ASUS and BFG PhysX add-in Cards Now Available

malware · May 10, 2006

AGEIA Technologies, Inc., the pioneer in hardware-accelerated physics for games, today announced the availability of its PhysX processor on add-in accelerator cards from ASUS Computer International and BFG Technologies, Inc. The first physics processing unit (PPU) designed to power pervasive real-time physics in PC gaming can now be purchased by consumers worldwide, thus delivering true physics interaction on a massive scale to serious gamers everywhere. Retailers, etailers and distributors carrying the ASUS and BFG physics accelerator boards include: Best Buy, Circuit City, New Egg, TigerDirect, D&H and many others.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

CjStaal · May 10, 2006

Score! I will be buying one soon, just to support them.

CjStaal · May 10, 2006

Best buy has it for 300 so expect it for like 200 at newegg

Well, its 300 at newegg so I am going to wait a month

ktr · May 10, 2006

OMGOMGOMG...also cellfactor demo too!

Time to bulid a new computer for this!

cjoyce1980 · May 10, 2006

I wanna see some benchmarks first. As i remember ATI & nVidia came out saying that there cards didnt need any help from a PPU as there GPU could handle all ingame physics

CjStaal · May 10, 2006

cjoyce1980 said:
I wanna see some benchmarks first. As i remember ATI & nVidia came out saying that there cards didnt need any help from a PPU as there GPU could handle all ingame physics

Yep and I say i'm God, but am I? I say my brain can handle all in-game physics, can I? They may say there GPU's can, and they may very well can, but not as well as the PPU.

TheButcherNL · May 10, 2006

Can you run it together with any videocard and on any pc with pci? (almost all, lol)

CjStaal · May 10, 2006

Mostly I believe, look at it's minimum specs.

newtekie1 · May 10, 2006

The ASUS version seems to come the full version of Ghost Recon. At least then you won't have to buy an extra $50 game to see any benefits.

Also from what I have read when you enable advanced physics using the card performance is actually decreased. This is because the visual's are increased and the graphics card simply has more to render.

CjStaal · May 10, 2006

Yeah so that backs up you need a ppu... If the graphics card is going to calculate and render the graphics... it will blow... even now, when the physics are handled by a dedicated card, the gpu still is struggling.

newtekie1 · May 10, 2006

bikr692002 said:
Yeah so that backs up you need a ppu... If the graphics card is going to calculate and render the graphics... it will blow... even now, when the physics are handled by a dedicated card, the gpu still is struggling.

Both ATI and NVidia said they can use their dual card solutions for physics(SLI/Crossfire). So the second card will do physics while the first one handles the graphics.

I kind of like this idea better, because in games that don't support it at least you get a boost in graphical power instead of the second card just collecting dust.

CjStaal · May 10, 2006

Frame rate will be lower than just one card w/ no physics... The rendering needs to be their either way... sli or physx cards, the framerate will drop.

And I say that I can fly. but can I? No. Don't believe everything you hear from companies... they are just trying to boost sales.

warlordfallen · May 11, 2006

question is will my ati 1800xt stop calculating physix.. or? this reminds me of mac's.. lol..

XooM · May 11, 2006

framerates drop because with a physx card theres just a ton more stuff to render... physx gives developers the option to add extra stuff that you'd never see without the hardware... never see, never render. thus, framerates drop, because the bottleneck has shifted back to the video card.
I would hate to see all those physics run on a CPU or second video card... 1 fps anyone?

cmberry20 · May 11, 2006

These cards are going to be a complete waste of time - mark my words.
By the time any serious support comes out ATI & NVidia will have a PPU implemented with their own cards. Look at the physics in HL2 & Fear, i dont see the recommended spec ask for the physics card yet HL2 has some of the best in any game on the market.

CjStaal · May 11, 2006

cmberry20 said:
These cards are going to be a complete waste of time - mark my words.
By the time any serious support comes out ATI & NVidia will have a PPU implemented with their own cards. Look at the physics in HL2 & Fear, i dont see the recommended spec ask for the physics card yet HL2 has some of the best in any game on the market.

... dude you can't expect physx to have a flawless engine right away....

cmberry20 · May 11, 2006

And that is why these cards are a waste of time.

ATI & NVidia will incorporate physx chips on their graphics card so an add on cards wont be necessary.
If these cards were less than €75 (£50) then it might warrant a look. But £210+ for a card thats not even needed apart from tech demos - thats a joke! :shadedshu
WASTE OF TIME!

XooM · May 11, 2006

"and this is why these cards are a waste of time.

chipset manufs will incorporate GFX chips into their motherboards so addon cards wont be neccesary.
If these cards were less than 75 bucks, then it might warrant a look. but 200+ for a card thats not even needed apart from tech demos - thats a joke!" rewind 20 years.

CjStaal · May 11, 2006

These cards are just starting... Why are you guys bashing out the thought of PhysX cards?
Most of you guys are pretty closed minded and think theres no reason to go further in technological advances... CPUs and GPUs can't handle it. If they incorporate PhysX chips on GPU's that will make the framerates drop more than just having independent cards for PPU and GPU sheesh

XooM · May 11, 2006

thank you...
one more question to some of you: why do you own a graphics card? its not like you really need one... cpus are perfectly capable of rendering things! look at all these modern titles that don't need a graphics card... solitaire, minesweeper, hearts...
sure, HL2 and FEAR don't need dedicated physics, but imagine how much better they could be with them. many. many. many. times.

CjStaal · May 12, 2006

Thanks Xoom, finally someone who understands that technological advances are gooood

ShadowFlare · May 16, 2006

Actually, there is a performance-related benefit that I can think of for either using the second video card for physics or having a physics processor right on the video card. When doing either of those, there will be much more bandwidth between the physics and graphics subsystem than with these PCI PhysX cards. And with having the physics processor right on the video card, it would have an added benefit of potentially being able to directly modify the graphics state stored in the memory on the card, thus increasing performance over using a separate card for it.

So, I say the idea of a dedicated physics chip is stlll ok, but it maybe should be included on the graphics card? It should at least be on something other than PCI for the separate cards, though... We have these PCI Express x1 slots, why not use them?

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ASUS and BFG PhysX add-in Cards Now Available

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