is when 3d accels were coming along they also had benifits in normal use. faster 3d AND faster 2d and better quality video/faster video acceleration. easier to justify. same with sound cards. even today a fast video card helps in hdtv video. just try playing back those hdwmv 1080i vids with old video cards, doesn't work. physX is totally dead weight in normal use.

 

[Velk]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
well the thing is when 3d accels were coming along they also had benifits in normal use. faster 3d AND faster 2d and better quality video/faster video acceleration. easier to justify. same with sound cards. even today a fast video card helps in hdtv video. just try playing back those hdwmv 1080i vids with old video cards, doesn't work. physX is totally dead weight in normal use.

Actually they didn't. The voodoo was an expensive addon card with a passthrough cable, it actually made 2D worse. Despite this, it sold millions of boards.

The original soundblaster was much the same situation - for use in anything other than games that came with wav recorded sound it was essentially a waste of space and money, but these days to not have a soundcard is unthinkable.

Whether the PPU can actually be made to have as much of an impact as either of these is unlikely, but not impossible. One thing is for certain though, it will be app driven - no great app available = no hope.

 

[Chaotic42]

I might buy one, especially if it can be used for things other than games (Maybe MATLAB or Bryce). I think that it will eventually get to the point that this physics processor is one of the many cores on our CPUs in 2008 or so. A processor might have seven CPU cores and one physics core, or maybe even 8 different specialty cores.

 

[PerfeK]

They are releasing the high end one first. the budget models will follow. This is how they launch video cards also. I don't see why you guys are bugging out.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Velk

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
well the thing is when 3d accels were coming along they also had benifits in normal use. faster 3d AND faster 2d and better quality video/faster video acceleration. easier to justify. same with sound cards. even today a fast video card helps in hdtv video. just try playing back those hdwmv 1080i vids with old video cards, doesn't work. physX is totally dead weight in normal use.

Actually they didn't. The voodoo was an expensive addon card with a passthrough cable, it actually made 2D worse. Despite this, it sold millions of boards.

The original soundblaster was much the same situation - for use in anything other than games that came with wav recorded sound it was essentially a waste of space and money, but these days to not have a soundcard is unthinkable.

Whether the PPU can actually be made to have as much of an impact as either of these is unlikely, but not impossible. One thing is for certain though, it will be app driven - no great app available = no hope.

hey i know voodoo. i had monster 3d 1 and 2 when they hit the market. and it was not at all mainstream then. it only became mainstream once the 2d/3d cards caught up to a reasonable degree. like the riva tnt or what not. after that point it was clear that even the 2d performance would continue to benifit for a while. and sound, it wasn't that expensive even back then, one could always get a cheap board if u didn't choose a sound blaster gold or what not, and it had definite uses in windows even back in the day of win 3.11 etc. ppu is far more like 3dfx, but with far more to prove. unless the price drops rapidly or it gets intergrated into m/bs or soemthing i don't see how it'll succeed.

 

[Reapsy00]

I might get a budget one when they come out if it is £100 or less

 

[JBT]

I'll probably get one.

 

[dopefishzzz]

I'd also get a budget one at 100$ if available,

else, I'd still buy the high-end one at 249$, but if they only release one at suge a huge price, they're screwed

 

[R3MF]

Originally posted by: RaiderJ
If they come out with a PCI-e x1 slot version, I'll probably have to get it just so I can make use of that slot on my SN25P!

agreed

although those bounders at Dabs had better get their shiznit together and send me the rest of my bits.

 

[firefaux]

i'd wait until i see that its worth it. im not going to blow 250$+ just to be able to knock down 500 boxes or some lame thing like that. i'd rather use that towards a good gpu and cpu