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ATI X1900 + X1600 physics configuration question

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ryanmah   09-14-2006 at 06:11:58 PM

Will the "physics" configuration, where Crossfire is NOT used, work if I have a X1900 AIW card paired with a X1600 card?

Or will the "physics" configuration work only if I use a X1900 MASTER card?

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quantumsheep   09-14-2006 at 06:57:05 PM
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Quote :

Will the "physics" configuration, where Crossfire is NOT used, work if I have a X1900 AIW card paired with a X1600 card?

Or will the "physics" configuration work only if I use a X1900 MASTER card?



I have no idea at all, i thought that ATI just used it as an example of another way that physics could be done and that it was not ready for the market yet. Could someone confirm this/prove me wrong?

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Bluefinger   09-14-2006 at 07:18:01 PM
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What ATI announced quite a while ago is a concept of what they want to do as their physics solution. Most likely you will not require a master card, since that specifically is required to achieve Crossfire graphics with high-end cards, and instead it may be done through drivers and compatible mobo chipsets. It will be a challenge getting two graphics cards working asynchronously between graphics and physics though, the drivers must be sound and stable, and the same must apply to the middleware solutions that will take advantage of the configuration (ie Havok FX). Of course, such a solution will also require a DirectX-like standard to complement it, in order to achieve cross-compatibility with other solutions.

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quantumsheep   09-14-2006 at 07:20:01 PM
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Quote :

What ATI announced quite a while ago is a concept of what they want to do as their physics solution. Most likely you will not require a master card, since that specifically is required to achieve Crossfire graphics with high-end cards, and instead it may be done through drivers and compatible mobo chipsets. It will be a challenge getting two graphics cards working asynchronously between graphics and physics though, the drivers must be sound and stable, and the same must apply to the middleware solutions that will take advantage of the configuration (ie Havok FX). Of course, such a solution will also require a DirectX-like standard to complement it, in order to achieve cross-compatibility with other solutions.



Makes sense.

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spanishfleee   09-14-2006 at 07:48:13 PM
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I heard somewhere that they would have crossfire along with another PCI-express slot for the Grpahics card that wold handle tthe pysics side of stuff. so a totaal of 3 graphics cards, even more power draining.

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4745454b   09-14-2006 at 08:07:58 PM
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Cash draining to, most motherboards don't have 3 PCIe 16x slots. Time to upgrage people...

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spanishfleee   09-14-2006 at 08:16:22 PM
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maybe they will develop some other slot so the pysics versions cant get mixed up by idiots but most likely have them the same and not have specific ones for the extra slot. maybe AMD will have some sort of input in to the new device and could change its course drematically Eg/ have the pysics done on the CPU again but by a dedicated gaming CPU such as the FX series maybe one core will be dedicated to pysics and other wont be, many people say that AMD are releasin triple core CPUs??

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4745454b   09-14-2006 at 08:19:22 PM
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Quote :

maybe they will develop some other slot so the pysics versions cant get mixed up by idiots



Maybe, but that goes against what we've heard. The idea is/was to use an old ATI card as the physics processor. If you want to, the idea is to move your "old" x1900XTX into the physics slot, and run two R600s in crossfire. (This is the idea that ATI has proprosed.) If this is the case, a new motherboard will be required for most.

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spanishfleee   09-14-2006 at 08:30:04 PM
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would the concept of using your old graphics card only be PCI-E and does it only apply to those after the X1900

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Bluefinger   09-14-2006 at 08:37:52 PM
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CPU cores, even if dedicated to physics, will not provide the floating-point calculation power required to achieve real-time dynamic physics. Graphics cards possess the necessary power for just that, which is why ATI proposed such a solution. Plus, you don't have to have 3 graphics cards (2 for Xfire, and one for physics), the solution can be done through 2 graphics cards. Besides, Ageia tried to provide a solution in order to tackle physics (though it failed miserably) and even though the physics engine can be run using the CPU, the limitations of the effects are much greater on the CPU than if done by a dedicated processor.

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Bluefinger   09-14-2006 at 08:42:52 PM
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Quote :

would the concept of using your old graphics card only be PCI-E and does it only apply to those after the X1900



Xfire can only be done over PCI-E, so yes, its only PCI-E, though I'm not to sure as to whether the current-gen graphics cards can be used along with a DX-10 card.

Reply to Bluefinger
spanishfleee   09-14-2006 at 09:05:53 PM
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cool, thanks for your reply very help full, it will be interesting to see how they develop it in the future

Reply to spanishfleee
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