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....=1140392802450




also saw this (overpriced Dell WoW laptop)
http://www.dell.com/content/products...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.