HavokFX SLI physics

[Xazax310]

Interesting read, i have heard about ATI physics solution but it looks like Nvidias will be much better. Aslo ill get to use my 7900GT and 8800GTS in conjuction.

At the most basic level, NVIDIA and Havok’s partnership is very similar to AGEIA’s PhysX PPU and Novodex API solution. NVIDIA has several advantages that may put a damper on AGEIA’s plans for 2006.

"First, NVIDIA’s solution does not require the user to buy a separate piece of hardware in order to accelerate physics processing in-game. The same GPUs that NVIDIA sells for graphics processing inherently excel at physics processing as it is very similar to the highly parallelizable graphics processing. And by not requiring a user to add another piece of hardware to their system, they can save an expansion slot and some money.

Now, according to NVIDIA’s own information, the minimum requirement for Havok FX support is the GeForce 7600 GPUs and they recommend the 7900 series of cards... Users that have 6-series cards will not be able to take advantage of the physics processing capabilities that the Havok FX engine will utilize and the slower 7-series cards won’t run them as fast."

Source: http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=222&type=expert

 

[Blacken]

Yeah, thats gonna be a good load off the cpu. Games right now aren't physics complex, but they predict (and it's only natural) they definently will be. Good work on nV's part.

 

[mpjesse]

This article is a bit outdated. Last I read only the 8800 series will be capable of accelerated PPU calculations. This was one of the reasons nVidia went with "stream processors" or "unified shader" technology w/ the 8800.

If I'm wrong, someone please correct me.

 

[Xazax310]

Well no, the 7xxx series GPUS are going to be used like they said for physics, so 8800's for rendering and 7xxx for physics using 7xxx series GPU.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Like Mpjesse said, you're late to the table with this discussion.

The GF7 series is weaker than the X1K series at physics, and that article you have is so outdated they don't even know about the ATi solution, nor the fact that the HavokFX works with ATi and nV, and at that point they likely don't even know about the DirectPhysics situation. Heck only 2 days later they go on to mention that they asked ATi @ GDC and found out that they too work ith HavokFX, and do it better do to far better dynamic branching;
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=226&type=expert

But I guess you missed even that old news. Probably because you're looking for something to make you feel good about your aging hardware.

You're statement "i have heard about ATI physics solution but it looks like Nvidias will be much better" is equally ignorant, because based even on just the series you were reading about it turns out that ATi was better than nV. Only now with the addition of the GF8800 do they have a solid physics part. However considering the work on DirectPhysics and Havok working with both, probably the best combination right now of old and new if the apps were available would be nV GPU for graphics, and then an old ATi VPU for physics. Of course 2 GF8800s would be better still. BTW, according to the original information for SLi physics, you would need two of the same cards, so your original solution wouldn't even work if things hadn't changed.

I suggest you do more reading, but try in this season not something from the end of last winter. :roll: