NVIDIA pushing out GeForce PhysX support in July

We knew driver-enabled PhysX support was due for NVIDIA's line some time soon, but HotHardware's reporting that GeForce 8 and 9-series owners will finally have it when ForceWare 177.39 ships alongside the GeForce 9800 GTX+ in July. The preliminary benchmarks seem to show some serious GPU performance gains for PhysX operations, so with any luck you'll soon be rendering Independence Day fireworks at greater framerates than ever previously imagined.

[Via Slashdot]

[DefPo3t @ Jun 21st 2008 3:22AM]

"PhysX for the GeForce 9800 GTX, 9800 GTX+, and GTX 260/280 cards will be enabled by the ForceWare 177.39 driver, timed to launch with the GTX+. And NVIDIA says it will gradually roll out PhysX support to the full GeForce 8/9 line." Before anyone says what about the GTX 260.280 series

[Kurian @ Jun 21st 2008 3:43AM]

They are obviously included. And CUDA supporting card will accelerate PhysX.

[Blackstar @ Jun 21st 2008 4:34AM]

Is it just me, or are video card manufacturers really going overboard with card names? It's confusing enough to discern features between them without names like NVIDIA GeForce 4 billion GTXQM-Plus-Minus-Divided-By PWN-J00 ExTrM BlAcK with ForceWare 3.14159265 GPU PhysX-2a.

Can't we start over? Card One, Card Two, etc...

[maff @ Jun 21st 2008 7:33AM]

they have started again with the new cards, keeping names more simple, they only reason the 9800GTX was given a plus is because it is 55nm (confusing for some but at least you know you are getting a card that will run a little cooler) nvidia have said it is revising its noemnclature for the new GPUs, hence the GTX280 et al

[0megapart!cle @ Jun 21st 2008 11:30AM]

Nvidia raised the clockspeeds just enough to erase the power/heat advantages of moving to 55nm, but not enough to make as notable difference in most games.

The lower price is obviously nice though.

[E71 @ Jun 21st 2008 12:03PM]

I'll stick to my four CPU cores to handle the physics thank you very much.

[Alexander @ Jun 21st 2008 3:36AM]

Sexy :)

[LC @ Jun 21st 2008 3:44AM]

177.39 has already been leaked. So. We kinda already have it.....

[Jeff Tronti @ Jun 21st 2008 3:51AM]

Sounds good to me. I have a new 8800GTS 512 coming on Monday.

[Johannes @ Jun 21st 2008 5:43AM]

Well, considering the 9800GTX IS the new 8800GTS G92 and that the new 9800GTX is a 8800GTS G92 at higher clocks and a 55nm die, I really hope you did not spend much money on your card.

[Didou @ Jun 21st 2008 4:56AM]

How will this impact performance ? If the GPU is being used for physics on top of rendering, won't there be a performance hit ?

[Armoured @ Jun 22nd 2008 6:05AM]

yes, there will be a performance impact. But you can SLI and use one of the graphics cards only for physics if your crazy enough.

[Armoured @ Jun 21st 2008 5:47AM]

Yes, there is a performance impact. But you can SLI and use on the graphics cards as a stand-alone physics card if your crazy enough.

[Wwhat @ Jun 21st 2008 7:52AM]

Since the GT200 series has such overcapacity on the calculations front that isn't reflected in (current) games I'm assuming that means the extra stuff won't affect that range of products, but older cards would be impacted I'm guessing.

[Armoured @ Jun 21st 2008 5:45AM]

hmmm....you can already download the Physx driver from nvidia's website:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/ageia_8.04.25_whql.html

I tried it and it works; I was able to enable hardware physics in UT3 and tried those Physx maps (which were completely hopeless BTW). But it didn't work in GRAW2. Not all games are fully supported yet.

[Vanillacide @ Jun 21st 2008 7:01AM]

Quoting NVIDIA from the link you supplied...

"Supports only AGEIA PhysX processors and software runtimes

Does NOT include NVIDIA GPU PhysX Support"

You only enabled hardware physics in UT3 in your dreams.

[Armoured @ Jun 22nd 2008 6:11AM]

yeah I know I realised that, but it worked for me in UT3. try if it you don't believe me.

sorry if this message comes up twice. i replied once but it didn't show up...

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Jun 21st 2008 7:40AM]

I guess this means, from ATi will be my video card and now nVIDIA will be for physics processor.

[Johannes @ Jun 21st 2008 8:03AM]

Impossible mate. Apart from the fact that you won't find a chipset supporting the combination of both manufacturers, you sure as hell won't be able to run both Geforce (the 'new name' for Forceware) as well as Catalyst on the same system.

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Jun 23rd 2008 3:18AM]

It is possible to run both ATi and nVIDIA on the same motherboard, regardless of chipset. It's been done many times over the years and just after the first dual x16 motherboards were released, tomshardware did just that; they paired a (i believe it was) x800 and what ever the current nVIDIA card was of the time on an nVIDIA and ATi chipset. No problems at all then or now.

[Pupster @ Jun 21st 2008 9:06AM]

Go get the 8.06.12 Physx drivers, the 177.39 Geforce drivers and a modded inf, works on any 8 or 9 series then. They're quite easy to find, just Google 'em.

My 3DMark Vantage CPU score went from 4667 to 22947. Athlon X2 5000+ BE and 8800GT x 2 in sli. 177.39 also seem to be excellent graphics drivers in themselves as my score for gpu went from 8963 up to 9568.

Yes UT3 hardware physics could be enabled but the levels are crap and the framerate drops from around 60 to 5-6. Cellfactor didn't recognise hardware Physx. Trying to find other Physx game demos to see how/if they work.

[Johannes @ Jun 21st 2008 9:38AM]

Not entirely true. It'll work on all G92 based cards as well as the omnipotent G200 series, but G80 series cards unfortunately won't work with this driver, even with a modded inf.

[Bhairav @ Jun 21st 2008 10:10AM]

Here's the link for all G92 cards:
http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=689718

[Hamidxa @ Jun 21st 2008 11:51AM]

Actually, I have it right now.

It has already leaked out to the general public.

[badmoon @ Jun 21st 2008 12:57PM]

How will this effect me that have sli8800gt and a Physx card installed

[rony @ Jun 21st 2008 1:19PM]

@ badmoon
You'll be able to play crisis.

[rony @ Jun 21st 2008 1:25PM]

and I can spell...............

[Conor Kirkpatrick @ Jun 21st 2008 8:29PM]

Thats great! But will it blend?

[Harry Wagstaff @ Jun 21st 2008 9:10PM]

Well, it blends your hardware PhysX Accellerator card into your GPU, so I guess it sort of does.

[Ridgecity @ Jun 21st 2008 11:19PM]

But how can you test it? what games and software already take advantage of it? hopefully we can get autodesk maya to use it before 2013...

[Hamidxa @ Jun 22nd 2008 12:49AM]

Plenty of game:

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_physxgames_home.html

2 Days to Vegas
Adrenalin 2: Rush Hour
Age of Empires III
Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs
Alpha Prime
Auto Assault
Backbreaker
B.A.S.E. Jumping
Bet on Soldier: Blackout Saigon
Bet on Soldier: Blood of Sahara
Bet on Soldier: Blood Sport
Beowulf
Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War
Captain Blood
Cellfactor: Combat Training
Cellfactor: Revolution
City of Villains
Crazy Machines II
Cryostasis
Dark Physics
Desert Diner
Dragonshard
Dusk 12
Empire Above All
Empire Earth III
Entropia Universe
Fallen Earth
Fury
Gears Of War
Gluk'Oza: Action
GooBall
Gothic 3
Gunship Apocalypse
Heavy Rain
Hero's Jorney
Hour of Victory
Hunt, The
Huxley
Infernal
Inhabited island: Prisoner of Power
Joint Task Force
Kuma\WAR
Magic ball 3
Mass Effect
Medal of Honor: Airborne
Metro 2033
Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire
Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia
Monster Truck Maniax
Myst Online: URU Live
Open Fire
Paragraph 78
Pirates of the Burning Sea
PT Boats: Knights of the Sea
Rail Simulator
Red Steel
Rise Of Nations: Rise Of Legends
Roboblitz
Sacred 2
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened
Showdown: Scorpion
Silverfall
Sovereign Symphony
Sonic and the Secret Rings
Speedball 2
Stalin Subway, The
Stoked Rider: Alaska Alien
Switchball
Tension
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent (multiplayer)
Tortuga: Two Treasures
Two Worlds
Ultra Tubes
Unreal Tournament 3
Unreal Tournament 3: Extreme Physics Mod
Warfare
Warmonger: Operation Downtown Destruction
W.E.L.L. Online
Winterheart's Guild
WorldShift

[Hamidxa @ Jun 22nd 2008 12:54AM]

Ughh,

The posting system here is broken.

I hit reply the first time, and nothing showed up (which is often the case), so naturally I waited, I refreshed, and still nothing.

Then a second attempt was made to post it, but once again proved to be a fruitless one at the time, and as such, a subsequent post was made -- bringing the total attempts to 3.

So, if a mod could kindly delete the last 2, or.......get this (i know this is going to sound crazy and tell me if I'm insane for even positing this):
ALLOW US TO EDIT OUR POSTS AND/OR DELETE THEM OURSELVES, then perhaps we could avoid these situations and have a means of combatting the poor posting system itself...

At any rate, carry on.

[Wolfgame @ Jun 22nd 2008 5:45PM]

How about mobile processors? I have a 8600GT in my desktop, but a Go8400 GS in my lappy.