Anyone try a physics accelerator?

[keyclone]

anyone try a physics accelerator? it's supposed to really help the rendering.
http://www.ageia.com/

$199 at best buy
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7739183&st=ageia&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1140392802450

http://images.bestbuy.com/BestBuy_US/images/products/7739/7739183_ra.jpg
http://images.bestbuy.com/BestBuy_US/images/products/7739/7739183cv1a.jpg

also saw this (overpriced Dell WoW laptop)
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m1730wow?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~tab=bundlestab

considering the hardware gurus we have here, i'd love to hear the opinions...

[MortimerDuke]

I got a particle accelerator lying around in my garage, doesn't seem to help too much.

[Los]

was wondering why it was so quiet around those cards, you rarely hear about it, ill have to keep an eye on this topic, so curious about the benefits of stuff like this (with suitable and non suitable software)

[Lost Ninja]

My MMO of choice, though I can't play as it hates my WiFi, supports these. Or did last time (about a year) I looked.

Not heard that they help in rendering, my understanding was they took specific physics calculations away from the main CPU for supporting titles. But as most gaming CPUs nowadays have at least 2 cores, I wonder if there is any need. And for the extra $200 I'm willing to bet a better chip, more RAM and better GPU would all give better results. (Assuming you're building from scratch.)

Back when I was actually playing City of Heroes, only the people who could really afford the stupid PCs would get this as even on a supporting title the boost wasn't that great. It looked good sure but nothing that a powerful PC couldn't do anyway. And I think to get any bonus from it the title must support the card, I don't think WoW does.

[Bollwerk]

I really doubt that physics add-on cards will ever catch on, since processors are getting more cores as time goes on. All programmers need to do is use a core for physics.

[Xzin]

WoW has physics?

[TheCodeMonk]

WoW has physics?

to my knowledge, WoW doesn't really make use of these. I have one (got it for CoH to see if I'd notice any difference...it was minor but it was there) and I can say it's a "nice to have" but the benefits aren't generally noticible in games that don't utilize it or support it. :P

At least, that's my experience with it.

[Vos]

There are rumors floating around that graphics cards two or three generations from now from intel, amd/ati, and nvidia will have multiple cores and that physics will be handled on one of these.... either way it requires the client to recognize and utilize to have any benefit. Same way many games only recognize one or two cores on your cpu....

[ITAvenger]

WoW has physics?

It will when WOTLK comes out. They've added a ton of new reputations like Physics, Math, Phys Ed, and Social Studies.

I hear the grind is a bitch.

[amalgam]

WoW has physics?

It will when WOTLK comes out. They've added a ton of new reputations like Physics, Math, Phys Ed, and Social Studies.

I hear the grind is a bitch.

Math Blaster in WoW! "Kill 7 number 7s, then mate 6 times with this giant 8 right here and tell me how many 4s come out."

Or: "if Grog and Ogg leave Orgrimmar and Gadgetzan at the same time on Windriders and travel at the same speed to the other's city, at what point will they see each other and how long will it take? You have 25 seconds to provide the answer." --wrong answer-- 4 75 Elites spawn and force you to take Res Sickness.

[samuraicow]

WoW has physics?

It will when WOTLK comes out. They've added a ton of new reputations like Physics, Math, Phys Ed, and Social Studies.

I hear the grind is a bitch.

source please

[Bollwerk]

Most 3d games have some physics calculations, but they are usually pretty minor (like collision detection) and a separate physics card is only useful if the game is programmed to take advantage of it. (which is quite rare at the moment). Having a separate core of the CPU take care of physics calculations is a lot easier than using an separate card, from what I've read.

[marvein]

WoW has physics?

It will when WOTLK comes out. They've added a ton of new reputations like Physics, Math, Phys Ed, and Social Studies.

I hear the grind is a bitch.

until they add sex ed as one count me out, and only if there is a grind for it.

anywho more on topic. The purpose of the card was to offload some calculations from the CPU over to the card. And despite their website claiming that even multicore CPUs and graphics cards cant handle the load themselves is preposterous. Ive never had any game come close to maximizing CPU load nor GPU load (except crysis for GPU but more on that later)

And why drop 200 bucks on a card that is hardly supported? Id rather drop 350 and go SLI even though I dont need that either, but atleast there is a lot more support for it out there software wise.

Case in point, dont buy it, not for WoW and not for anything.

Another stupid thing on their website is their list of games. where half of them are console games and stated at the top dont do you any good because the card is for a PC not a console. So 15 PC games are listed. and of those 15 there are 3 games that are duplicates of ones listed that need not be listed and atleast 2 more that arent out yet. so 200 dollars to (supposedly) enhance a mere 10 games is laughable at best rofl! :lol: