The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    OCZ and Physx?

    Discussion in 'Other Manufacturers' started by wanderer82, Nov 18, 2008.

  1. wanderer82

    wanderer82 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    24
    Messages:
    57
    Likes Received:
    6
    Trophy Points:
    16
    What's the scoop on the Physx engine? Or lack there-of? Do the ATI cards have an equivalent or the same sort of thing? Seems like a lot of games these days are advertising Physx and such. I can't recall if if the 3870's come with one or not... so close to pushing the 'place purchase' button lol
     
    wanderer82, Nov 18, 2008
    #1
  2. E-wrecked

    E-wrecked BANNED

    Reputations:
    1,110
    Messages:
    3,591
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    105
    Well.. I ran some physx enabled games without physx installed. MEaning, no software acceleration, such as FC2..and the physx works fine. So, I guess it hardware based on the GPUs.
     
    E-wrecked, Nov 18, 2008
    #2
  3. Rahul

    Rahul Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    1,741
    Messages:
    6,252
    Likes Received:
    61
    Trophy Points:
    216
    According to Wikipedia (for what its worth), most games that have Physx support cannot work with the Physx solution on the Geforce 8000 and newer cards, and instead need a dedicated Physx card as you can buy separately for desktops.

    I don't know how true it is though.
     
    Rahul, Nov 18, 2008
    #3
  4. Aeris

    Aeris Otherworldly

    Reputations:
    474
    Messages:
    805
    Likes Received:
    20
    Trophy Points:
    31
    ATI does not use AGEIA PhysX natively, meaning that the drivers do not have PhysX, there are "hacks" to make PhysX to work on ATI Graphics Cards but there is no official support from ATI; ATI is working along with Havok (the company that made the physics engine the Source Engine's physics are based on) to create a similar approach to physics.

    Strangely enough, Nvidia is supporting the use of AGEIA PhysX on ATI Graphics Cards.
     
    Aeris, Nov 18, 2008
    #4
  5. E-wrecked

    E-wrecked BANNED

    Reputations:
    1,110
    Messages:
    3,591
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    105
    NVIDIA bought out AGEIA..which, took ATI out of the market for development progress. Kinda monopolized it.

    However, yes.. I have seen info on those hacks. However, I haven't been able to find any end-user downloads or benefits. That's actually someone who people say began a rumor..as they're having trouble substantiating it. But, you know how the internet goes. ;) All rumors have a hint of truth.
     
    E-wrecked, Nov 18, 2008
    #5
  6. Rahul

    Rahul Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    1,741
    Messages:
    6,252
    Likes Received:
    61
    Trophy Points:
    216
    Does anyone know if my post above is true, that most games that support Physx only work with the dedicated Ageia cards, and not the Nvidia solution?

    Also is Physx supported by the mobile Geforce cards in notebooks? Thanks.
     
    Rahul, Nov 19, 2008
    #6
  7. E-wrecked

    E-wrecked BANNED

    Reputations:
    1,110
    Messages:
    3,591
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    105
    PhysX works with the mobile variant of NVIDIA, yes. It's now enabled on all 9000 series cards, in addition, their newer physx releases and driver releases are enabling physx processing on earlier card such as the 8k series as well.
     
    E-wrecked, Nov 19, 2008
    #7
  8. wanderer82

    wanderer82 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    24
    Messages:
    57
    Likes Received:
    6
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Hmm thanks for all of the input! I wonder if there will be a noticable difference without Physx. From my understanding Physx is used to increase 'realism' in games? If we don't get that with our ATI cards I wonder if we would even notice not having it? I'm a little apprehensive to move forward with the ATI if we're not going to get the same visual quality that someone with an NVIDIA card would get...
     
    wanderer82, Nov 19, 2008
    #8
  9. Falken1

    Falken1 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    49
    Messages:
    58
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    If ATI were smart they would continue their Havok support initiative along with enabling PhysX support, to ensure their customers could do both...
     
    Falken1, Nov 19, 2008
    #9
  10. E-wrecked

    E-wrecked BANNED

    Reputations:
    1,110
    Messages:
    3,591
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    105
    I believe they're focused on the Havok side.. And, NVIDIA owns ageia/physx..so just another hd-dvd vs blu-ray struggle.. PhysX doesnt have anything to do with the visual appearance. It just adds realism to how the environment reacts with you and itself. For example, if an explosion sends a barrel flying..when that barrel bounces off of something, does it react like it would in life? Or, does it just drop to the ground? PhysX is basically just what it says.. It's Physics. Does every action have an equal an opposite reaction?
     
    E-wrecked, Nov 19, 2008
    #10
  11. ichime

    ichime Notebook Elder

    Reputations:
    2,420
    Messages:
    2,676
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    56
    PhysX is really a software mod, which is why most game developers dropped PhysX support as most physics processing can be done by the extra cores in the CPU.
     
    ichime, Nov 19, 2008
    #11