[Solved] Nvidia - PhysX ATI - ?

I am running AMD Hexacore and is about the upgrade the Graphic card. After going through several threads one question still remains unclear to me..

If Nvidia has PhysX ,,, what does ATI offer? ( and I am not asking about any Third Party PhysX alternatives)

I hv seen the videos on the net which shows a comparison video with PhysX ON and OFF. With PhysX we are able to see the Particle Physics coming into play, glass pieces flying clearly, cloths getting torn off etc. which is something I definitely do not want to miss in my games (if game supports it).

With ATI not having PhysX ( as Nvidia has Patent on it) does it mean I simply miss all those particle effects even if other features are great in it?

pretty much you don't get it, though at the same time there is a handful of games (a bit more than a dozen) that use the GPU accelerated PhysX

A common misconception.

Most "physX" games do not utilize GPU accelerated PhysX. If the game does not use GPU accelerated PhysX, then both ATI/AMD and Nvidia systems look and act the same.

ATI users can use PhysX, they just can't use GPU accelerated PhysX.

The vast majority of PhysX games are NOT GPU accelerated PhysX capible.

Many of the few (about 15) GPU accelerated PhysX titles, have fairly minimal difference between with and without.

Some of the more notable GPU accelerated PhysX titles that look a lot better, require a dedicated physX card in order to see the higher detailed PhysX effects at all (for example Dark Void locks medium and high physX without a dedicated card), and others just need one for decent frames.

I personally have 1 games that uses GPU accelerated PhysX. Sacred 2. I think the leaves look kind of cool with it, I think the spell effects look worse with it on. Batman AA is probably the best example of GPU accelerated PhysX game, but I don't personally own it.

If you have some GPU accelerated PhysX games, you might want to see about a PhysX GPU, otherwise, I wouldn't worry about it.

One thing ATI's new cards have that Nvidia doesn't, is Morph AA, which allows you to have AA in games that can't normally support AA. I have more games that fall into that catagory that I really wish I had AA with.

Edit: I use SLI 470's, and I do like them a lot. I'm just letting you know about PhysX and the reality of that feature. I also have played a few recent games that I could not get AA to work with at all, and really wish I had that one feature from the new ATI cards.

I assume that's sarcasm That's 16 games. Although there is at least 1 game not on that list. Metro 2033.

$150 million for 17 games with exclusive gpu physics? If you count nVidia's bribe money on top (sorry I meant development incentives), you're looking at $10m a game - most of which are unheard of nothing titles that didn't sell well.

Ageia were laughing all the way to the bank, which incidentally was the whole point of Ageia, they existed to be bought. AMD realised that Havok was the superior choice, along with everybody else.

So, Nvidia uses GPU based PhysX which is just used in some 20 games or so.

With CPY Physx , Nvidia and ATI perform more or less same and we have this wave that soon PhysX might be off the market and open source API might replace it.

With all this I think with such a low prize in ATI as compared to Nvidia and just missing on PhysX which is not used widely and as PhysX does not have a sound future, ATI turns out to be a better part of the bargain.

what page of the AMD/ATI fanboy manifesto was this located?

amd already dismissed havok, hence the move to bullet.

^ a perfect example is sacred 2 with gpu physx on/off..

of course some dumb ati fan boy would rant on "how unrealistic the leaves are when casting a spell" or whatever. as if they'd actually see someone cast a spell in real life.

I do use Nvidia right now and can use PhysX. This isn't a matter of fanboyism, but I disagree. I hope, and expect there will be an SDK developed that will do the same things as PhysX, but using OpenCL. The big advantage would be that both companies support it, and OpenCL is just as capible of doing the job.

Given that OpenCL does exist now, I do expect PhysX to eventually die out, but it may take a while, because someone needs to develope and alternative for OpenCL first.

So which one of two... GTX 460 1GB OR HD6870?

physx is like the old 3dfx glide. a custom API that the company used to try to make people buy their 3d cards for games that would only run well when using it. But gues what....open standards opengl and directx came along in the windows environment and that was it for the 3dfx only glide API and soon after that, the end of 3dfx. I expect the same to happen for physx and it would be stupid of game developers not to use an open standard for gpu accelerated physics as they are limiting their audience because people still buy ATI cards regardless of physx. The hardware in ATI/amd cards is capable of physx, they are just restricted from using it. Dont get me wrong, im no amd/ati fanboy, the last 2 cards ive had were from nvidia, i just really dont like software using proprietry crap when there are better alternatives around that will work for everyone.

Both of these articles review the PhysX in Mafia 2 using a GTX460.

"Even the more affordable GeForce GTX 460 can handle PhysX at resolutions such as 1680x1050 or lower when coupled with a fast enough processor."
http://www.techspot.com/review/312-mafia2-performance/

And a little more info to add to the discussion:
"Nvidia is due for a big PhysX overhaul and launching PhysX 3.0 really can't come soon enough. This update is rumoured to give better performance and more effective CPU threading instead of just requiring mountains of MHz. As we've seen, all the available CPU cores are currently not being used as much as possible,. This of course suits Nvidia and we realise the performance gulf helps sell the GPU PhysX argument."
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/g [...] formance/1

Just be sure you are looking at the right list. Most PhysX lists that show 100+ games are mostly run on the CPU and perform the same on either graphics card. The list you want will be about 15-20 games total, with GPU accelerated PhysX.

Best answer selected by asheesh1_2000.