I'll be trying it tomorrow on the system in my sig. And no, I don't have the PhysX card.
I remember with the first demo they released that you needed to hack the game to work without a PhysX card + driver installed. Even then, I couldn't get it to work. Maybe now they've realized that nobody sees a purpose for these things, and they're trying to get people to take a serious look at them by releasing a demo that is supported without a PhysX card.
They've come down a lot in price, eventually they may become something to think about...eventually. Maybe when UT3 and more games that use that engine come out the cards will be useful...but until then, they're a waste of money that could be spent on other hardware.
I just played and i got 11FPs average with my system with HDR and 20fps average withou at 1024 resolution( i went to 1280x1024 but it was too laggy). The special effect are insane with the physx it should be pretty bad ass but it doesn't worth unless the card come to the 40$ price range. The graphic are pretty nice too with high resolution its should be one of the most beautifull graphic.
If anything, this has convinced me NOT to get the physX card. Only works in games supporting it, and in those games the only real benefit you get is some chunkier explosions, etc. physX only games are just a gimick to get people to waste money on this thing. I'll consider it later if/when it can demonstrate a worthwhile effect or the price enters a reasonable range. Untill then, this is just an expensive novelty.
oh! i remember hearing about this around the time of crysis. both looked cool. but then i forgot about this one... too bad its so bound to the lame physx POS :x it looked cool
I have the physx card..I downloaded the demo.I have an Asus P5NE-SLI,E6600,300 gig barracuda,x-fi and razer barracuda.2 gig supertalent.Antec 900 case.Vista and XP! People are so funny..Its all a conspiracy.If you try really hard..you don't need an x-fi either..why?if they can trick us with the physx card..I mean..The people that don't have one all think they are programming the games so we don't really need one,but they put code in so we do need one..right.And then we have other people thinking we can program everything into the quad core processors,like the physx and sound..wtf..I want the processors to do the games,the gpu to do graphics,the soundcard to do sound and the fricken physx card to do physx..And then everybody whinning about 10-14 fps in cell factor..lol..that's the whole point..your not supposed to be able to run it without the physx card.Funny..I get anywhere from 35-95 fps..totally playable at 1680x1050.everything up..no lag..graphics are awesome..I'm not saying to go run and get the card..I'm saying it works..and its still early..give it a change..the games are coming..cellfactor does what no other game does..if you have a physx card,you would see the difference,the realism.. responses please..
I tried it without a physx card and i get the average performance of people with similar setup as mine, which is 20-30 fps.
From what i read of various reports, having the card does improve performance, while allowing more things too.
I think a lot of people are giving conspiracy theories, but they don't spend time to think about what is happening. You don't have a PPU, so obviously something has to calculate the physics, which ends up being the CPU. People then get poor performance because the CPU has to calculate more things. Makes a lot more sense then saying things like "ZOMG, ageia put a line of code so the game runs like crap when you don't have a PPU, death to Ageia!"
From what i learned and observed, PPU does give a benefit, and people that are saying that using extra cores to do physics is just fine, well, here is an example of where it doesn't run good.
I'll admit I wouldn't go out to buy a physx card, because there simply isn't enough games right now. But if many games supports it, i would buy it.
I understand most people don't like to spend money, but I don't think we shouldn't bash things just because we don't feel like it's worth it for us, a lot of people start with a biasied opinion right off the bat.
The physics are absolutely awesome. Everything moves... I should say tons of stuff move, and at the same time. I like using the grenades, and if you used them, you'd like it also.
The vehicles suck, but then again, I never did like "ride and gun" game play.
When the game developers add this, ( physics ), the right way into the games, it'll add a nice effect. They just have to do enough of it.
You can also watch a few short movies of the gameplay and what you can do.
check it out.
It's AWESOME from the "whats new" and "whats coming", "front".
I have the physx card..I downloaded the demo.I have an Asus P5NE-SLI,E6600,300 gig barracuda,x-fi and razer barracuda.2 gig supertalent.Antec 900 case.Vista and XP! People are so funny..Its all a conspiracy.If you try really hard..you don't need an x-fi either..why?if they can trick us with the physx card..I mean..The people that don't have one all think they are programming the games so we don't really need one,but they put code in so we do need one..right.And then we have other people thinking we can program everything into the quad core processors,like the physx and sound..wtf..I want the processors to do the games,the gpu to do graphics,the soundcard to do sound and the fricken physx card to do physx..And then everybody whinning about 10-14 fps in cell factor..lol..that's the whole point..your not supposed to be able to run it without the physx card.Funny..I get anywhere from 35-95 fps..totally playable at 1680x1050.everything up..no lag..graphics are awesome..I'm not saying to go run and get the card..I'm saying it works..and its still early..give it a change..the games are coming..cellfactor does what no other game does..if you have a physx card,you would see the difference,the realism.. responses please..
Yeah but you know i am sure that games isnt multi-thread if so, i am sure a quad core can calculate all the physic that a physx card do. This is like half life 2 the physic is pretty realistic and you don't need a seperatly card that cost you 130$ for the extra lame physic. If you go see the review someone wrote before: http://www.xtremecomputing.co.uk/review.php?id=346 the difference in game are not insane, like the snow, they just added some ball but in real life there not little ball that came out from no where, and the blood there no little ball of blood too, that not realistic. They just added some weird effect to sell their expensive card so they can make money off you.
The difference is that Half Life 2 does not come even close to having the amount of objects being calculated at the same time.... the difference is like humongous.
For example, there's cloth simulation on flags and banners in the map, which can be pretty demanding already. Then theres so many debris, were talking 50+, in one small location, that can be manipulated at the same time, and that's by one person.
Currently, in cellfactor, physics are calculated by the CPU when you don't have a PPU, and everyone that does that pretty much frames a lot when things starts becoming chaotic.
Also the extra CPU could be used for other things, for example , a much better AI, which would improve the game a lot.
I think that it's worth trying it out just to see for yourself the amount of objects moving at the same time.
(sigh) basically, the PPU offloads computations normally reserved (by today's current software) for CPUs and some GPUs. By doing this, less latency is noted and thereby allows today's software more entities to be used in a scenario (game).
Those that say the PPU sucks are just not informed... odds are they haven't used one at all. Those few that have used one and still don't like it have the most valid complaint(s). True, today's software isn't made for PPU, and that's what most of us are accustomed/baselined to.
We are dependent upon faster CPUs to perform the computations and feed the GPUs. The PPU essentially takes the computational load off the CPU and feeds its data directly to the GPU.
Sure, this means that we can have larger playing fields in our games. It is funny to hear some complain that the PPU only applies to games. Well, this is only partially true, because there are commercial applications involved with using PPUs, such as commercial/military simulation and training. (btw, I work in this field.) Keep in mind that there is a large market for the gaming community, which is its own niche.
Offloading CPU computations to a PPU allows for more entities, meaning more polygons, meaning higher fidelity environments, meaning a requirement for higher capabilites on your GPU.
Gee, DX10 and the new GPUs are starting to fall into this mode of thinking.
We are(have been) apparently being hoodwinked into CPU dependency... (CPU vs PPU)
As more and more go to the PPU, more and more software titles will support it... akin to the old 386/486 with math co-processor days. It helped then, and look at our CPUs now.
Same applies to PPUs, as they have a specific niche where theyare effective.
The more PPUs you have, the more your CPU can handle (or be offloaded).
So, rather than bottlenecking your CPU, your GPU becomes taxed with having to render the additional polygons, and hence the requirement for GPUs with greater capabilities.
Bottom line, more processing units is obviously better, whether they be CPU, PPU or GPU...
lordaardvark2 
lordaardvark2 