Nvidia Buys Gaming Software, Hardware Maker Ageia

[Zer0Cool]

Nvidia plans to use Ageia products in conjunction CUDA to build programs that offload work from a computer's general-purpose CPU to a separate graphics-processing unit.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206104490

 

[superman22x]

Sounds good to me, a little extra physics wont be bad.

 

[esa193]

nice

 

[worshipme]

Is this going to mean an extra cost to us?

 

[alvino]

Yeah, probably. Extra cost for hardware and no software capable of using all the power. I say that's money well spent...

 

[FlightSimBoy]

I posted something like this awhile back. I can't seem to remember when, it was a few months ago.

This is actually a good thing, because even though most nVidia cards have physics processing capabilities on their own, this means that the built in ones can get better over time.

 

[alvino]

Doesn't matter if you don't have the software that takes full advantage of the hardware to the point where you can tell the hardware is doing it's part.

When Ageia released the PhysX, everyone thought it would be awesome cause of the dedicated physics. There were hardly any games that took advantage of the PPU and you couldn't tell the difference between PhysX and Havok (and Havok is free with your games ).

So even if NVIDIA improves the hardware, if they have no games that take full advantage of it, forget it. It's a waste of money.

 

[MikeReiner]

GRAW had a bunch of extra particle effects, whoop de do.
UT3 had a custom level with garbage blowing all over the place and destructible walls.

At least the UT3 engine has support for it, and if the last engine by epic is any indication, that engine will be used quite a bit.

 

[alvino]

Yeah, but if you realistically look at it, would you pay $200 bucks just so you could get extra particle effects and garbage flying all over the place in two of your games?

I didn't think so.

 

[Bobert93]

yer. its kinda stupid.
i would only buy it if every game suported it.
like farcry 2 and call of duty 4