- Graphics Beginners' Guide, Part 2: Graphics Technology
- Graphics Beginners' Guide, Part 1: Graphics Cards
- The Graphics State of the Union
- Is Ageia's PhysX Failing?
- Summer 2006 GeForce 7 Graphics Gear
- GeForce And Radeon Take On Linux
- Can Ageia's PhysX Card Bring Real-World Physics to Games?
- OpenGL Workstation Graphics: Now We're Talking High End!
- Radeon X1600 Pro: Prolonging the Graphics Life of Your AGP Machine
- GeForce 7950 GX2 - SLI on a Single Card
The Scientists' Opinions on Gaming Physics : Introduction
Source: Tom's Hardware US – Keywords: scientists, opinions, gaming, physics
Syndication:
Introduction

Physics has always been part of our games, as the term describes how objects relate to each other and their surroundings. But to render physics in a realistic way, a large number of extremely advanced calculations is required. This demands serious horsepower, which puts more and more strain on the CPU. And as the CPU already handles a lot of other tasks, the idea of a separate hardware unit to take care of physics - just as the GPU handles graphics - has been around for quite a while. Based on that thinking, Ageia created and released their PhysX card. Nvidia and ATI, though, have a different take on the problem, saying that physics can be done just as well, if not better, by adding another GPU to the equation rather than a separate physics processing unit (PPU).
So it seems that opinions differ concerning which technique handles physics best. That's why we here at THG had a talk with a couple of scientists, in an attempt to try to shed some new light on this subject. Is physics really that hard to do? Why? And which technology works best?
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