Well, later than I thought...

I always wondered what was Ageia thinking when they decided to put out their own hardware card. Well, yeah, the explanation is simple, greed. Now the reap what they sow.

Ah, how different it would have been had they licensed their technology to ATI, Nvidia, and Intel instead (if that would be possible at all). Maybe in an ideal world we would have had real hardware integrated accelerated physics in all video cards by now.

But now... the market fragments yet again. Intel buys Havok, Nvidia buys Ageia, AMD/ATI, um, well...

So in the end, developers and users end up losing and the PC graphics market looks a little more like a mini-console war in the making. Whooop de dup...

yech!

I hope NVIDIA either keeps the current add-in cards and makes new ones. However if they're just going to add it to the features of the Geforce cards as this article sounds, I won't be buying it or any other NVIDIA cards for that matter. Obviously it's an attempt to corner the market.

Sack Charlie Demerjian

Sack Charlie Demerjian, he obviously hasn't got a clue what he's talking about. If PC gaming is going down the toilet, how the hell can Nvidia make money?

Nvidia to Buy Ageia

I guess sense I have been in PC's from almost the first , I have heard this statement many times. PC gaming is going down and is dead.
Ever sense the first console units came out , this has been the forecast.
And the gaming is just getting better on the PC.
I for one will be shocked if the gaming PC comes to an end. I for myself see the Home Console units coming to an end, as the PC is integrated into homes and picks up more of the running of the home and entertainment.
But time will tell I guess.

I do see the way games are brought to the PC gamer changing, and for the better I think.
That will be a change from the money going to the middle men and brought direct to the consumer . That I will agree on.

Feel good?

Anybody else get the impression this was lust a "feel good" move by Nvidia?

I mean like eating a half gallon of ice cream?

Does ANYBODY own a phsics card? LOL

I can't see how this is a bad thing...

...unless nVidia buries the physics altogether, which seems not to be the case. I do however appreciate the fact that by not making it an open standard they effectively turn PhysX into a gimmick for the GeForce owners with almost no games to support it.

I do hope they can avoid tripping over themselves on this one. I very much like the idea of physics support on my graphics card. It just makes sense.

PC Gaming

I would not got as far as to say PC gaming is dead although it is in steady decline. Who's not to say Nvidia had a heads up on the next Xbox/PS3 incarnation which may well be a PC/Console hybrid. Now a console you could upgrade eventually rather than purchasing a new one would make financial sense and create a whole new niche to the market.

Why PC Games Are Struggling...

I have a theory about why the 360/PS3 consoles were successful in beating the PC this time round.

The PC scene was always fundamentally about frames per second. All the benchmarking and the hardware upgrades were about getting a silky smooth frame rate with the graphics quality set on high settings.

Now, the consoles have given us 60FPS at the required level of graphics performance, so the PC is now beginning to fail.

Crysis is a brilliant game, but if you can't run it at 60FPS, there really is no point in buying it - simple.

The PC needs to reinvent the graphics card to ensure that 60 FPS is guaranteed in all games, using mush higher quality settings and it will come back to life.

Das not gonna save PC gaming

I think companies like nvidia, need to bring down their prices, b4 pc gaming can really survive against risc based "consoles". they love their company shares going up and profits rising. yet they don't really garuntee their customers that their products can withstand the future of PC gaming improvements. But also, i think its way harder to impress PC gamers than console based gaming. especially because bad graphics are way more noticeable on PC monitors than 480 or even 1080 TV res's. But i think CISC based computing (modern cpus are sorta hyrbids) is hindering gaming on the pc platform. But when ppl wanna see ut3 on like 20***x1**** and see decent frame rates, i think that is so stupid. This is why i stick with a normal 19" monitor(widescreen is a stupid concept for gaming!!!!!!).

didn't Fudo already break this?

Two weeks ago on fudzilla?


[Nope. MOD]

simply put

" Now a console you could upgrade eventually rather than purchasing a new one"

I call that a PC.

Now, physyx embedded in the GPU(or at least onboard), I like it

Good Purchase

Thats now means they can implement physhics into there cards and drivers. Programmers should maybe find it easier to program and 1 less piece of hardware to configure with it maybe being all-in-1 (sorry ati).

And drivers support with be better not that I know but my friend say Ageia are rubbish. And to think I was going to buy 1 but I didn't see the point.

60fps?

@Ravinder

I'm pretty sure that 60fps is still not standard on the consoles (360 and PS3 - no idea about Wii). Not only do developers have to come up with pseudo resolutions to achieve higher frame rates (Halo 3, Bioshock) but there are plenty of games that run at 30fps.

Lets face it, on any platform - even standardised ones - achieving a constant 60fps is difficult and it doesn't negatively affect PC games if certain systems struggle.

Oh come on...

Ever since the first Physics APIs were developed and the cards turned up to support them, fusion with the graphics cards was ALWAYS going to happen eventually.

It doesn't matter that they're proprietary at this point. Just think back to when the first graphics cards came out for the PC, the same argument was made back then.

This particular form of acceleration is just in its infancy. And just like before, a homogenised standard will eventually appear, most likely as a result of integration into DirectX or OpenGL.

Don't worry chaps. PC gaming is stronger than ever.

Pull their socks up

PC games always had a edge over the consoles in the graphics department, but that isnt the case anymore.

As direct x10 turned out to be pretty much the same as DX9, PS3s and 360s have the same graphics as top of the range PCs at half the price.

Lets hope DX10 actually produces some good quality games this year and turns PC games market around.

yeah right.

PC gaming is going down the toilet. This is right after PC-exclusive Crysis sells over a million copies in a few weeks. Shut up, idiots.

PC gaming is NOT dead

let's face it, just because the console scene is new on the block don't say that Pc gaming is going down to the toilet. I think that the pc gaming needs especial card a fusion between graphics and physic very powerfull and the mobos maker realized that this card needs more space in the case, that space in not enough... to make a pc as free as a console to manage the graphics to the fullest...

True

PC gaming is going down the toilet, quality-wise. I meant quality as in fun-factor and replayability.

Sometimes i really wonder what people are thinking.

Some times i wonder... ok So Ageia Overcharges for Physx processing solutions, puts it on poor Interfaces(PCI) and doesnt listen to anyone who makes suggestions(usually)

ATI/AMD already has a version of Havok-FX that does Physx processing Via the GPU, and is not in any line of Patent Infringement. Not to mention, Recently released a new Consumer Video-card Line that is half or less of the price of Nvidia's 8/9 GPU series line, with very high Scalability. easily out-performing Nvidia's lower/mid end market.

Nvidia... Well, Nvidia seems lately to always be lagging behind.. ive been waiting for them to do something more than point fingers and cry like a 6 year old that just got bullied on the playground..

Verdict....: Ageia needs to do something.. if i were there CEO id be smacking the developers and telling them to make a PPU(Physx Processing Unit) that can be sold to Vendors to put on there Video cards, (Like Nvidia's chipsets "they dont make the cards just the GPU/Chipsets.")

then it be a perfect "Even" Physx market.. or Nvidia can buy it, and more than likely Bury it like Intel has done to Havok-FX.

then again, if Intel would stop Gloating and Stop trying to "Own" all of the market... we might get a little farther.

PLAY FAIR and Give the Consumers/business what we need, not try to Monopolize everything to be the richest company on the planet.

Charlie Demerjian

who is charlie anyways? how credible he can be if all he's up to (or the INQ that is) is to bash at nvidia and promote daamit?

AT adds: And who are you that it's taken you since 05 February 2008 to comment on the story?