Physics Accelerator

[Ice]

I was browsing some computers and I came upon this object, a physics accelerator. My question is what exactly does it do and is it worth getting if I get a new desktop?

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

What a coincidence, I was about to ask the same question!

[Master_Thief]

A physics accelerator is a card which computes all of the data related to physics in a game e.g. the havok physics in Oblivion. The idea is that it allows for much more, and much better physics systems in games. The problem is that the new cards, which are created by a company called Ageia are very expensive, and are currently on the cutting edge of technology which is never a safe place to be. Ageia is taking a gamble in a market dominated by Nvidia and ATI and the chances of failure are high. Also not many games support the new cards, though several do such as Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and City of Heroes. Others are in the process of being patched in order to support it. At the moment buying a physics card probably isn't worth it unless you happen to be completely obsessed with the previous two games. It would be best to sit back and see what happens.

Check out www.ageia.com for more info.

[The_Mark]

Well, I'm pretty confident I'll get one when the release of Game2 (the real OFP2) is immiment. If something deserves a physics accelerator, it's that game.

And on the plus side, the game's release will take long enough for the accelerators to become affordable.

[Master_Thief]

Just make sure you have some fps to spare. I've heard that the accelerators can make a bit of a dent on performance. Also make sure the games you want to play are supported by the card otherwise it will just sit there doing very little. However most of my knowledge is based on a magazine article from a couple of months ago so things may have changed.

[lars573]

Also ATI and Nvidia have benn working better physics support into Crossfire and SLI. SLI now (I think) can be configured to have one GPU doing the graphics the other physics. The next version of Crossfire will have 3 PCI-e X16 slots on the CF MoBo's. Where the third slot can have a lowerend card stuck in and set to physics mode. ATI example is an X1600 XT or PRO as physics with 2 X1900's as the graphics.

Now Aegia's cards are a 1st gen product. It has little support from games, so far.

Also have you heard about the project to develope an AI chip for PC's?