I don't know for sure, but as far as I can see, GPGPU physics requires 2 or 3 graphics cards.

I already do not buy into SLI because I find the return on investment to be ridiculously small, so buying 3 of them is so far out of the question that it's not even funny anymore.

I find a company pushing me to buy 3 of the same to be a lot more greedy than a company proposing an add-in PCI or PCIe card. Maybe that's just me.

The Physx software already does work fine without the hardware. Obviously it's not as fast that way, and it's not clear how well it would compete on either features or performance with other software-only solutions.

As stated game support isn't exactly Ageia's fault, quad cores are suffering from the exact same problem of getting the install base needed to justify making it a mandatory requirement. You don't make games only a fraction of people can play, but that install base doesn't go up without justification to upgrade. 

So the only way to get around the problem is to put money down yourself and make some compatible games, like Cellfactor and Warmonger. The problem however is actually making a game and not a physics tech demo, neither of those games have the substance needed to keep users interested. 

I think Ageia's best bet is with modular games like UT3; that way you can go all out with the physics game play without needing the game itself to fully utilise it, they also don't need much depth so it avoids Ageia's game design weakness.

I always wondered why did they even bother to make their IP into a separate PCI card. it just screams to be integrated into existing GPU designs or even as part of the video card hardware.

That would have had eliminated so many of the hurdles they are facing now...

This is such an obvious approach that I think they probably:
- Got greedy and wanted it all
- Got greedy and wanted too much money for their license

They way things are going, I see them getting bought up by Intel after going down.

and other completely optional add-ons, I think the PhysX chip is not going to truly be successful until it starts being bundled on other PCBs.

Maybe what it is needed is a OS level physics instructions, like there is to graphics through Direct X. While I don't know whether that is possible, this situation sure reminds me of 3dfx "glide" vs PowerVR..

Create a high lvl PX language, drivers to convert that into the PPU native instructions, whether a "true" PPU or a GPU powered emulation PPU (or whatever) - or a CPU core emulated one.

Not perfect? 

The world seldom is...


There's some free game about to be launched call warmonger which will show what the ageia can do...

Totally destructable enviros...imagine shooting the floor out from under an enemy....if this game works, then it might prove their case to other developers.

Looks like MS left an legacy in manipulation and domination so other companies as the graphic cards manufacturers to use there muscles to stop or make difficult for a good idea to go main stream.