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• The new fan makes the card very heavy. The noise level is finally acceptable. In operation, the card only gets lukewarm. The most visible, or in this case audible, change compared to the "old" FX 5800 Ultra is definitely the new cooling solution. Of course the new heatsink/ fan combo also looks quite appealing, but the main attraction here is its lower noise level. As we were made painfully aware with the FX 5800 Ultra, more is definitely not better where noise is concerned. While still not exactly what we would consider quiet, the new cooler, which operates at three different speeds depending on application type, produces a much more acceptable amount of noise. In 2D mode, the cooler is practically inaudible. When a 3D application is launched, the fan spins up automatically to the next speed level, but even in the high-speed mode, which is enabled when the chip reaches a certain temperature threshold, the volume remains at comparatively comfortable and definitely acceptable levels. More importantly, the general "soundscape" that the card generates is a lot less irritating than that of the FX 5800 (check out our NV30 mp3s). Also, thanks to the lower clock speed, the board itself runs a bit cooler, as well. The card takes up two slots in the computer and covers up the first PCI slot below the AGP. The voltage switches are found almost exclusively at the rear of the card. The placement of the power connection is somewhat inconvenient. The board you see here is not yet the final design. The retail boards should be slightly more compact. Nonetheless, FX 5900 Ultra cards will be rather long. Just as with its predecessor, its large cooler will also block the PCI slot next to the AGP connector.

• The name Doom should be familiar to nearly every Windows user, even if they only have a minimal interest in 3-D games. Doom 3 and Far Cry have earned the right to be considered the most optically delectable 3-D shooters out there. Like Far Cry, Doom 3 requires a fast graphics card and processor. Software: Doom III (ID Software) Version: Patch 1.1 Installed size: 1.56 G Benchmark duration: Several minutes Installation Once you've installed the CD or DVD, load the Patch 1.1. Settings After Doom 3 has started up you can make a few changes in the options menu. Confirm these by clicking 'Apply Changes': Video Quality: High Quality Screen Size: 1024x768 You have to restart Doom 3 if you want to save the changes. Benchmarking As with Quake III and Wolfenstein ET you have to open the text console. With Doom 3 you do this by pressing CTRL+ALT+[^]. 'timedemo demo1' then starts the benchmark mode. Make sure not to use the results of the first cycle, as the increased I/O activity will produce distorted results. This is what a typical benchmark result for Doom 3 looks like.

• BFG Technologies ageia PhysX Physics Card (128MB, PCI) (9 offers) Online shop Price See more products Current games generally use three types of engine. The first is the game engine itself, such as the Doom 3 or Source engine, which runs the majority of all gameplay functions. The next two are physics-related in that their computations can be similar in nature, but they are different in scope: gameplay physics and effects physics. The difference comes from where physics calculations are used in the game. As the name suggests, gameplay physics are those that have an effect on the play of the game. In essence, this form of physics is what is needed to make a particular game run. This level of physics is incorporated into the core of the game, covering aspects such as gravity or inertia. For example, if you want your characters and objects in the virtual world to stay on the ground, then you need to apply a force to each. Developers tend to limit gameplay physics to a minimum, as they want to maximize the possible installable base for their products. The level of required physics for each game can be roughly determined by looking at the side of a game's retail box under "minimum system requirements". According to ATI and Nvidia, developers are currently not working on titles that require a PPU card to accelerate the gameplay physics. This makes sense, as few people are willing to go purchase an additional card just to make a particular game run. Effects physics are different in that they may impact the experience of the gamer, but not the outcome of the game. Thus, they represent added effects that can be enabled if specific hardware is available to do the computations. These effects are "scaleable and dial-able", meaning that the number of particles you want in a scene can be increased or decreased. There are a number of different effects that can be turned on and off, but users and some titles go as far as disabling features if the required hardware is not present. The understanding is that some effects physics will migrate over to the realm of gameplay physics as they are deemed necessary; creativity in generating new forms of gameplay will dictate this migration. If the new element added to a game creates consumer demand, then these will become mandatory in subsequent game titles. As an effect becomes more commonplace, it is increasingly likely to be incorporated into more titles. It is very possible that these effects could become gameplay physics elements instead of a selectable option in a game. Perhaps one day we will need hardware acceleration in some games, but for now we do not see that on the horizon. An example of effects physics that changed the gaming world was the gravity gun in Half-Life 2, which allows the player to pick up objects from the game world and turn them into weapons. We will soon see games adding more objects to scenes, and we will then see players interact with their virtual world in ways that resemble the real world more than ever before. As with graphics, physics is about immersion, and the better it looks and reacts, the more likely our brains will filter out the fact that what we are experiencing is just a game. When a new game title with specific physics becomes a must for gamers we will see other titles rise to meet the new bar. There have been several games that exceeded the expectation levels of gamers, and have even ruined the gameplay experience of other games because they lack this new level of entertainment.