Crossfire Physics

[akahuddy]

Hey guys I bought an X1900XTX and X1900 Crossfire Card awhile back to replace a puny 1600PRO. I was going to sell one of the 1900's to one of my friends but I don't really know what to do with the 1600. Is it worth keeping around as a physics processor in Crossfire?

 

[RomeFanatic]

Hey guys I bought an X1900XTX and X1900 Crossfire Card awhile back to replace a puny 1600PRO. I was going to sell one of the 1900's to one of my friends but I don't really know what to do with the 1600. Is it worth keeping around as a physics processor in Crossfire?

How many games currently support Crossfire physics? I'm fairly certain it is zero, at present--can you even download a demo of it to play with? Have any developers announced games that will support it?

 

[SciFiMan]

Nope, both ATI and nvidia physics solutions remain vapor. They were just something to put on the websites fast to counter the new PhysX card and squash that market. It was all pretend, but it worked well because people are sheep, especially on "I'm an expert and you're not" sites like this and others.

 

[Heyyou27]

Only real physics solution on the market is the AGEIA PhysX card, and support is limited to only a few titles.

 

[akahuddy]

Well bah humbug! I guess it would at least be worth keeping around for about another month.

 

[crazypyro]

ATi's and nVidia's physics solutions are only paper for now. Its obvious with the G80 design there looking to toss physics onto the card in the I/O chip maybe, not sure. ATi's RD600 mobo's have 3 PCIe slots which means there 3 card physics solution is seemly real. Just a matter of when DX10 comes out and requires physics processing really.

 

[RomeFanatic]

Well bah humbug! I guess it would at least be worth keeping around for about another month.

Yeah, that's what I told myself when I replaced my original FireGL's 10 years ago. I think I still have them sitting in a box around here somewhere--never seemed to find another use for them, but it seemed a shame to throw away an expensive piece of HW, so they have travelled with me as I moved from place to place...

 

[tool_462]

I always like to have a backup card for diagnostic purposes if anything were to go wrong.

Also, extra parts have come in handy for me many times. Next you will acquire a CPU and some memory and then just buy a mobo and slap together an extra LAN box for friends! Or eBay it...

 

[akahuddy]

I always like to have a backup card for diagnostic purposes if anything were to go wrong.

Also, extra parts have come in handy for me many times. Next you will acquire a CPU and some memory and then just buy a mobo and slap together an extra LAN box for friends! Or eBay it...

No kidding about having a backup.

I wish I had the money to build a LAN box for some of my friends!

 

[capnbfg]

The X1600Pro is a pretty wimpy card, so who is to say whether or not it will be powerful enough when Crossfire Physics actually becomes an option? Anyone who does say one way or another is speculating.

Personally, I would keep that card around regardless just as a spare, especially since it isn't worth very much for resale. You never know when it might come in handy. I have a 9600Pro and 9800Pro in static bags just in case anything happens to any of the AGP rigs my family has running.

 

[RomeFanatic]

Personally, I would keep that card around regardless just as a spare, especially since it isn't worth very much for resale.

Here's a plan:

Keep the 1600 around. Just before the next "big thing" arrives, sell off your 1900's while they are still worth something, and use the 1600 until you upgrade!

 

[akahuddy]

Personally, I would keep that card around regardless just as a spare, especially since it isn't worth very much for resale.

Here's a plan:

Keep the 1600 around. Just before the next "big thing" arrives, sell off your 1900's while they are still worth something, and use the 1600 until you upgrade!

I never thought of it that way, but that is definately a good idea. If anything, I can drop it into a machine for my sister in a few years because she'll never need any games or anything demanding.

 

[yipsl]

Personally, I would keep that card around regardless just as a spare, especially since it isn't worth very much for resale. You never know when it might come in handy. I have a 9600Pro and 9800Pro in static bags just in case anything happens to any of the AGP rigs my family has running.

Yep, I've found a use for my AIW Radeon 8500 128. I'll use it in a dedicated PC used just to transfer old anime VHS for DVD archiving. When I get the X1950 Pro AGP to replace my AIW Radeon 9800 Pro, that will go into a PC for my six year old.

I'll be curious to see how Havoc physics on ATI's RD600 board by DFI will check out. Anandtech's review said that the third PCIe x16 was only for physics, they could not use it for Crossfire.

Here's their comments:

The third x16 slot is designed for the upcoming ATI/AMD physics capability. This slot can be jumpered for PCI Express card operation and we are testing it currently. Unfortunately, at this time it appears the secondary x16 slot can only be used for graphics.

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2891&p=2

If a slot is dedicated for the ATI physics, does it even have to be Crossfire, even on a Crossfire board? One would think that a single X1900XTX could be used for graphics and an X1600 Pro for physics.

I also remember a mention in a Twitch Guru column that integrated ATI graphics would be used for physics as well, and not just for an extra monitor. That would make getting an RS690 board a good choice for those not planning Crossfire. The AMD 690 T boards arriving with dedicated slots for the integrated x1250 video memory look good for that.

Of course, it's all a matter for Catalyst to make use of Havok physics, which hasn't happened yet.