Dell and AGEIA Announce World's First and Only PhysX Powered Notebook

[PV5150]

Dell and AGEIA 'getting it on' for the Dell XPS M1730

[URL="http://www.overclock3d.net/news.php?/misc_content/ageia_physx_100m_processor_now_available_exclusively_on_the_dell_xps_m1730/1]link[/URL]

 

[NugentS]

Dell and AGEIA 'getting it on' for the Dell XPS M1730

news article

I bet Dell got a really good price on the chips as this is primarily advertising for Ageia who need to get units into the market so they can reach critical mass...

Sean

 

[PP Mguire]

Idk bout yall but it says page not found. But uh guys, you dont need an Ageia PhysX chip to run Ageia Physics. You can use a second, 3rd or 4th core and it will be faster.

 

[FarFarAway]

Idk bout yall but it says page not found. But uh guys, you dont need an Ageia PhysX chip to run Ageia Physics. You can use a second, 3rd or 4th core and it will be faster.

That's just not true right now and nowhere has there been evidence that all of the stuff you can do with the PhysX engine + PhysX hardware can be done using PhysX API + a CPU core

 

[Rastalovich]

Kinda similar perhaps to trying to get a PhysX card to do SSE/MME stuff.

Dedicated chips, that often have nothing to do BUT the task u give it, can be more efficient.

Way the cpus are going tho.. they`d give a readily available alternative. Some smartarse could probably run up a PhysX emulator that makes the pc think a set of cores on u`r pc are the PhysX card.

Tricky, but I bet some1 could do it.

 

[PP Mguire]

Its been proven. You can redo a piece in the settings file of GRAW2 and tell it there is a PPU there (when it actualy uses a core instead) and the extra physics are there.

 

[FarFarAway]

Its been proven. You can redo a piece in the settings file of GRAW2 and tell it there is a PPU there (when it actualy uses a core instead) and the extra physics are there.

But GRAW 2 doesn't use all the features of PhysX, which is what I meant. OK so it's a step in the right direction but it's a fraction of what the chip can do

 

[HarryB]

http://www.custompc.co.uk/news/601341/dell-puts-physx-in-xps-m1730-laptop.html

Heres a link with quite abit of info on it

 

[Aqua-Pc's]

I do like the lappy its in tho could be a worthy replacemant for my M1710

 

[deathwish]

dead link 4 me ;(

 

[FarFarAway]

fixed

 

[PP Mguire]

http://www.ghostrecon.net/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t45474.html

Theres how to do the GRAW thing.

Another argument is Ageias Island can be unlocked in the same manner as well. Which i would suspect woul need the card too.

http://www.ghostrecon.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=46417

Not only that, but im sure the 360 and PS3 will be using the same new "physics" the PC will be using but they dont have the chip in them either.

 

[FarFarAway]

so to quote from that source:

Now to the bad news, I was running in on my Dell E1705 notebook (Dual Core T7200 2.00GHz, 4MB Cache, 2GB Ram, 7900GTX 512MB) and it lagged very much. And theres even more bad news, you get on to the island via a chopper, and oddly enough you fall and die directly. Is there any god mode for Graw 2? Ive tried with a trainer (Black ops armor) but it didn't help really much.

So it basically runs like cr@p without PhysX, GRAW 2 easily runs very well on a system like that without physx...the CPU cannot cope with the physics.

Ageia Island is where the main lot of physic go on (and even then it's not taxing the [hysx hardware) and that's where CPU=fail

Like Ageia said: if and when someone comes out with a better solution (performance + amount of effects) then that's the time when we can say that no, physx is 100% not orth it. Until then we'll be awaiting a better solution

 

[Rastalovich]

Way I look at it too, physics can/could be used in a whole bucket load of games.

Traditionally, devs will run physics routines whilst the game is in dev and record the results. Those results will be used ingame from a table. Something as simple as how a ball bounces. U can tell by playing the game and almost guarantee how things will react - u kick the ball, u know how it`ll bounce, and how many times.

It`s extraordinarily unique for them to skip the tables and put in a physics routine as it`ll hit the processor, each sync cycle. These cards will cover this.

But tbh not alot of gameplayers will notice the difference or be interested in the difference outside scoring a goal (to continue the ball example).

Be very nice tho.

 

[PP Mguire]

The Dell and physics thing was all for Ageia Island. GRAW2 runs perfectly on my machine with physics turned on.

But it still leaves the question of the consoles. They dont have a chip and cant lag.