Ageia in action. Physics like this in a game would be slick

[yazz88]

unless Nvidia and ATI back this thing, it wont go anywhere. And I doubt they will.

 

[Papier]

This will be a good card IF they price it right. Having a physics card, which is unneeded, cost more than an average CPU is too much.

I will buy the physics card if they bring it down to a managable level, like 50-100. I can see how it'll make games run better, but not for that price.

 

[shard]

well i think he said in the video that they want to put this chip on other vidcards, and nvidia has already talked to them

 

[Radical]

Looks really nice, but I don't know if I would buyt this as a stand alone card.

 

[deathBOB]

Seems to me that most current games are limited by graphics card power, unless you get into the very top reaches of the graphics range. Why would this help the people with midrange, cheap range graphics?

 

[madcow235]

Graphics card's dont do physics, all you guys that say they do are wrong. CPU's do physics and taking a large load off of them is genius. This is the same thing that happened when 3d accelerators came out. People questioned why they would need one and said it was a waste only to find that games soon took advantage of them and worked all around better with them. The demos aren't supposed to look good either, they are demonstrating physics NOT graphics. I was thoroughly impressed with that since it is in such early stages of development and it is capable of so much more than we see in games today.

 

[TheGreySpectre]

seeems like this would only be worth it if youve already spent the money on other things for your comp and have spare change laying around, Im having a hard time scroungin up 300 for a 64bit system and thats with the minimum for CPU just about (well minimum venice core) I cant see shelling out another 200 just for physics, for me the physics of HL2 are fine, although real bullet trajectories would be cool

 

[shard]

well mind you, this makes the games themselves run much faster also, so thats another plus, and just imagine HL2's physics, but better

 

[Sjaak]

Why do so many people think that Physics calculations can 'easily' be run on a nowadays CPU? T^his thing is specifically optimised to do such tasks, the chip least optimised in your PC is the CPU because it has to perform all kinds of general tasks.

 

[deathBOB]

Graphics card's dont do physics, all you guys that say they do are wrong. CPU's do physics and taking a large load off of them is genius. This is the same thing that happened when 3d accelerators came out. People questioned why they would need one and said it was a waste only to find that games soon took advantage of them and worked all around better with them. The demos aren't supposed to look good either, they are demonstrating physics NOT graphics. I was thoroughly impressed with that since it is in such early stages of development and it is capable of so much more than we see in games today.

You dont understand. A game runs smoothly when both the CPU and the GPU can do the job. If I take an FX55 with a Geforce 2 its going to suck. If I take an old P3 with a 6800Ultra its going to suck. Ok, a physics chip takes a load off the CPU. However, most games arent limited due to CPU power, its the graphics card that really determines speed. For example: My current setup uses a 6600GT with a Pentium 4 2.4C. If I set the graphics settings really low, the card has an easy job and framerate is only limited by the power of the CPU. If I installed a physics card, my framerate would hypothetically increase. However, I do not run at the lowest graphics settings. I run up to the point where my performance starts to suffer. Why is it suffering? The GPU just cant handle the resolution/effects needed.

Lets say I am playing Half Life 2. I want to achieve around 40 FPS, thats what I consider smooth. So I tweak and tweak and arrive at 1600x1200 and 4xAA. At this point, framerate is limited by the power of the GPU. What good would taking a load off the processor then do for me? What good would the physics chip do for me?

Sure, if you have a super high end card that is limited by the rest of the system it would probably do wonders, but if you are like me with a low/mid range card, why bother?

 

[madcow235]

the point isnt to increase framerate that is a silly close minded assumption. The card is there to let physics advance greatly. Sure with current physics it won't do much but it opens the door to complex ones that we haven't yet seen.
lets say "Super Game" has physics like these demos and your cpu won't be able to keep up with the physics and you will either lag horribly or miss out on great effects. Don't judge what your cpu can and can't do by current games judge it by the future. A physics processor may seem useless now but when we get to high end games of the future it will be essential.

 

[SemiCycle]

the point isnt to increase framerate that is a silly close minded assumption. The card is there to let physics advance greatly.

I've been reading through each post and this is the first one that hits the nail on the head. This is not about making games look better, or making them run fast. The liquids in the videos look very cool, but I'm mostly interested in how they interact with their enviorment.

How many of you guys have played the updated castlewolfenstein released a couple years ago. Do you remeber the multi-player level when you had to storm the beach? Imagine storming the beach with explosions everywhere. When shells hit the beach, INDIVIDUAL grains of sand fly everywhere. Imagine the rolling smoke clouds as you storm up to the wall.

Here goes another idea. How many of you have read about Creative's new X-Fi Audio Processor? Imagine the Castle Wolfenstein seen I painted above. Now, let's put this new audio process to work and give each of those grains of sand the ability to create sound in the enviorment. They not only look great rendered on your brand spanking new graphics card, they interact and move correctly with your physics card, they now also give off sounds as they move around in the enviorment.

THINK BIG HERE GUYS. Yes, your graphics card will render the information the physics card computes, but this isn't just about eye candy, It's about an entirely new way of breathing life into games.

 

[madcow235]

Realistic hair and clothing and even body phsyics, rag doll is ok but it doesn't take into account where muscles stop and how someone would REALLY react to a hit, will just make games completely immersive.

 

[SemiCycle]

make games completely immersive.

Another great point!!

 

[Yuriman]

I have another point to make. For those of you with Half Life 2, download Garry's Mod. I don't know if its a game engine limit or not, but you cannot even get a fraction of those physics with a current cpu. I suspect it is NOT a game engine limit though, because my friend's 2.4 celly can only handle about half of what my cpu can handle. There are also a few good mods for farcry which show the same thing.

To say the least, I was extremly impressed. Dual core cpu's would render this a novelty item, but you have to admit, its much better at these kind of calculations than any cpu you will find in a desktop pc today.

http://www.garry.tv/garrysmod/