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Anyone can use NVIDIA's physics simulation engine
NVIDIA isn't just showing off its Titan RTX GPU and some clever AI demos -- it also has big news for anyone interested in more realistic computer physics. The company is releasing its hardware-accelerated PhysX simulation engine as an open source project, making it accessible to virtually everyone. It's a recognition that the technology is useful for more than just convincing game physics, NVIDIA said. PhysX can help with more accurate AI and robotics simulations, including self-driving car technology. You could see vehicles and bots that are better-prepared for real-world conditions.
NVIDIA says it can make VR worlds sound and feel real
Tonight at NVIDIA's event in Texas, the company showed off some new tools that should help developers make VR experiences even more realistic. CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said its VR Works suite of APIs is getting a "major" upgrade, with the ability to connect haptic controllers to its PhysX physics engine for more realistic feedback, and the "world's first real time physically modeled acoustic simulator." As he described it, the audio engine works on top of the optics API to help it match what you can see. Sight, sound, physics and touch are all enhanced with its new Pascal-based GPUs, and NVIDIA says game developers are already working on implementing the new effects.
These PhysX (fluid simulations) are making us thirsty
While we're not exactly prepared to call this stuff water, per se, the fluid dynamics on display in the latest PhysX demonstration are quite impressive nonetheless. In fact, the viscous sloshing is so realistic that we're pretty desperate for a blue-coconut slushie at this point, though preferably one that hasn't washed upon the thighs of a weird humanoid muskrat creature.This video, as well as the two tucked after the break, were produced to demonstrate the principles outlined in a "Position Based Fluids," a paper recently published by Nvidia employees Miles Macklin and Matthias Muller. In laymen's terms, the duo have devised a less system-intensive way to render "incompressible" liquids, which is the key to ensuring realistic goo.The document contains numerous formulas and is very concerned with concepts like "tensile instability" and "vorticity confinement and viscosity," but it also features a lot of bunny rabbits, which helped our comprehension levels a great deal.
NVIDIA rolls out Apex and PhysX developer support for the PlayStation 4
Just because the PlayStation 4 centers around an AMD-based platform doesn't mean that NVIDIA is out of the picture. The graphics firm is updating the software developer kits for both its Apex dynamics framework and PhysX physics modeling system to address Sony's new console, even if they won't have the full hardware acceleration that comes with using NVIDIA's own chipsets. The introductions will mostly take some of the guesswork out of creating realistic-looking games -- theoretically, adding a larger number of collisions, destructible objects and subtler elements like cloth and hair modeling. Most of us won't see the fruits of the updated SDKs until at least this holiday, but programmers looking for more plausible PS4 game worlds can hit the source links.
NVIDIA announces GeForce GTX 580M and 570M, availability in the Alienware M18x and MSI GT780R (updated: MSI says no)
We know you're going to be shocked -- shocked! -- to hear this, but NVIDIA's gone and refreshed its high-end line of GeForce GTX cards. The GTX 580M takes the place of the GTX 485M, and NVIDIA's bragging that it's the "fastest notebook GPU ever," capable, we're told, of besting the Radeon HD 6970M's tesselation performance by a factor of six. The new GTX 570M, meanwhile, promises a 20 percent speed boost over the last-generation 470M. Both 40-nanometer cards support DirectX11, OpenCL, PhysX, CUDA, 3D Vision, Verde drivers, Optimus, SLI, and 3DTV Play. As for battery life, NVIDIA's saying that when coupled with its Optimus graphics switching technology, the 580M can last through five hours of Facebook, but last we checked, that's not why y'all are shelling out thousands for beastly gaming rigs. You can find the 580M in the Alienware M17X and M18X (pictured) starting today, though you might have to wait a week or so for them to ship. Meanwhile, the 570M is shipping in the MSI GT780R as you read this, and you'll also find the 580M in a pair of 3D-capable Clevo laptops: the P170HM3 and the SLI-equipped P270WN. Handy chart full 'o technical details after the break. Update: An MSI rep has let us know that contrary to earlier reports, the GT780R is not currently available with the 570M graphics card. The company added that it will offer some unspecified laptop with the 570M sometime in the "near" future. It's unclear if that laptop will, in fact, be the GT780R.
EVE Online dropping support for old CPUs
An inevitable consequence of EVE Online's periodic graphical upgrades is that support for old graphics cards and computers has to be dropped. The last major change to EVE's system requirements removed support for graphics cards lower than a Shader Model 2.0 standard. A very small number of players were affected by the change, and the dropping of support for old shader models gave CCP the freedom they needed to keep EVE's graphics above par. When tomorrow's Incursion 1.10 patch goes live, EVE's minimum system requirements will see another increase as support for Pentium 3, Athlon XP and older CPUs will be withdrawn. The decision to withdraw support for these old processors comes as a result of internal testing on the expansion codebase. Some of the new third-party libraries being used in the patch were found to be causing a crash when starting the client on systems with CPUs that that don't support the SSE2 instruction set. The likely culprit is the new APEX PhysX library set, a crucial part of the Incarna clothing simulation process, which was recently updated to an SSE2 standard. CCP estimates that this change will affect less than 0.3% of users, meaning just over 1,000 players will need to upgrade their systems if they wish to continue playing. Unsupported processors date back to the summer of 2003 or earlier, making most of the affected systems older than EVE itself. With the revelation of just how old those processors are, the response from players has been generally neutral. CCP Zulu apologised on the forum for the extremely short notice of the announcement on tomorrow's change, stating that he was bringing players this news as it happened.
NVIDIA makes GeForce GT 500M family official, introduces GTX 485M as its fastest mobile GPU
Yes, NVIDIA's naming scheme really is all over the place, but here's what you need to know: as of today, the fastest mobile GPU coming from Jen-Hsun Huang's team will be the GeForce GTX 485. That chip will be equipped with a 256-bit memory interface and GDDR5 RAM and succeed the GTX 480M as the king of the (relatively) mobile castle. Moving up in numbers, but not performance, the new GT 520M, 525M, 540M, 550M, and 555M represent very mild refreshes of their 400M series counterparts. We were initially unimpressed by NVIDIA's decision to keep things stagnant but for some more aggressive clock speeds at the same TDP envelopes, but a recent review of the earlier-launched GT 540M showed appreciable gains from its predecessor, so maybe these graphics gurus actually know what they're doing. We've gathered some imagery of early units sporting NVIDIA's new graphics hardware -- notably paired with Intel's Sandy Bridge CPUs -- in the galleries below, but we'll surely have more for you as we explore the halls of CES. After all, NVIDIA has an awesome 200 design wins combining its tech with Intel's latest, there should be plenty of previously unseen hardware for us to find. In the mean time, skip past the break to see a couple of benchmark runs showing off NVIDIA's new graphics processors. %Gallery-112252%%Gallery-112060%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 reviewed: 'what the GTX 480 should have been'
You saw the key specs slip out a little ahead of time, now it's the moment we've all been waiting for: the GeForce GTX 580 has been thoroughly benchmarked to see if its claim to being "the world's fastest DirectX 11 GPU" stands up to scrutiny. In short, yes it does. The unanimous conclusion reached among the reviewers was that the 580 cranks up the performance markedly relative to the GTX 480 -- with some citing gains between 10 and 20 percent and others finding up to 30 percent improvements -- while power draw, heat emissions, and noise were lowered across the board. ATI's AMD's Radeon HD 5870 wasn't completely crushed by the newcomer, but it was consistently behind NVIDIA's latest pixel pusher. Priced at $499, the GTX 580 is actually praised for offering good value, though its TDP of 244W might still require you to upgrade a few parts inside your rig to accommodate it, while current online prices are closer to $550. Anyhow, the pretty comparative bar charts await at the links below. Read - HardOCP Read - Tech Report Read - Legit Reviews Read - Bit-tech Read - PC Perspective Read - Hot Hardware
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 detailed: 512 CUDA cores, 1.5GB of GDDR5 on 'world's fastest DX 11 GPU' (update: video!)
It might not be November 9 all around the world yet, but NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 580 has already had its spec sheet dished out to the world, courtesy of CyberPower's seemingly early announcement. The new chip will offer a 772MHz clock speed, 512 processing cores, and a 192.4GBps memory bandwidth, courtesy of 1.5GB of GDDR5 clocked at an effective rate of 4GHz. CyberPower is strapping this beast into its finest rigs, and for additional overkill it'll let you SLI up to three of them within one hot and steamy case. Now let's just wait patiently for midnight to roll around and see what the reviewers thought of NVIDIA's next big thing. Update: CRN has a $499 price for us and a recital of NVIDIA's internal estimate that the GTX 580 bests the GTX 480 by between 20 and 35 percent. It seems, however, that the embargo for this hot new slice of silicon is set for early tomorrow morning, so check back then for the expert review roundup. Update 2: Lusting to see one on video? How about two side by side? Skip past the break for the eye candy [Thanks, Rolly Carlos!].
NVIDIA GTX 470M highlights rollout of 400M mobile GPU series
Not everybody needs the world's fastest mobile GPU, so NVIDIA is sagely trickling down its Fermi magic to more affordable price points today. The 400M family is being fleshed out with five new midrange parts -- GT 445M, GT 435M, GT 425M, GT 420M and GT 415M, to give them their gorgeous names -- and a pair of heavy hitters known as the GTX 470M and GTX 460M. Features shared across the new range include a 40nm fab process, DirectX 11, CUDA general-purpose computing skills, PhysX, and Optimus graphics switching. 3D Vision and 3DTV Play support will be available on all but the lowest two variants. NVIDIA claims that, on average, the 400M graphics cards are 40 percent faster than their 300M series counterparts, and since those were rebadges of the 200M series, we're most definitely willing to believe that assertion. Skip past the break for all the vital statistics, and look out for almost all (HP is a notable absentee, while Apple is a predictable one) the big-time laptop vendors to have gear bearing the 4xxM insignia soon.
Mafia 2 trailer showcases tech behind the game
The latest trailer for Mafia 2 showcases some of the reasons we had such a great time playing it last month: attention to detail. Specifically, 2K Czech team members explain in the clip how the game engine powering the title goes a long way in making the world feel alive. NPCs wait for traffic signals, react naturally when you interact with them (for instance, smashing head-on into their automobile will elicit lots of shouting), and objects in the environment respond accordingly as well. Though we might argue that main character Vito Scaletta probably doesn't need to mow down that totally innocent phone booth (as seen in the video after the break), the action does its job of impressing upon us the physicality of Empire Bay. We'll get another chance to try out the game this coming Tuesday when the demo hits, and will get the full retail release just two weeks later on the 24th.%Gallery-97815%
NVIDIA GTX 480M will bring Fermi to laptops this June, crazy power requirements and all
We had an inkling NVIDIA wouldn't keep the Fermi goodness just to the desktop and here's our first pseudo-official confirmation. Rushing in ahead of any announcements, Eurocom has started listing a GeForce GTX 480M part, replete with 2GB of GDDR5 memory and a $345 markup relative to ATI's Mobility Radeon HD 5870. It's not clear whether the 100W number refers to the TDP or power requirements of NVIDIA's new GPU, but it's safe to expect both to be pretty high. The MXM 3.0b interface provides a 256-bit linkup between the GPU and CPU, lending plenty of bandwidth, but it also demands plenty of PCB real estate. As a result, Eurocom is offering the GTX 480M on its 17-inch Cheetah and Panther and 18.4-inch Leopard desktop replacements, but not on its 15.6-inch Cougar. Man, no love for the Cougars. According to the listing, we're only a month or so away from release. [Thanks, Jacob]
NVIDIA unleashes GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 'tessellation monsters'
Let's get the hard data out of the way first: 480 CUDA cores, 700 MHz graphics and 1,401MHz processor clock speeds, plus 1.5GB of onboard GDDR5 memory running at 1,848MHz (for a 3.7GHz effective data rate). Those are the specs upon which Fermi is built, and those are the numbers that will seek to justify a $499 price tag and a spectacular 250W TDP. We attended a presentation by NVIDIA this afternoon, where the above GTX 480 and its lite version, the GTX 470, were detailed. The latter card will come with a humbler 1.2GB of memory plus 607MHz, 1,215MHz and 1,674MHz clocks, while dinging your wallet for $349 and straining your case's cooling with 215W of hotness. NVIDIA's first DirectX 11 parts are betting big on tessellation becoming the way games are rendered in the future, with the entire architecture being geared toward taking duties off the CPU and freeing up its cycles to deliver performance improvements elsewhere. This is perhaps no better evidenced than by the fact that both GTX models scored fewer 3DMarks than the Radeon HD 5870 and HD 5850 that they're competing against, but managed to deliver higher frame rates than their respective competitors in in-game benchmarks from NVIDIA. The final bit of major news here relates to SLI scaling, which is frankly remarkable. NVIDIA claims a consistent 90 percent performance improvement (over a single card) when running GTX 480s in tandem, which is as efficient as any multi-GPU setup we've yet seen. After the break you'll find a pair of tech demos and a roundup of the most cogent reviews.%Gallery-89115%
EVGA GeForce GTX 275 co-opts a GTS 250 for PhysX duties
Ready for some more dual-GPU madness, only this time in the resplendent green of NVIDIA? EVGA has gone and concocted a special Halloween edition of the GTX 275, which has sprouted an entire GTS 250 appendage solely for PhysX gruntwork. Dubbed a new form of Hybrid SLI, EVGA's latest combines -- for the first time, from what we can tell -- two different GPUs and assigns them with specific and mutually exclusive tasks. Whether this concept takes off will depend to a large extent on the effectiveness of PhysX acceleration and whether it can show more efficient scaling than regular old SLI with two boards or more conventional dual-GPU setups like the GTX 295. Color us intrigued, either way. P.S. - That's what the actual card will look like, we're not making it up.%Gallery-77092%
Batman PC release bumped to September, Nvidia PhysX supported
Bad news for those hoping to answer the Bat-Signal's call by way of a computer -- the PC version of Batman: Arkham Asylum will not be arriving at the "same Bat-time" (or "same Bat-channel," if you think about it) as its console iterations. Eidos and Nvidia today dated the PC release for September 15 in North American and September 18 in Europe and Australia. That's a bit of a bump from the console versions' August 25 launch.Speaking of Nvidia, today's news also revealed that the game will support the manufacturer's "PhysX" technology, provided you've got a beefy enough GeForce card. We suppose the game's newfound prettiness makes up for its marginal tardiness. Hey, at least it wasn't pushed to the ever-popular Q1 2010, right guys?[Via Big Download]
iBUYPOWER launches potent M865TU gaming laptop
Another day, another new one from iBUYPOWER. But this one's different, or so they tell us. You see, the M865TU is being hailed as the most powerful 15-inch gaming laptop ever, and considering that Alienware's M17x can't be included here, we'd argue these guys actually have an outside shot at being right. Within, you'll find a 2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9800, up to 4GB DDR3 memory, a 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 graphics card and a 15.6-inch WXGA (1,680 x 1,050) panel. It'll also ship with an eight-cell battery, 250GB HDD and a dual-layer DVD writer, and it's available now for as low as $1,499. Don't expect that "most powerful" label to apply to Mr. Base Configuration, though.
NVIDIA announces expanded support for PhysX and APEX from Sega, Capcom
Remember how impressed the gaming community was when Havok powered the gravity gun in Half-Life 2? Dynamic physics have come a long way since then, with NVIDIA covertly offering its own competitor, in the form of the PhysX engine. The PhysX engine has powered the physics of a number of games so far, such as Mass Effect, Gears of War and even Sonic and the Secret Rings. In addition to PhysX, NVIDIA has expanded its development tools with its APEX framework, which will supposedly allow artists to design fully realized physics-based and destructible objects.NVIDIA has just announced the addition of a rather valuable publishing partner to take advantage of their development APIs. The house of Sonic will be utilizing both PhysX and APEX in all upcoming games from its worldwide studios. In addition, NVIDIA announced expanded PhysX support for Capcom's Dark Void, WBIE's Terminator Salvation, and the upcoming Darkest of Days and U-Wars.
Nvidia expands PhysX toolset to Wii
Nvidia's PhysX technology is spreading everywhere, so it seems. Just a few days ago, the company worked out a deal with Sony, and now, the full-featured application programming interface and physics engine is coming to the Wii too -- with Nintendo seal of approval, no doubt.SDKs are now available to registered Wii developers (and if you don't know what an SDK is, then you're probably not a developer and not getting one!). It'll be interesting to see how the tech handles on Wii -- the combination of a souped-up physics engine and motion sensor control could yield some very exciting results.
NVIDIA's PhysX SDK sashays onto Nintendo's Wii
Just two days after NVIDIA proudly announced that its PhysX technology was coming to Sony's potent PlayStation 3, the same can now be said in regards to Nintendo's decidedly less potent Wii. As the story goes, NVIDIA has just been approved as a third party tools solution provider for the Wii console, which inevitably means that the PhysX SDK is now available for registered Wii developers. Quite frankly, we're really interested to see where this goes; unlike Sony's SIXAXIS, Nintendo's Wiimote is highly based on physics already, so the possibilities here seem even more limitless. Get to work, devs![Via HotHardware]
Nvidia provides free physics tools for PS3 developers
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc and Nvidia have inked a deal to bring PhysX SDKs to registered PS3 developers free of charge. The partnership gives PS3 devs the binary version of the PhysX kit, which includes a full-featured application programming interface and physics engine.And just like fellow middleware Havok, Nvidia PhysX is also free for PC developers. Most games developed with PhysX have been PC titles (Empire Earth III), but PS3 support seems to be growing. In the past, PhysX was used in 2006's Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire. Not the best game out there, but future titles that will harness PhysX in some way, such as the upcoming PS3-exclusive Heavy Rain, show much more promise.
