Alienware to start pre-orders on Ageia PPU's

[FarFarAway]

Ageia are starting to get their PPU's out to the market.

Be warned though: your GPU will have to be able to handle the extra textures etc

It's still early days for AGEIA. The technology is great, and the potential for mind-blowing physics-driven gameplay is there, just as it was when we last saw it three months ago at CES. What they need now is killer titles that make PPUs the must-have hardware item of 2006 and for that, we may have to wait a few more months.

See our Front Page for details

 

[FragTek]

w00tness!

But now we're going to need mobo's with 3 x PCI-E x16 slots so we can run CF/SLI + PPU.

 

[WC Annihilus]

Well actually, the creators of the Havok physics engine have come up with something new. Their new creation is dubbed Havok FX. Now, for the single card users out there, it allows Shader Model 3.0-capable GPUs to use that feature for physics calculations. Now, another interesting feature is for SLI only. Basically, it uses one of the GPUs for 3D work, and the other GPU is utilized completely for physics work. This works with all 7 series cards.

Link: Havok FX at [H]Enthusiast

 

[FarFarAway]

Meh I don't think this is an amazing idea but certainly interesting for those using SLI/CF

I think I'd prefer to have a piece of dedicated hardware to be honest

 

[WC Annihilus]

O definately, I'm just pointing out there is another solution

 

[mimp]

Hmm wonder if they've actually got any yet tho..

Does anywhere sell these on their own yet? This is quite a long way down my shopping list but i'm interested in how much they're flogging them for..

 

[FarFarAway]

No nowhere yet.

I WILL be getting one w00t

 

[WC Annihilus]

I WILL be getting one w00t

No surprise there

 

[Phnom_Penh]

Does anywhere sell these on their own yet? This is quite a long way down my shopping list but i'm interested in how much they're flogging them for..

They probably won't be out for a while yet (ie a couple of months). They're only (afaik) going to be produced by BFG too so they could keep prices high if they wanted to.

 

[NickS]

w00tness!

But now we're going to need mobo's with 3 x PCI-E x16 slots so we can run CF/SLI + PPU.

I don't think they'd ever need an X16 slot. Saying that just makes me angry lol.

They are going to be released using teh PCI Bus, and probabally will move to the PCI-E 1x or 4x bus, if necesarry.

Nick

 

[Tec]

Well Dell is shipping them with quad sli system Renegade ( XPS 600 was it $10000 ). So its probably released to big companies.

Games using this technology will be awesome , we wont be using our guns to kill the enemy anymore , it will be like fire the rocket to rocks , lets the rocks crush the enemy in pieces or blow the roof

HotHardware has a nice little coverage of this card. Check it out here

 

[FragTek]

I don't think they'd ever need an X16 slot. Saying that just makes me angry lol.

They are going to be released using teh PCI Bus, and probabally will move to the PCI-E 1x or 4x bus, if necesarry.

Nick

Well that's a relief... I thought had seen a PPU that was based on PCI-E x16.

 

[Phnom_Penh]

I don't think they'd ever need an X16 slot. Saying that just makes me angry lol.

They're more powerful than two dual core opterons, and have 128mb ram, so there is the potential need there for more bandwidth. The main problem with them is that games need to be programmed with the ageia code to work with them, and the only one I know with that so far is UT2007.

 

[FarFarAway]

They are only more powerful than dual core opterons in their own specialised way

I see maybe they could need a x16lane

but not at the moment

 

[NickS]

ROFL. Yea more powerful at what they do specifically but... not overall.

Like I said, PCI-E 1x or 4x wld be more than sufficient.

Kind of a crappy comparison but it's all I could find at the moment. Will look for a better graph/comparison.

Nick

EDIT: Kempez ya posted before me . Gimme a chance lol, I was sitting here trying to find that image ^^