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Ageia announces PhysX 100M processor for gaming laptops
Although it's been well over a year since the Ageia PhysX processor made any noise at all over on the desktop front, the firm is taking full advantage of the exposure provided at the Games Convention in Germany to unveil the PhysX 100M processor for "high-performance" gaming lappies. According to the company, this new device aims to provide "the most intensely realistic gaming and entertainment experience to PC gamers" on-the-go, but the nitty-gritty we were hoping for simply hasn't been divulged just yet. Of course, it's fairly safe to assume that we'll only be seeing this unit packed within beastly gaming laptops that can't stray far from an AC outlet, but only time will tell which manufacturer takes the bait first.[Via ExtremeTech]
John Carmack doesn't believe in PPUs? Fine, then PPUs don't believe in John Carmack
We wouldn't go so as far to say that developers in the dedicated PPU world are "firing back" over John Carmack's statement last week that he is "not a believer in dedicated PPUs," but we would at least say that they're offering alternative opinions. In a recent Bit-tech article, Ageia's Dan Forster tackles concerns over the need for PPUs, and (in)directly addresses Carmack's statement that "multiple CPU cores will be much more useful in general," by suggesting that no matter how many cores are involved, there are timing issues between them when being distributed to separate tasks. Forster claims "At the moment, there's not a single game that supports multi-threading even at a basic level..." Leaving some of us to wonder just what Carmack is on about -- but do you really want to question the man who created Doom? Didn't think so.
John Carmack doesn't believe in dedicated PPUs
John Carmack has always been vocally opposed to the concept of dedicated Physics processors for gaming PCs, but his latest statement on the topic really hammers the nail in. Talking to Boot Daily on the topic of Intel's QX6850 CPU, Carmack states that future multiple core CPUs will be able to take the strain of physics processing. Carmack does have a fair degree of interest in this area, with Ageia's PhysX card being supported on the Unreal Engine 3 platform, which happens to be developed by iD software's rival, Epic Games. If there's one thing we can be sure to garner out of this statement, it's that iD software's new gaming platform iD Tech 5 won't be one that favors dedicated physics processors.[Via Digg]
Ageia PhysX processor review roundup
There's been plenty of hubbub surrounding the release of Ageia's dedicated PhysX "PPU" board, with Epic Games pledging extensive "Unreal Tournament 2007" support and around 20 titles in the works. Unfortunately, the launch support is pretty weak, and since the whole point of the tech is the gaming joy that it enables, there doesn't seem much point to get a card at this point. Just "Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter" is available with PhysX at launch, and the effects that are turned on in the game with the PhysX card enabled are not only not fully realized, but cause a decent hit to frame rates. Games built from the ground up to use the PhysX card, such as the forthcoming "Cell Factor" which claims to be the the first title to require the card, look quite good and frankly do things with physics that just aren't possible with the traditional CPU / GPU combo. With that said, major titles built in such a way around the PhysX hardware will be few and far between for a while, giving few reasons to spring for the $300 card until the kinks are worked out and the special effects it enables are more than tacked on -- if flashy -- extras. Anywho, for the curious here are a few reviews we found, anyone else got one? Leave it in comments and we'll tack it on.Read - Hexus.netRead - AnandTechRead - Pc Perspective
