[Stryker412]

Prepare to open your wallets even more:

http://hardware.gamespot.com/Story-ST-17585-1998-x-x-x

The PhysX chip will be the first hardware-based physics processing unit (PPU) released for the PC platform. Physics-accelerated games will be able to offload physics calculations from the CPU to the PPU much like how 3D-accelerated games process graphics on a video card.

This will allow games to use effects like fluid dynamics or cloth simulation and to create gameworlds where a player can interact with tens of thousands of objects instead of only 20 or 30.

While the final board specs will be decided by the manufacturer, the Ageia reference board design will include 128MB of GDDR3 memory. Initial boards will be PCI-compatible, but PCI Express versions will follow afterward. Retail boards should appear in the October time frame and should sell in the high-$200 range.

[Bonez]

not likely to catch on.

[Stryker412]

I think it'll be big. UT2K7 has already said they're using it.

Here's some movies of what it can do:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/ey...downloads.html

[Bonez]

their going to have to figure out how their going to get it to work right.

just forgot the rest of what i was going to type.

but in the end, will it work well with other cards ?

[Smurf]

I dunno what will happen with this. May flop or in a few years maybe standard computer equipment.

[Packetloss]

Originally Posted by Bonez

not likely to catch on.

Not that i like to agree with the boner, but i think he's right here...kinda...Offloaded physics have been something people have been asking for for a LONG time. I think its more likely to be added to motherboards than videocards. What it feels like, is the 1st gen 3D Acceleration cards. (You guys remember monster 3D, etc add-on cards, that you'd loop your video card to?)

Your first gen will be an add-on card, but in very short order (ie. ati/nvidia running new lines, or MB manufacturers doing same) you will see it on the card/board itself. (Think about modern AES chips and such going onto boards just to offload crypto/ssl load)

[Fook_Yu]

What i see developing is a huge increase in "gaming" graphics requirements. All to creae that "virtual reality" feeling. The systems/electric groups that are being developed at the moment for gaming are already overpowered for graphic works like CAD, computer Art work, etc (but not moving!!). Lets leave out the computer animated cartoons and gaming industry design.

I see three cat. developing;
1) Standard work stations (for excel, words. office use basically privat and professional)
2) Art work stations (cad, etc)
3) Gaming stations

1) is going back to were we started of, everything on the motherboard (sound, graphics, ethernet, etc)

2) I have no clue. I'm not in that profession i like to do it hobby based and and i can do pretty much everything on a "modest" machine. My big investment was in a good 21" monitor.

3) with prices of 400 euro for a graphicscard, 100 euro+ investements for additional RAM, PPU cards etc. you are going to a situation that a good gaming PC will be more then double the price of a regular pc. It is only a matter of time until a clear distinction is made between the two. Creating a Gaming unit with pc functionality and a pure PC unit.
How this will relate to the xbox, playstation 2 i have no clue. Maybe a Playstation 4 that has full PC capability? (i dont know if this is already possible with the 2 as i dont won one)

In a couple of years i see the PC more as a household component like a vacuumcleaner. It regulates your heating, records your movies, stores your images, stores your prefered light settings and as an addition you can still do you bookkeeping, word etc on it.

The gaming PC i see developing into a seperate unit, something like a gaming console (if that is the correct word for a xbox, PS2). What they (the gaming industry) need to sort out is some kind of community builder program feature that allows the gamers to interact with each other like we are doing on forums, clans, mods etc. Once that is a standard feature of a game or console, in combination with the strive towards legal games, the need for a gaming PC is (in my limited view) no longer there.

[Stryker412]

Check out this side by side comparison:

http://physx.ageia.com/footage.html

[DANtotheBROWN]

It's cool, but it'll take a few big games converting to this new technology before people start to buy into it.

[Bonez]

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060320/sfm088.html

the third nail in the PhysX coffin.