Nvidia Adding PhysX Processing to Existing GPUs Next Week, Developers Line Up with Support
Nvidia GeForce 8, GeForce 9, and GeForce GTX 200-series cards will support the new physics acceleration initially.
PhysX began as Ageia Technologies' attempt at a dedicated hardware physics processor. The idea of an expensive physics processing card never took off, and Nvidia purchased Aegia in February of this year, announcing that it would directly incorporate Aegia's technology into its line of cards.
Game support for PhysX includes released titles such as Epic's Unreal Tournament 3. Users can download the free PhysX Mod map pack, a collection of three UT3 maps that show off special effects such as twirling tornadoes and particle-based hail.
Nvidia claims that PhysX support is also being added to upcoming projects like EA DICE's Mirror's Edge, Creative Assembly's Empire: Total War, and Gearbox's Aliens: Colonial Marines and Borderlands.
Early benchmarks predictably indicate that turning on the flashy PhysX effects will cost users several frames of performance.
For a look at a PhysX-enabled UT3 map, check out the video below. [videofeature]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkfVoWiCU3w[/videofeature]
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AMikaboshi
replywhat exactly does this do to games? There a youtube video or something?
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^^Same question here.
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more rolling barrels
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we're adding some more info and a video in a few minutes.
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thanks.
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Improves your frames per second. Instead of your processor taking on the challenge to render the physics the card will render it taking less stress on your processor for more frames.
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This is the opposite of true. It will slightly reduce your framerate because part of the GPU will be doing physics work. However, it will allow you to run orders of magnitude more physics operations during the game.
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it's kinda misleading to say either, yeah. physx + same amount of physics would = better framerate than before, but generally physx enabled means there's a LOT of extra stuff happening that will drag it right back down again.
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I mean, if you ran with the added physics, but no GPGPU, your computer will have lower fps.
Technically, and scientifically he is correct. All things constant, including amount of physics, given sufficiently high physics, it will improve your frames per a second.
Technically, you're true too, all things constant, including frames per a second, will *support* more physics at that frame rate.
But the goal is to have a specific frame rate, and as many features as possible, so your post is perhaps more important.
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It all depends on what you have now.
Running these with most games now wont increase or decrease your fps, because barely anything uses physX.
But in physX enabled games, it will increase your FPS compared to playing it using software physics, but decrease your FPS when compared to playing with physX disabled. No idea how it compares to running the game with a dedicated physX card.
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