AGEIA PhysX?

[Nechen]

Well I downloaded the trial for City of Villains and noticed they added AGEIA PhysX support to it. Now given the fact that I can read the "What is AGEIA PhysX" link on their website like any other dullard with an internet connection I'm just wondering if I have this understood correctly...

-Its an independent processor dedicated solely with "Computing" physics engines such as debris/ragdolls/ETC...?

-Its manufactured into the video card much like the GPU and Memory?

-Only select manufacturers are adding them to their cards like BFG?

So if I buy a video card with the AGEIA PhysX (I dont know if "Processor" is the correct term??) does this mean that whenever I play AGEIA enabled games the physics will be 100 times more realistic or am I missing something here? It seems too easy I guess. Given that Half-Life2 had "ground-breaking" physics not too long ago and all it had to work with was the CPU for physics not to mention A.I. and many other factors.

 

[Nechen]

Wait change what I said ... I'm looking at ZipZoomFly and its an expansion card you put into the PCI Bus???

 

[The General]

Yes, it's another card, to make all the pretty shrapnel and shards of glass and chunks of concrete. It will slow your performance down, and in some cases make the game unplayable. It slows down because there is more stuff to render by the video card. It will be unplayable because there will be stuff blocking your view. Who wants debris in the way when you're trying to shoot someone on the other side?

 

[baronvongogo]

its a PCI card you put in your pc which is "supposedly" meant to improve physics in a game.

Its certainly not worth buying at present not a lot of game support, and it has yet to be proven to be a worth while purchase. So no do not buy it YET.

there's also a demo called cell factor which was meant to be physics card only, yet you can run it without one and from what iv seen there's very little improvement. Except it can handle fluids and cloth tearing.

nvidia have an idea to use a SLI config to allow one graphics card to work as a physics processor and ATI are looking at having their own version.

Its a new technology and whether or not it will have benefits are yet to be determined, many think unreal 2007 will be the time to see if it sinks or floats.

in conclusion Id wait its expensive and not worth wasting money on yet. Wait for more games to support it and benchmarks. Also keep an eye out for nvidia and ATI trying something similar.

 

[ulater6000]

Just wait to buy one untill more powerfull cards are out, and more games feature support for them.