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Ageia PhysX hits the market

Company announces availability of first physics processor, lists upcoming games lined up to use it.

With the Game Developers Conference (GDC) under way in San Jose, Ageia Technologies has taken the opportunity to trumpet a series of developments regarding its PhysX processor.

First and foremost, as of today, the chip is now available in new systems from Alienware, Falcon Northwest, and Dell. Add-in boards featuring the physics processing unit (PPU) are expected to be widely available starting in May. Ageia has designed the chip to handle complex real-time calculations that will allow games to have more varied and impressive visual effects, from explosions that never blow up the same way twice to environments that react appropriately to the natural physics of force, speed, volume, pressure, and density.

Fancy hardware doesn't mean much without games to play on it, and Ageia also announced a bunch of PhysX-supporting titles across major genres today, including Ubisoft's tactical shooter Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Epic Games' multiplayer first-person shooter Unreal Tournament 2007, and Big Huge Games' real-time strategy Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends. Other titles in the works using the PhysX Accelerator include Sigil Games Online's massively multiplayer title Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, Black Element Software's space shooter Alpha Prime, and Metropolis Software's third-person action game Infernal.

Console gamers aren't left out in the cold, as Ageia PhysX technology will also be incorporated into Sony's PlayStation 3. The company today announced that the latest version of its PhysX software development kit will be made available to PS3 development teams at the end of the month.

46 Comments

  • pongley

    Posted Dec 31, 2007 1:10 pm GMT

    The PhysX PPU and it's SDK was designed to perform as a cinematic expansion to games, much like the GPU. So far no developer has really used it to it's real potential. Cellfactor was released free to promote PhysX but its physics programming is so over the top, it looks ridiculous. What we need is a game that uses PhysX on a massive scale, for all physics in the environment but using realistic values. So when a grenade explodes next to a box it knocks the box, splintering bits off rather than throwing it 200 feet in the air.

  • rokkuman09

    Posted May 15, 2007 5:47 pm GMT

    Hey bigfish_ak.. I find it ironic that you say physX are useless.. Yet you support quad SLi, which is also just as useless. 1 8800GTX is better than quad SLI..

  • bigfish_ak

    Posted Feb 26, 2007 12:42 am GMT

    Who needs physX with dx10 and sli enabled video cards, seems like a waste of money to buy a physx processor, when there are physics already being incorporated into games that seem to be preforming well enough without a ppu. Anyone out there ever heard of HAVOC??? Save your $$$ and get quad sli. PhysX is going the way of the beta max>

  • f789790

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 3:03 pm GMT

    Ageia's physic card is a failure so far. You can get the same results or better just getting a second graphics card. So far all the card can do is basic physics which add scarcely anything to be worth $266.80 or even $100 for me. To me it just sucks up more power that my computer does not need to be using.

  • mxpenguin

    Posted Oct 17, 2006 10:04 am GMT

    WTF is an MMO gonna need a PPU for?

  • Lordmack

    Posted Jun 16, 2006 9:50 pm GMT

    Well maybe that's why Vanguard will be delayed.

  • importeater22

    Posted Jun 12, 2006 12:03 pm GMT

    I bought a BFG PPU for $266.80 and free shipping

  • ChronomasterK

    Posted Jun 6, 2006 9:48 am GMT

    Actually, it was suggested (in a Reuters article) that the PPU could handle so many objects and calculations so effortlessly, that the video cards of our current generation can't keep up. That's saying something to it's longevity.

    Unfortunately, I can't find a cite on this. I'll keep looking and get back to this.

  • Jur-B90

    Posted May 14, 2006 5:00 am GMT

    So it's gonna be compatible with UT 2K7 aye? Interesting...

  • makjak

    Posted May 10, 2006 3:33 pm GMT

    there is a price for it. it starts at $300

  • xxscammersxx

    Posted Apr 16, 2006 6:25 pm GMT

    i saw them at alienware for 275...

  • Coillscath

    Posted Apr 16, 2006 5:07 am GMT

    To above poster- Well ****ing said.

    And to whoever thought this would increase latency...
    'Ha.'
    That's all I have to say.

  • mach-stem

    Posted Mar 23, 2006 4:15 pm GMT

    ...This "piece of hardware" will be dedicated to physical attributes within a game. If you can't comprehend what this little marvel can do, just think of this: In present games like Half Life 2, you can shoot a can and it will "imprint" a hole within the can. This hardware will give you the opportunity to actually destroy the can to the point it may actually be true to real physics. It takes alot of computing power to push this concept, and this is what this little "piece of hardware" has the potential of doing. The code will need to be written specifically to use the hardware, essentially taking a very large load off the videocard and CPU. As is, they are your bottlenecks. This will potentially eliminate it.
    PEACE

  • decebal

    Posted Mar 23, 2006 9:07 am GMT

    The only difference is that PS3 puts it in their dev kit, making it more accessible for developers. MS doesn't so any game for 360 that has it, does so because the particular developer went and bought it themselves.

  • NeoJedi

    Posted Mar 23, 2006 7:42 am GMT

    This sounds really cool... gonna check out video cards that handle it.

  • neoviper

    Posted Mar 23, 2006 12:27 am GMT

    check out the differens between what the ppu card card doo,and cpu can.
    http://physx.ageia.com/footage.html

  • Xrules06

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 7:15 pm GMT

    If it's more than $200 they can kiss my ass. What good are dual core CPU's than.

  • nemes1s3000

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 7:11 pm GMT

    Can't wait to see it in action.

  • Valen_Ca

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 6:47 pm GMT

    I am not very technically savvy when it comes to the internal workings of these cards, but couldn't things like this introduce a higher amount of latency to games ?
    Oh and to those people that think that it's a video card , it isn't ,all it does is solve math problems so the CPU doesn't have to.

  • Jerkov

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 4:48 pm GMT

    wow, i wonder what new graphics chip will be coming out next week

  • Bloodforge

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 3:44 pm GMT

    Just so people know, the actual physX chip IS NOT IN THE PS3, the only thing the PS3 will have is the sofware for the physics stuff(like what HAVOK can do), not the chip.

  • GtheMVP

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 3:38 pm GMT

    I was hoping that the 360 would plop this in as well, should take the PS3 to crazy levels!!

  • zerokills9118

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 3:31 pm GMT

    [This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

  • mrhankeydinks

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 3:26 pm GMT

    I wonder if this means all pc gamers will have to buy one now, i mean i'm saving for a new processor and a Dx10 Vid Card when it comes out. Do i really need this?

  • mcgrawgamer

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 3:21 pm GMT

    Uh-Oh M$ this could be the ace up Sony's sleeve to make some extremely killer games. Everything I hav seen so far IMO graphically the 360 and PS3 are neck and neck. This could give sony the edge they were looking for. If developers are willing to take the time to polish games to that point for the already complicated console. Who knows what the future will bring....

  • Sonicgod

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 2:40 pm GMT

    With less and less PCI slots in motherboards and dual slot video cards who has room for one of these? I don't all my slots are full.

    And i have a 6 slot mother board. And PCI express is worhtless for all the parts like these so everybody can stop whineing about all these tiny time add on boards not being pci express the bandwith will never be used.

    PCi express sound cards are the most crazy request i have ever herd sound does not need that high end bandwith.

  • LOLO_BOND

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 2:34 pm GMT

    it din't say that the chip is un the ps3 it the new version of the software not the chip, "The company today announced that the latest version of its PhysX software development kit will be made available to PS3 development teams at the end of the month."

  • Mackilroy

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 2:22 pm GMT

    As an above poster said, Ageia's technology is used in the 360… however, since it's confirmed that it's also being used in the PS3, this is another reason I may also buy a PS3. Before, it was a X360 and Rev, but now the PS3 is looking more tempting.

  • BounceDK

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 2:16 pm GMT

    It justs shows that PS3 will own the 360. What a surprise.. Not really.

  • evil_dracula

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 2:06 pm GMT

    I don't know that the gme support is really as bleak as it looks.. for a couple of reasons:

    - it's built into the Unreal Engine - so every game built on UE 3 will have support for it.. that's huge..

    - with the list of devs they've got lined up I would imagine they'll have at least 5 or 6 decent titles by the end of the year (and 10 so-so).. really that's easily as good as new games that take advantage of a new nvidia/ati technology like shader 3.0

    - since the PPU is programmable it's likely that it will have at least 2x the lifecycle of a graphics card (they can essentially program additional functionality right in)

    re: the $300 price tag.. that's *suggested* I'll bet these things sell at $249 online and then drop to $199.. compare that to the cost of an SLI setup.

    I saw the thing today at E3 and they have a game demo running (cell factor) it's completely insane.. I'm a believer!

    (I've switched 180 degrees since seeing it work)

  • madgamer2000

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 1:54 pm GMT

    to the above poster, thats crap. A dedicated processor is so much faster than the cpu, be it offloaded to the gpu like what ati and nividia are pushing for, or via this ppu board. My only gripe is the price. With so few games supporting it, there is no way I would pay 300$ for it. I have a hard time making my self pay much more than that for a videocard, and thats used for every game I play, as well as for video decoding acceleration, and just displaying what you see all the time. If this thing drops down around the 100-200$ range like a high end soundcard, then I can see it being more viable.

  • FourSwordsx4

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 1:41 pm GMT

    It's a gimmick. Any decent CPU is more than enough to do physics.

  • halopower67

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 1:33 pm GMT

    ok if u guys went to the website you would notice that this is not for how the graphics are but how the physics are, not how it looks but how it feels and the price for it is $299 and its in a PCI port not PCI-E port. im really looking forward to getting this in some months maybe when the board vendors like BFG and ASUS start selling it. oh and the wbsite for it is:http://physx.ageia.com/index.html

  • 0perat0r

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 1:32 pm GMT

    no love for the 360

  • glowingsplint

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 1:28 pm GMT

    It is used on the x360 when you complete GRAW the Ageia physX engine is listed as one of the tools used.

  • csplayer089

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 1:27 pm GMT

    this will reduce the load on the CPU, resulting in higher frames and better looking graphics quality

  • Orasion_Seiz

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 1:21 pm GMT

    its just another pc upgrade, not much of a surprice.

  • frankeyser

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 1:12 pm GMT

    i am tired of upgrading my pc... cant it just do it itself...

  • B-N

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 1:10 pm GMT

    The PhysX is such a great piece of hardware for computers, but the estimated price is a bit high now. I think the website is http://www.ageia.com/.

  • buildar

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 1:09 pm GMT

    Horray for better physics. Better physics should be a staple of next gen games. This is good news. optimized physics for the ps3 is always a good thing

  • jonnyjd

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 1:09 pm GMT

    Nice step for Sony in getting this chip to the PS3.

  • american_in_pt

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 1:07 pm GMT

    damn man...another thing to upgrade for my pc! I hope its worth it...

  • decebal

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 1:04 pm GMT

    Old news for PS3. But nevertheless great news

  • Paul_TheGreat

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 1:01 pm GMT

    Big news for PS3.

  • Suffere

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 12:59 pm GMT

    Now wouldn't it be swell if there was actually a price for it.

  • Ace_The_Ace

    Posted Mar 22, 2006 12:58 pm GMT

    This is one more thing to make graphics better in games.

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