Anyone else see this??? http://techreport.com/discussions.x/14147

nice find

Hmm, sounds only half-way decent to me.

From my interpretation, the GPU would set aside some of its work load to handle physics. Unless I am missing something, that means there would be less over-all GPU power to handle actual graphics.

And it sounds like a tactic to try and convince more people to run SLI or Tri-SLI

So, for those that have SLI with the 8800's and have more power than they could ever want, FREE PHYSX upgrade!

I agree with Rally. Consider it just another eye-candy setting: AA, AF, and now PHX.

-Wolf sends

Nice Find!

I hope you are wrong rallyimprezive, but something tells me you hit the nail on the head.

Makes me wonder if next-gen cards will have a dedicated onboard PPU.

I think Rallyimprezive might be onto something too, "NVdia, Finding New Ways to get Paid."

^nVidia might have a PPU on the next gen, since they did buy Agea.

I don't really think you should be using it unless you have more than one card... but it seems pretty pointless since you can just by the custom physics card for less. If anything this is a blow for ageia at the moment, because who would want to buy one of their cards now knowing its only good for unreal atm and is probably going to be obsolete now that the nvidia deal will probably mean big changes in the way the physics engine works. At this point I wouldn't bother until nvidia does its next round of cards made with the ageia physics in mind. Then we should see some widespread use in games which would make the whole thing worth it....

More likely they'll just use the stream processors for physics. Hopefully with Ageia on board Nvidia's next architecture will be better at branching calculations.

Its a gap-stop measure as well I think. nVidia is excited about this concept and wants to be able to push it out to the market as quickly as possible. So with that in mind, this is probably a unique tactic on several fronts. Sell more 8 series, sell more SLI and sell the concept of Physx.

Furthermore, this would give game developers HUGE incentive to start utilizing Physx in their games...since the CUDA interface supports the Physx software, there will suddenly be thousands of Physx capable cards on the market (in the 8 series.)

Edit: My point was that I have no doubt that nvidia will eventually sell cards that advertise a "dedicated PPU."

There has been so much skeptisism about the future of video cards...this may show us what the future GPU/PPUs will bring.