Ageia building PCI Express version of PhysX card

Nothing much to see here, but Ageia is apparently prepping a PCI Express version of their PhysX card -- which is currently only available in PCI form. The new card boasts of zero performance improvements, since the original isn't even close to maxing out a PCI bus, but doesn't PCI Express just sound more exciting? We suppose if you've got all your PCI slots full-up with a sound card, Killer NIC and some AI Processing, a free PCI-E x1 slot might be your only option, but otherwise we can't imagine a huge demand for this card when this starts shipping sometime October-ish. Ageia also launched a new version of the PhysX SDK today, with Vista 64-bit and Linux support, along with a new "Realitymark" benchmark system to convince the unwashed masses that buying a PCI E dedicated physics card with near zero game support is a decent value proposition.

[Igor @ Oct 2nd 2006 4:12PM]

actually a lot of people (well, relatively) have been asking for pci-e coz new motherboards have only few old ones

[Michael Witt @ Oct 2nd 2006 4:24PM]

I don't see this paning out. Yes the PhysX engine is a great idea... 5 years ago. With the advent of Quad-Core processors this card becomes obsolete - before it made it into action. Look at the demo of Alan Wake. You see this realistic world which uses 2 cores for physics simulations. Hmmmm, 2 Core cores dedicated to physics, with a bandwidth measured in Gbps, and a standard instruction set, or one proprietary processor with a bandwidth measured in Mbps, using a seperate command set. It is much easier for developers to write code for an x86 processor than another one, and while the PhysX engine may be free, if the developers can now just put a prerequisite of four cores on the box, rather than require people to buy a PCI card that may only ever be used for that one game... the developers are oing to pick the one that is more likely for people to use.

All in all, if this was 5 years ago, Ageia would have their cards in all gamers computers, and so the developers would continue to use that engine for a while, but it wasn't there then, and so it's not going to get there now. Sorry Ageia, your idea was great, but it's no longer practical.

R.I.P. Ageia.

[Brennan @ Oct 2nd 2006 4:45PM]

oh wow, a PhysX card that goes into PCI-E slot but doesnt improve more performance. I'm not buying that, just the PCI one is fine. Really im waiting for a 256mb PhysX card to come out.

have any of u guys gotten the Killer network card yet? is it worth getting for online games n lowing ping?

reason i ask is because i have a plan on what im trying to get in the next few months n next year, in case u guys like to know.

My Plan:

* LITE-ON black DVD-ROM drive (ordering this week!)
* ATI or Nvidia motherboard with at least 3 PCI slots, 4 DDR2 slots - dual channel, 2 PCI-E slots - Crossfire or SLI will determine what GPU i will go for, AM2 sok
(*currently cannot find a good board to match all my needs, if any of u guys can help, that will be great*)
* 1-2 ATI R600 DX10 GPUs or Nvidia 8800 GTX DX10 GPUs
* 2GB DDR2 800MHz
* AMD quad-core K8L, due to release Q2 2007
* ASUS 256MB PhysX Accelerator, due.....dont know :-(
* (*NEWLY added*) Killer NIC network card
* Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS Sound Card (*$279 at Best Buy, ouch*)

* since all 3 PCI slots r in use, i might get a capture card, so i can make or record games from consoles or TV, i dont know, just a thing in mind. If so, then i switch with PhsyX card just to record.

[Igor @ Oct 2nd 2006 4:49PM]

1.this isnt an upgrade from pci but just an option.
2. alan already uses 1 core solely for physics now thats just first next gen wave for pc. i dont think when 4 core ill be introduced we'll see same price drops, but instead they will be priced above their brothers.

[Lord Dark Moon @ Oct 3rd 2006 8:07AM]

What, no liquid cooling?
http://www.eternal-champions.com/images/ldm_master_builder!.jpg
Pussy ;^)...

[Gamey McGee @ Oct 2nd 2006 5:58PM]

Geez I can't even imagine what the poster thinks of the product. He hides his bias so well.

[Timerider @ Oct 2nd 2006 6:06PM]

When does Mac support come? This is good for a Mac Pro since it only has PCI-e slots. It would be a good performance boost with that network card. Is there going to be UT 2007 support.

[Darrol @ Oct 2nd 2006 6:25PM]

I have a bit of information for anyone playing computer games. I, along with many others, discovered that certain games(i.e. City of Heroes/Villains) see an increase in performance with just the runtime engine for the PhysX cards even though the card is not present. It is still unknown exactly what is done to cause this increase in performance, it is thought that it creates a virtual PPU to help with the game effects. I myself have seen a great increase in fps with higher settings that I thought were not possible by my current out of date computer.

Basicly what I am saying is that it might be best to try and download the runtime engine alone by downloading the Drivers and setting it to download the runtime engine only.

[tekdemon @ Oct 3rd 2006 1:53PM]

PhysX does in-fact help a lot with physics calculations. When they got Cell Factor to run without the PhysX card it was being GPU limited at most resolutions, but at 640x480 you could see that the PhysX card gave it a huge FPS advantage-showing that it was definitely taking a load off the CPU.

So as the GPUs get faster and the GPU limit gets taken off of games like Cell Factor you'll definitely see the PhysX become more useful lol.

[Braxton Perry @ Oct 3rd 2006 2:21AM]

Yep day late and a dollar short. The mainstream quad Core2 coming out Q1 has killed this card.

A graphics card will do a much better job and it wil be a great way of recyling old cards to new functionality.

Also look at the accelerator project on channell9.msdn.com They are building GPU supercomputers in .NET!

A Windows patch could use this to moer than double the floating point power of non video games. If you running just the normal screen, then use the extra power for something good.

I am glad folding @ home is jumping on this bandwagon.

But this also means that clearspeed is next on the chopping block. Two nVidia cards are far cheaper than a clearspeed. Heck another computer with two video cards is cheaper than a clearspeed.

They need to release a new faster and cheaper version soon.

[Ebzy @ Oct 3rd 2006 6:13AM]

hopefully with clearspeed and amd getting together in co-processors (plus quad core and quad sli) most of us will have more processing power than we can seriously use.

[Frankenstein Black @ Oct 3rd 2006 8:19AM]

LDM, I take it that your comment was ment for Brennan? In any case I am a bit of a waterbender as well. Nice work, but some of those rigs look, well, kinda oldschool. Got anything new in the works?

[Wildside @ Oct 3rd 2006 12:58PM]

na no liquid cooling for me, it's expensive n there is no need for one, it's a rip off if u ask me, but if u can convince me other wise, ill say no if that's what ur wondering.

[Frankenstein Black @ Oct 5th 2006 11:04PM]

Woops! I take back the oldschool comment. Is that a Vapochill evaporator with ICE forming at the base in the top left Pic? If yes, YOU ARE A MAD MAN LDM! How do you prevent water drip on you video card?

[E71 @ Oct 4th 2006 4:59PM]

My crossfire setup made one PCI-E 1x slot and one PCI slot redundant. Since I had to use the one remaining PCI slot for the sound card, I only have one PCI-E x1 slot left which most companies don't build anything for. Weak. Weeeeaaak.

[Dustin @ Jan 23rd 2008 8:06AM]

Anyone here know how i can get A PCI Slot Expansion, I have a vacant PCI EX X1 slot, and a Vacant PCI express X4 slotI have the Asus A8n 32x Sli deluxe board and I have 1 creative Audigy 4 Pro, Using 1 pci slot, and the other 2 pci slots, well they are being used /covered up by, the HUGE dual GPUS 7950 GX2 running Quad slied, And I have the Ageia Physx Processor, But cant use it because the PCi slot is prefered more rigt now to be used for Audigy 4 pro sound, since i have the Creative giga works 750 THX speaker system 7.1 .. 700 watt, And Amd thlon 64 Fx-60 dual core CPU with 4 gigs corsair twinx Cl2 memory, And dual 150 GIG sata Wd raptor 10,000 RPM drives. I am thinking of selling my CPU board, and Memory while i can, And using the money i could get out of it, And what i have saved, to upgrade to the Xfx Mother board that supports 3 way GPUS< And If only i could Get a quad Cor CPU and Memory with that board, i keep my Quad GPUS cause they are still faster than 2 8800gtx Nvidia told me that.

[dustin @ Jan 23rd 2008 8:10AM]

Imagine, USING THE 3way sli with Dual 7950 GX2, running ^ slied, WOWSA