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PHYSX
The PhysX PPU (see below) is a chip and SDK that is designed to perform complex physics calculations. It is being designed by AGEIA. On July 20, 2005, Sony signed an agreement with AGEIA to use the NovodeX SDK in the upcoming PlayStation 3.[citation needed] This will allegedly allow developers to design games with complex physics without programming a physics engine, previously a time consuming and extremely difficult process. AGEIA claims that the PhysX chip can perform physics calculations at one-hundredfold that of current CPUs and physics software.[citation needed] Additionally, the game building language Dark Basic Pro will be compatible with the PhysX processor, and will allow its users to execute physics calculations through the PPU rather than the CPU.[citation needed]
PPU
A physics processing unit, or PPU, is a processor specially designed to alleviate calculations from a computer's CPU, specifically calculations involving physics. A very similar concept was introduced in the last decade, with the graphics processing unit, or GPU. In modern computers, the GPU is used to handle vector graphics, and, by extension, 3D graphics.
Stats and specifications
- 125 million transistors
- 182 mm² die size
- Memory: 128 MB GDDR3 RAM on 128-bit interface
- Asus and BFG Version have 128 MB GDDR3 RAM each
- Interface: PCI
- Sphere collision tests: 530 million per second (maximum capability)
- Convex collision tests: 530,000 per second (maximum capability)
- Peak Instruction Bandwidth: 20 billion per second
- Price: from $250-$300 (roughly £135-£165)
Criticism and doubts
In a Reuters news article dated April 28th, 2006 which stated that the PhysX processor would go on sale in the U.S. in May for $300.00, a price that had people raising eyebrows and asking whether it was worth spending $300.00 on an "unproven technology". Reuters stated that the processor could be well beyond its time because they mentioned a demonstration of the PhysX chip using the game Cellfactor and they said before the demonstration, the graphics level actually needed to be lowered in the game itself because Reuters stated that the PhysX processor "can generate so many objects that even the twin graphics processors in Hegde [AGEIA's CEO]'s top-end PC have trouble tracking them at the highest image quality." Reuters stated that "Hegde is betting that gamers will happily sacrifice some graphical fidelity in exchange for greater interactivity." Reuters also reported that the PhysX chip first debuted in March in high-end gaming PCs from Dell, Dell's Alienware unit, and Falcon Northwest. [1]
Despite Ageia claiming that a PhysX PPU (Physics Processing Unit) was required by the game, it was discovered that by adding "EnablePhysX=false" to the end of the CellFactor Demo launch shortcut, it was possible to run the demo without the aid of the PPU. Independent benchmarks had suggested that the PPU helped very little when faced with extreme uses of physics, such as launching a grenade from the assault rifle at a large pile of physics-enabled objects. This had led many people to believe that AGEIA's PhysX technology is 'useless' and that the demo was rushed without correct testing.
The CellFactor "R36" demo, released June 8, 2006, however, allows software cloth simulation without the appropriate PhysX hardware (with "EnablePhysX=false" appended to the shortcut), whereas the earlier demo only simulated rigid bodies in software (not the cloth or fluid effects that could be done in hardware). With cloth simulated in software the frame rate would drop as low as 2fps, down from an average of 30-40fps when only rigid bodies were simulated in software. This suggests that the PhysX hardware can indeed help significantly.
Competition
Shortly after the debut of PhysX, ATI revealed their plans for physics intergration at ATI's technical display in Berkeley, California. ATI presented one possibility, a Crossfire platform with one card rendering graphics and the second rendering physics. The best thing about having another graphics card as a physics processor is that if the game being played didn't support physics acceleration, it could be used in an SLI or Crossfire setup instead. (thus boosting graphics rendering performance without the need to buy anything else).
Only a water simulator was presented at the technical display, but the main point was shown, that ATI would be a competitor in the physics market. During Computex, another display was shown with two videocards rendering graphics in Crossfire setup and a third videocard, the Radeon X1600, acting as a physics processor. The Radeon X1600 would be a cheaper choice for physics, as the card can be purchased for around $150, half that of PhysX's.
However, Ageia has declared that their PPU is superior to a GPU in processing physics, as it is a dedicated processor designed specifically for physics, whereas a GPU would not be able to do certain things a PPU could or at such efficiency because it's specifically made for graphics, and so has hardware limits against physics. However, this does not take into account the approach of integrating a dedicated PPU chip onto the graphics card.
Board Partners
Supported Titles
Only games designed to do so can benefit from the presence of a PhysX card.
Available in Spring of 2006
Future Titles
External links
Sources
- ^ New physics chip aims to shake up video games - Fri Apr 28, 2:27 p.m. ET - SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters)
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