I keep hearing about the development of PhysX Cards. What are they? Would they take some of the load off my 8800 GT and make it run faster? Do I want one? What will they cost? Is it a separate card or will it be integrated onto the current cards?

Thanks!

There something that you probably dont need or want. Its a separate card that handles the games physics. the only problem is the game has to be made to use a physx card, and most arnt. And even the ones that are, dont make much of a difference right now. Some time in the future they might be useful, but right now, the gpu can do enough for most games. This is what i understand about physics cards, i could be wrong.

In short no you don't want one. Save the £100 for GFX upgrade.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3171

They allow calculation of additional objects and their physical interaction with a dynamic environment. They are likely at this stage to slow a game down, as they enable additional objects that the graphics card then has to render.

It's a seperate card - they're falling in price. And if you have to ask what one is, you don't want one.

Go on, buy one - you know you want to!

Plus the next gen of the current PhysX card is probably just around the corner so even if you were interested in getting one, I'd wait a little longer yet.

Not only would I wait to get one, Intel bought Havok which is currently a software answer to game physics which most games use. I would wait and see what Intel is doing with their physics davision and also see where graphics cards take us. The 8800 line currently says they do some physics proccesing onboard, how much is the question... but most of the time, it is enough.

My guess is Intel is going to try and bury Havoc, at least in the short term.

They want the processing done more on the CPU than the GPU.
They might try to make use of Havoc for the upcoming Nehalm.

Can't multicore processors handle the physics? Especially a quad? That may be where Intel is headed. Maybe a new chip code like MMX or whatever. I am guessing about that. LOL.

Even the future multicore GPUs may have the power to handle it.

Once games start coming out needing physics, graphics or chip makers may make hardware for it. For us without the newest video or cpus, i am sure there will be a add on card for legacy.

Edit: all i know is the tech demos; cell factor and warmonger, make my machine crawl. They are demos using Ageia. Even UT3 uses some physx. I can play it, but a times, when physx is crunching, my system crawls. My system is a single core P43.0. It sucks. A more current machine with multicore may handle it better. I will see, i am installing my first dual core tomorrow.

Save your money; I have the card and while it's capable of providing some pretty incredible physics in the occasional tech demo (Cellfactor), even real "PhysX enabled" games like UT3 barely take advantage of it.

Oh, this must be your first day on the internet. There is a site called google which helps you find information. There is at least 30 reviews, and tons of commentary on it.

I know you will find a abundance of information on the internet......but remember.....the internet is for porn.

Save your money. physX is old now.
If the PhysX was made now, it might only use 16 of the 128 threads in the 8800GTX. Just because the 8800GTX is so much more powerful than the card PhysX is based on.
Anyway, I still expect future vga cards to calculate physics & use it's floating point muscle using a standard API (DX11 or something from Intel). The standards will make GPGPU physics mainstream.
This won't happen for at least a year (or 2 or 3).
Just my 2 cents.

Did you just pull that number out of your ass? Sure the PhysX card might be dead, but comparing it to the 8800GTX doesn't make sense any way you put it.