ATI doing physics

[TrinireturnofGamez]

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTA3OSwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

 ATI claims an x1600xt will be faster than an Ageia card ( not to mention cheaper too , 90us for an x1600 pro vs 300)
 and an x1900xt will be 9x the speed.. Nvidia should make similar claims to at computex this week ..   
     
   Havoc is also supporting GPU physics , since it is the big player in physics still the industry should move with them ...
   Dissapointingly this hasn't got past the ''Lots of sh!t flying around'' Stage to go on to anything amazing or gamepaly affecting like better ragdoll physics for FPS , more realistic collision detection etc.
   
 Also note ATI is suporting Intel's Conroe for a ''Boundless Gaming '' platform ie. A platform wit 3 PCI-E x16 slots , 2 for Crossfire and 1 for Physics card.. 
 
  This is much better for the average gamer  as it works on different levels , instead of throwing away your old card after a year or two  , you can keep it for physics work ... Or if you rich no @ss you can get 3 GPUS..
   

[Beomagi]

OH shucks. BACK TO 3 VIDEO CARDS!!!!!!!

anyone remember when you'd use 2 voodoo2 in sli with a thrid card for 2d?

[W1nTry]

Wait for it:

Nvidia to look beyond SLI physics

Goes recycling


By INQUIRER newsdesk: Tuesday 06 June 2006, 17:39

WHILE ATI TODAY announced its support of Havok FX with the inclusion of a third, asynchronous, standalone card, Nvidia appears to be on a similar track.
From some unsecured chatter that I recently participated in with the 7950 GX2 release, it appears Nvidia may be preparing a more generalized way of supporting additional GPU physics.

The idea is quite simple. If a user has a PCI-E Nvidia graphics card, and an SLI motherboard, then they already have the basics of running a hardware physics effects system.

Let me suggest a scenario. Joe Blow is running a SLI mobo with a 6600 GT. He has tears in his eyes for not being able to play Oblivion at e-penor resolutions. Joe skips his utility payments for the month and purchases a 7900 GTX (or, fails to pay rent as well, and goes for a 7950 GX2). What does he end up doing with that old 6600 GT? Give it to a friend? Pass it off to a homeless person on the street? No! He looks to be able to slot that 6600 GT into the 2nd PEG slot in his SLI mobo, and the NVIDIA drivers can configure that piece of kit as a standalone physics processor.

This is by no means official, but it certainly looks to be the direction the firm is going. Instead of simply selling off the old graphics board, users will be given the choice of taking that old card and having hardware accelerated physics. Have a 7800 GTX and craving for a 7900 GTX or 7950 GX2? Move that puppy down to the other slot and fire it up!

This does make perfect sense from a manufacturer and user standpoint. Here is some hefty SM 3.0 hardware that can handle 32-bit floating point calculations at remarkable speeds.

With the joy that is PCI-E, GPU writes to main memory are not nearly as problematic as it was with the old, crusty AGP. Not only that, but because of the nature of SLI based setups, there is going to be a lot of direct communication between the physics GPU and the rendering GPU. The PCI-E bus has opened up new dimensions to all the players due to its streamlined simplicity and power.

Once Nvidia announces this (I am assuming it will be closer to August when Havok FX is due to make its big splash), then I imagine that eBay become a vaccuumous wasteland as many pull their older PCI-E cards out of the auctions. µ

[TriniXaeno]

Interesting development.

Ageia stock is gonna bottom out as a result no doubt, lol