GeForce 8 GPUs to acquire PhysX support via software download

Good news for folks with a GeForce 8 GPU and lots of questions about how the recent Ageia acquisition would affect them: your current card will be receiving PhysX support. When NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang was questioned in a recent conference call, he noted that the firm was currently "working towards the physics-engine-to-CUDA port," and it could be delivered as "a software update" to every card that's CUDA-enabled (read: all of the GeForce 8 GPUs). Sadly, the bigwig still wouldn't say when to expect the release of the first PhysX port, but we really can't imagine it taking too awfully long now.

[Neebs @ Feb 15th 2008 8:42PM]

Thanks Nvidia!

This is why Nvidia is better than AMD by far.

That, and the BASTARDS at AMD keep deciding "lol let's put one of our super special awesome midrange cards on AGP."

[Jhongerkong @ Feb 15th 2008 8:46PM]

Isnt it Nvidia vs ATI?

[OSnix*-geek @ Feb 15th 2008 8:49PM]

hmmm well AMD owns ATI... so sorta.. yes and sorta NO!

[Dualboot @ Feb 15th 2008 9:53PM]

Dude, you need to read the back issues:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/24/amd-buying-ati-for-5-4-billion/

[Jhongerkong @ Feb 15th 2008 8:52PM]

Ah, I see then. Ive got to catchup on my gadgets.

Say, has Windows ME come out yet? :)

[Neebs @ Feb 15th 2008 9:21PM]

No, but Duke Nukem Forever was just announced last Tuesday. I can't wait!

[iofthestorm @ Feb 15th 2008 11:52PM]

Wait, why is putting their midrange cards on AGP a bad thing? They put them on PCIE too, and it's helpful for people who are still on an AGP system although by now they'd probably get a lot more mileage out of upgrading their entire system.

[Neebs @ Feb 16th 2008 12:00AM]

AGP is a dead slot, and everybody knows it. It's been dead a very, very, very long time.

[Superprime @ Feb 16th 2008 1:58AM]

No it's not. My comp has an AGP slot but I've got dual core, 2 GB of RAM but I'm stuck with an old card because there are no new ones.

[Brian @ Feb 16th 2008 2:52AM]

Pentium D, Celeron D, and Core Duo do not count as dual core... their performances were ABYSMAL.

Core 2 Duo is the only Intel dual core that's worth a crap. (Actually, it's the best dual core processor you can buy)

[Sam Winter @ Feb 16th 2008 3:00AM]

@Brian
Don't speak when you don't know your shit, loser. Core Duo (1st gen) is an upgraded Pentium-M based processor, and although it doesn't use the "Core" architecture, It's damn fast. In fact my 1.86Ghz Core Duo laptop is only 1-4% slower on average than the equivalent Core 2 Duo. They are both > twice as fast as a Pentium D of the same clock.

[sentient.exe @ Feb 15th 2008 8:49PM]

"Isnt it Nvidia vs ATI?"

AMD owns ATI.

[Fraggle.Rock @ Feb 15th 2008 11:53PM]

AMD pwns ATI!!! booyakasha



Sorry, I couldn't resist... I feel terrible now.

[earthling @ Feb 15th 2008 8:55PM]

Hmm. This cannot come for free (with respect to GPU cycles), I mean isn't my card already on its knees trying to run Crysis? So this will most benefit those with multiple (SLI) rigs or really big cards (8800 GTX ULTRA) running underperforming games. Either that or a large percentage of the current GPUs are getting underutilized.

[steve @ Feb 15th 2008 9:07PM]

I believe this will make 3-way SLI actually useful. Because, you know, that third card is really pulling it's own at the moment. Oh, and this might promote developers to actually make use of PhysX acceleration since we've removed the chicken and the egg problem.

[Abuzar @ Feb 15th 2008 9:45PM]

He meant costly, as in, it will cost him FPS in games.

[Chris @ Feb 15th 2008 9:45PM]

Just a thought but wouldn't this make the gpu a little less focused on the graphics part which might make games preform worse? Not that I'm the type of person to bitch about over 2fps lost in crysis but I know some person out there might.

[Passarinhuu @ Feb 16th 2008 5:19AM]

Crysis does not support PhysX physics so you won't be able to use your CUDA engine to do the calculations. It uses its own engine.

In other games that suport the card you will always lose performance if you enable advanced physics because the graphics card will have to render that extra debris/smoke/colapsable buildings or whatever is being added.

[earthling @ Feb 16th 2008 8:14AM]

My point is that advanced games (Like Crysis) are using as much of the GPU as they possibly can, the next generation of chips is going to have to 'make room' for the physics engine (not the other way around) meaning that you are not going to get away with simply cramming this into the existing chips. Since most of the profiling that has been done says that the physics are not that big of a load I expect that the only way that people will be able to take advantage of this new technology is to have a second card, or for NVidia to deliver a dual GPU card, or for the GPU itself (10 series) to have enough processing power to do both.

[kal326 @ Feb 18th 2008 10:14AM]

@Steve

So how does this make 3 way SLI worth it? Granted if you already have layed out the dough for a 3 way SLI then its a nice freebe, but certainly not a reason to go out and spend well over $1,500 on 3 GTX/Ultra cards and a 780i board. At any rate the PCI stand alone card would be a better option.

[Gremlin @ Feb 15th 2008 8:58PM]

Will the new Geforce 9 series support PhysX hardware? I feel like we've been waiting on these new cards for ages.

[iofthestorm @ Feb 15th 2008 11:53PM]

The 9 series is just a refresh of the 8 series, so there's no reason why it shouldn't. Kind of like how the Radeon 3000 series is the die shrink of the 2000 series.

[Miles @ Feb 15th 2008 9:23PM]

Maybe I can actually play Crysis at more than 15FPS on Medium now.
And I was getting buyers remorse for buying an 8600 GT instead of an 8800 GT

[Neebs @ Feb 15th 2008 9:37PM]

Sadly, there's almost three games that support PhysX, so you're screwed in crysis.

[Kurian @ Feb 15th 2008 9:37PM]

Let me rub it in further.
BWHAHAHAHAHA 8600GT hahahahah.

[Miles @ Feb 15th 2008 9:43PM]

Well hopefully with all future nVidia cards having Physx built in, that number will jump up.
Also screw you Kurian!

[Abuzar @ Feb 15th 2008 9:48PM]

8600 GT? WTF? That's a lol card.

I thought you were a Rabid Apple fan Miles. What's the best card in iMacs again? Yeah a underclocked 2600XT, the joke cards of last year.

[Abuzar @ Feb 15th 2008 9:50PM]

In fact I think they have 2600 PROs that's pathetic.

Honestly I think the 2k series from ATI have been one of their worst products. They did quite a lot better with the 3k series. For the price it doesn't get much better than a 3850!

[Jeremy K. @ Feb 15th 2008 10:37PM]

The 8600GT isn't that bad. It's the best card out there for slimline computers (low profile).

[Abuzar @ Feb 15th 2008 11:12PM]

Why would you play Crysis on slimline computers?

[iofthestorm @ Feb 15th 2008 11:55PM]

@Jeremy: Actually, the Radeon HD 3850 does come in a single slot version, and that might be a passively cooled version too.

[Ken @ Feb 17th 2008 5:50PM]

The 3870 also is available in single slot.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102719

[dBs @ Feb 15th 2008 9:30PM]

Theres a slight caveat to this it sounds like however. It sounded like (from other articles on the subject), it would be implemented as a dedicated card. Meaning those of us with a single 8 series card would have to either pick video or physics. SLI would either be 2 cards for video or one for video and one for physics. Makes for a trade off, a very expensive trade off. Still having the option will be very nice.

I do wonder though how this will effect games that utilize the old PhysX method (UT3 for example), that might mean some significant recoding for the games.

[Sam Winter @ Feb 16th 2008 3:05AM]

re-coding? I wouldn't think so since as they said, they are PORTING the PhysX API to CUDA. The code in the game would remain the same.

[sergiulucian @ Feb 15th 2008 9:43PM]

I wonder if this software update refers to the mobile GPUs too. Talk about romerse... i have a 8400M GS now on my HP Pavilion, i´ve been getting some slight boosts with the new drivers as they came out like more FPS and better DX9 performance but still not satisfied, although i´m pleased with the fact that i can run DX10 titles.
Can´t wait till the PhysX software update comes out!

[Sam Winter @ Feb 16th 2008 3:06AM]

Do yourself a favor and dump that POS. At LEAST get a 8600GT and if possible a 8700 which is by far the best price/performance.

[raf.the.tough @ Feb 16th 2008 5:05AM]

CUDA means literally MIRACLES in Polish, so maybe it'll work just... miraculously ;)

[grant @ Feb 15th 2008 10:12PM]

This is tits, and I have that card pictured.

[XGM @ Feb 15th 2008 10:32PM]

But theres only 15 games that support it:
http://www.ageia.com/physx/titles.html

Out of them I play 1, witch is UT3 because im learning to use UnrealED along with the engine.

[Phineas J. Whoopie @ Feb 15th 2008 10:43PM]

So if someone were keeping score....

HTC refuses to release a driver update.

Apple *charges* for software updates.

nVidia provides them for free?

[iofthestorm @ Feb 15th 2008 11:56PM]

Uh, pretty much every PC hardware company makes driver updates for free regularly, especially GFX companies. Adding new features, maybe not but the only reason they're in a position to do this is because they bought Aegeia, and had the money to do so.

[Brian @ Feb 16th 2008 2:55AM]

nVidia does deserve special recognition for not charging for this software download. This is pretty amazing.

This is almost like Microsoft releasing Vista as a free update instead of a retail box.

[Sam Winter @ Feb 16th 2008 3:12AM]

That is a MORONIC comment. It reads like one of those logic puzzle questions "Which item does not belong in the group". Not that I agree with it, but Apple charging for software apps HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH PROVIDING DRIVER UPDATES, YOU IDIOT! Apple actually has a great track record at providing timely and beneficial software and driver updates, and yes they are free. They would never pull the kind of shit HTC did. And that by the way is one example of terrible service.
NVidia on the other hand continues to be a great company...

[Phineas J. Whoopie @ Feb 16th 2008 11:19AM]

Sam, maybe you've taken a long winter's nap, but Apple already DID charge $20 for a SOFTWARE UPDATE which added functionality to their product.

nVidia would also be providing a SOFTWARE UPDATE which would add functionality to their product.

Angry fanboys, not unlike you, argued Apple HAD TO CHARGE for the update because of *legal reasons*.

Yet, nVidia provides theirs for free? Pretty amazing.

[Fernando G. @ Feb 15th 2008 10:48PM]

cool, just got a 8500gt for cheap


/not a gamer but still happy

[boe @ Feb 15th 2008 11:13PM]

Dang! I misread the title - I was hoping it was a card with 8 GPU's on a single card.

[w00t @ Feb 16th 2008 9:45AM]

And how many nuclear reactors were you planning on running such a beast??

[wootman @ Feb 16th 2008 12:58AM]

hell, thats almost real, we have 4 on a card, although its a big ass card.

[Abuzar @ Feb 16th 2008 1:36AM]

What consumer level cards has four GPUs on one circuit board?

[Brian @ Feb 16th 2008 2:59AM]

I think he meant running two dual gpu cards, which have been out for a while. Either way, he's confused.