Pci Physics Cards

stevenmu

Just to muddy the waters slightly, PPUs and GPUs work on very similar principles which is why Havok are trying to offload phyics calculations onto GPUs on nVidia cards (is ATI doing it with Havok too or have they their own solution ?). In fact there's already scientific software available which can use GPUs for physics calculations and it runs much faster than any available CPUs.

memorex

yup, ATI are supporting Havok FX. FX being Havok's GPU based physics product. There's a press release on ATIs site here:
http://ir.ati.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=105421&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=868986&highlight=

Personally speaking I am amazed that after the $$$ Aegia spent developing their PPU, their launch title was so lacklustre. I understand that stuff gets rushed to market all the time etc etc but if it was me I'd _ensure_ that the title I launch my PPU with kicked software based physics titles respective asses. Jeez, that's a mouthful :-)

gizmo

Indeed, I really think they should have waited till closer to the release of Unreal Tournament 2007 or some of the other big name titles supporting the hardware. That said, its been in development for some time so they probably had to release it to get something back from the development process. They are basically just another startup remember...

po0k

But they're a start-up who managed to ship a working product.

This is history repeating itself.
Shame they chose PCI over PCIe 1x, possibly due to fears of people buying the card and then whinging because they ever checked to see if their 4-slot-wide SLI setup was blocking their PCIe1x slot or not.

There's no excuse for double-slot cooling as the default config.

astrofool

I wonder if Ageia will eventually get two PPU cards to work in SLI

gizmo

Oh and I'm not belitteling them in the slightest. I'm merely pointing out that unlike some of the other major players in the hardware market they can't afford to sit around and R&D forever. They needed to get their prodcut designed, manufacturered and out the door as soon as they could in order to keep themselves in the black. These days alot of companies can sometimes forget to do that...

po0k

what company can afford to sit around and R&D forever? You eventually have to bring the R&D output to market to recoup costs and hopefully fund future R&D.

A mate of mine has a Crossfire setup, X-Fi and PhysX, can't fit both PCI cards in due to the size of the zalman heatsinks on the cards.

gizmo

Well I use the term "forever" loosely. Competition aside, companies like nVidia, ATi and Creative can afford to sit on their designs for longer, constantly refining them until they're "perfect". Smaller startups can't afford to do this...

Not really surprsised about your mates setup, to be honest he probably should have known it wouldnt fit given the graphics cards are more than likely dual slot...:o

po0k

I know, poked him about watercooling. He's not too pushed.
Has to replace the motherboard for the Core2 chips anyways, Rev2 board (gigabyte something or other) has a revised power circuit.

gizmo

One down anyway...