Using AMD's APU for physics?

[scores87]

Sorry if it doesn't belong here didn't know where to put this.

When I heard the rumor that said the ps4 may use AMD apu's I thought it was a mistake but then I thought...

Is it possible to use the built-in graphics processor to do physics kinda like physx and the cpu and dedicated GPU for everything else?

 

[Joseph F]

Technically, yes.
However, I don't know if anyone will ever get around to making GPU-accelerated physics, aside from nV's proprietary solution.

Also, if the PS4 uses an APU, it almost certainly won't have a dedicated GPU to go alongside it.

 

[scores87]

thanks for the quick answer. very interesting what the ps4 could do in gaming if they used this.

 

[Red Hawk]

Yes, it's possible. In general, since I heard of AMD's move towards APUs I've thought they were a good fit for consoles, helping to keep costs, heat, and power consumption low (all were troublesome in the last console generation). The current model of the Xbox 360 already uses a sort of APU, putting the GPU and the CPU onto the same die. I'm not sure if console producers want to use the AMD CPU architecture, as we all know it falls short in performance compared to Intel, but Intel may not be an option due to their aggressive royalty demands. AMD may turn out to be the the best price/performance option.

 

[blastingcap]

If you could use embeded GPUs for accelerated physics and games actually supported that, I would no longer complain about paying for unwanted GPUs embedded into my CPUs.

 

[Joseph F]

If you could use embeded GPUs for accelerated physics and games actually supported that, I would no longer complain about paying for unwanted GPUs embedded into my CPUs.

This. We can only hope that some software dev will take the time to utilize the on-die GPU of today's CPUs for GPGPU tasks.

 

[ShintaiDK]

PS4 wont use an AMD APU.

And I wouldnt hold my breath for AMD/ATI physics.

 

[Lonbjerg]

PS4 wont use an AMD APU.

And I wouldnt hold my breath for AMD/ATI physics.

Nope...I still remember ATi showing of demos...telling everyone that they soon were comming..and then Intel whacked them with the buy of Havok...and ATi/AMD went all sobby...and didn't deliver jack&*beep* ever since...

 

[KompuKare]

If you could use embeded GPUs for accelerated physics and games actually supported that, I would no longer complain about paying for unwanted GPUs embedded into my CPUs.

I've said this before but it seems to me that using iGPU for either physics or some kind of after-render AA makes the most sense. But it needs an open standard so that it would work with both Intel and AMD APUs.

Hybrid-Crossfire is novel and might work in a console (since there would not be any variability between the APU and dGPU unlike on desktops). Whereas if the iGPU is doing physics or after-effects it can just get on with it while the dGPU renders the frames.

However, all the effort which AMD put into letting Trinity+ access main memory etc. wouldn't be needed for this much would they? Unless, having the iGPU access textures etc. from onboard the dGPU would allow some new AA method.