Updated: Sept 8 2010
This article is intended for those people out there who still want to use these dedicated Ageia Physx Processing Units for whatever reason. Perhaps your an ATI user who does not have a second PCIe slot available on your motherboard to run hybrid, or perhaps you are just wanting to mess around with it for fun, like me. No matter the case, this article is intended for you.
A couple abbreviations and terms used in this article you will need to know, though I am quite sure most everyone know them already, this is for the benefit of the rare visitor that may not.
The BFG Tech Ageia Physx Processing Card
Remember these cards? When they first came out they were not so popular. However it was more a software issue than hardware. Ageia simply could not give the hardware the support it really needed to succeed. That's why it was purchased by Nvidia in 2008.
Everyone was predicting that dedicated physics processors would not last, the jury is still out on that one, and that the then new concept of GPU physics was also unnecessary. Thinking that since CPU's were getting so powerful there would be no need for separate GPU or PPU based physics for gaming. Well, they were half right, the Physx engine itself just does not do so well on a CPU but does wonderfully on a good GPU or PPU, however there are other engines that do indeed run very well on both the CPU and a GPU. Such as Havok for example, which I talk about a little at the end of this article, but this is all about Physx and the old Ageia based PPU cards.
The last of the dedicated Physx processor cards were rolled off the lines back in very early 2008. After Nvidia made the move to GPU Physx. However, the last revisions of these old Nvidia branded Ageia Physx Processor Cards were out and still had a lot of life left in them, that was until Nvidia killed all support for them all together as well. The popular versions of these cards were sold by BFG and ASUS. This blog entry is all about the BFG 128MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Ageia Physx Processor Card however. So lets get down to it.
You can still buy these cards today, new, for under $20 (As of Sept 2010) from many different retailers and other sources online. So I decided to pick one up and see what I could still get this old thing to do.
This would be an alternative for someone who wanted to play "some" games out there that use Ageia/Nvidia Physx, yet they do not have an open PCIe slot in order to run an effective ATI/Nvidia hybrid system. Short of running an Nvidia GPU that is, and to be honest, it's not worth it to switch just for Physx support. Not to me anyway. The hybrid system is far more effective, if you have an open PCIe slot that is, if not then this may be your only other option if you truly want to mess around with Physx, though be warned, it will not work with most games made in 2010 as the old SDK is no longer supported an neither is the card at any level in the modern drivers.
Even though I am discovering the cards limitations, I am also learning that it does incredibly well with many games and still has a lot of life left in it, it's more powerful than many people seem to have given it credit for, though it does not support all Physx enabled games. The list of games is does support is larger than the ones it does not. As time goes on however, that will change, you still have to remember that this card is well over 2 years old. It has no support. Its simply out-dated.
All that being said...
As you all know, if you follow my blog, I am an AMD/ATI user. So thus short of using modified drivers to run Physx on my HIS Radeon HD 4870 Turbo IceQ4+ 1GB GDDR5, I do not use Physx. I also do not run a hybrid ATI/Nvidia setup to use my ATI card for all my graphics processing and an Nvidia card as a dedicated Physx processor. Not yet anyway, though this will be changing very soon, as an ATI/Nvidia hybrid setup is quite powerful and in many ways better than a pure Nvidia build in my eyes. So I figured this was the perfect time to put this old Ageia PPU to the test.
I prefer ATI over Nvidia for gaming for a multitude of reasons, however, running an Nvidia card for pure Physx support is a very good option, and one that will give you unprecedented performance across the board when Physx is in use while gaming. Especially since Nvidia removed the block that prevented this from being done before unless you modified your drivers.
For my purposes though, I just wanted to experiment and see what these old cards could do in a modern gaming PC, so I wanted to run it with no modified drivers at all. Even though they would not work anyway since this card is not a graphics card, there is nothing to "hybrid", its a pure Physx Processor, that's it.
So lets take a look at the cards raw specs.
This does not hold true for all physics engines, the Havok engine for example runs on any modern hardware very well and does much better when running on a CPU than Physx does. Havok is also not limited to a single hardware brand. It's also far more widely used than Physx yet less advertised, thus not as well known. Though this is a topic for a different discussion. If you want to know more about Havok, visit the website, I do touch on Havok a bit at the end of this article as well. However the main topic here is Physx and the Ageia PPU, so let's move on to that and see what this little thing can, and can't, do.
Setup
This is running the BFG Tech Ageia Physx 128MB GDDR3 PCI card on my current gaming rig (Link Here!). The driver versions for the card, 8.09.04 and 8.06.12, are both used as needed, nothing modified. In Windows 7 Ultimate 64.
Install was very easy. As soon as I installed the 8.09.04 drivers, Windows picked up the card, and it was fully functional. The last Physx Engine (SDK) that can be used on the card, is 2.8.1, so the game must be compatible with that engine in order to use this card.
This is the cards original listed requirements as well as my revisions as to the minimum needed for what I would personally consider "acceptable" performance:
I decided to test the card out on Cryostasis first, since that game uses hardware and advanced Physx quite heavily, if this thing was going to choke I figured Cryostasis would do it. I am quite shocked to say that I was wrong. I performed flawlessly. With such a huge difference in performance with the card enabled and disabled while running everything at max with full Physx enabled, I decided to make a short video.
So I was running the game at 1080p resolution, all maximum settings, with both Hardware and Advanced Physx enabled. V-Sync Enabled. This thing worked great.
As you can see in this video comparison, leaving full Physx enabled, the frame rates dropped to an unplayable level while the BFG Ageia card was disabled. However, with the card enabled, the frame rates ran at a steady 60 the entire time, 60 because v-sync was enabled. It did drop to 55 at one point, for half a second, while recording the video. There were also times later in the game where the frame rates dropped to about 40 in a few places. However considering this games poor optimization, stability issues, and lack of multi-core processing support, this was not all that surprising. Though the game remained smooth from start to finish.
Now of course, the game runs flawlessly without any Physx what so ever, this is to show how well this old Ageia Physx Processor performs in this game with all Physx enabled compared to no Physx processor and all Physx still enabled running a pure ATI setup. I was quite impressed by this old BFG PPU (Physics Processing Unit) cards performance.
So you do not need Physx in any way to play and enjoy Cryostasis, the game runs fine on any ATI setup that meets the specs. You simply leave Physx disabled so it's not offloaded to your CPU. This game has no multi-core support and already has problems running smooth on may players systems due to this. You don't want your one core flooded with Physx as well as trying to handle the game.
Mirror's Edge Test
Already demonstrating how well the card can work in Cryostasis, I figured Mirror's Edge was the next logical step, since this game is much more popular. Not to mention a lot better than Cryostasis in my opinion, though Cryostasis is a decent game worth a play through, it really can't hold a candle to Mirror's Edge in the opinions of many, including myself. As far as games that use Physx goes anyway.
So this video is to show how the game runs without Physx enabled, then with Physx enabled but with no hardware support, and then with Physx enabled and running on the BFG Ageia Physx card. The difference is obvious. Running Physx with no hardware support easily drops the frame rates to the single digits. However, with the card enabled, the game plays just as smooth as if Physx was disabled all together. Never dropping under 60FPS in the recorded sequence. (v-sync enabled).
Compatibility With Other Games
So this testing got me going through and looking into all the other games I own that have Physx support and wondering what ones can use this card, and what ones cant, and how it would do if they could. These are my results so far.
These are the games I have tested on the BFG Ageia Physx Processing Unit Card and have verified full functionality on driver version 8.09.04 or 8.06.12.
No driver or system modifications. Running on the old un-modified drivers and a fully updated HIS ATI Radeon HD 4870 IceQ4+ Turbo 1GB 256-bit
GDDR5 video card.
There are far more games that work with this old card on these drivers, however, I do not own them to test them personally. So thus I will not be listing them here until I can, or someone can send me proof the game works, then I will update the list.
These are the games I have verified that ARE working on this card with driver 8.09.04. (Download driver here!)
These are the games I have verified that ARE working on this card with driver 8.06.12 from Nvidia. (Download driver here!) (Driver 8.09.04 will give you a missing dll error with these games. This driver has those missing dll files (CUDA) that are not found in the Ageia 8.09.04 set. Thus allowing you to use the card in more games.)
These games below I tested and verified, or are otherwise known, they are NOT working on the 8.09.04 or 8.06.12 driver.
In order to run these games, with Physx, you will need to run the latest Physx drivers and either run a pure Nvidia setup or a hybrid ATI/Nvidia setup. Using your ATI Radeon as your primary graphics processor and an Nvidia card with at least 32 pipelines (CUDA Cores) as your dedicated Physx Processor. If there is a way to get these games to run on these older drivers, then I am not aware of it, so if anyone has managed to do it, just leave a comment below and I will look into it. Please include specific details and sources.
Metro 2033 Note: Metro 2033 is a wonderfully beautiful and atmospheric game no matter if you use Physx or not. It does not use it so heavily that it's missed by any means.
Mafia II Note: Mafia II seems to use Physx elements quite heavily and there is a rather noticeable difference between having it enabled or disabled. This game is best enjoyed on an ATI/Nvidia hybrid setup.
You will need to use the driver listed in order for the game to run and use the Ageia Physx Card. Luckily, you can remove the installed Physx drivers quickly, easily, and repeatedly without any problems. At least that's the case in Windows 7 Ultimate 64. It takes about a total of 60 seconds to completely change my Physx driver version.
Quick Summary and Facts
Now someone reading all this may think you have to have an Nvidia GPU, or one of these Ageia cards, in order to enjoy the benefits of physics in video games, this is simply not the case. This is just to use the "Physx Engine" in games that support it. Video game physics is in no way limited to one engine, the only reason you see Physx everywhere is pure advertising. In all reality, there are far more games out there, over 300 across all platforms, that use the just as powerful, "Havok Engine". Here are just a few examples of games that use Havok over Physx on the PC, and in many cases, the console versions as well.
Havok is just as powerful as Physx, both engines can do the exact same things, though Havok can actually do it better on the CPU than Physx can. That was the initial focus of Havok, where as Physx has always focused on a separate PPU, and then after Nvidia purchased it, the GPU.
The other main difference is Havok is split into different product categories, where as Physx is all under one umbrella. Havok is split into independent products, known as "middleware", as well as one full product like Physx. They are AI, Animation, Behavior, Cloth, Destruction, and Physics. So technically, the Havok engine is more versatile than the Physx engine in this respect. Though like I said above, both can pretty much do the same things.
Also, like I mention above, Havok can run on the CPU with far less performance loss than Physx can. Even though Physx can and does run on the CPU as well in some cases. You simply see more performance loss than if it was running on a GPU or PPU than you would if it was the Havok engine.
So just because you can't run the Physx engine properly without Nvidia hardware, or Ageia in the case of this article, this does not in any way mean you are missing out on physics. The Physx engine is not the end all be all Nvidia would like you to think.
However, again, this would be a different topic for a different article. If you want to know more about Havok, this is a good place to start.
http://www.havok.com/index.php?page=havok-effect
Closing Thoughts
So there you have it. This is what I have been able to achieve so far. Not bad for this old, and quite out-dated, hardware I don't think. For under $20, there is some fun to be had with them yet, especially since you are not going to be running Physx that cheap on an Nvidia card unless you buy a good one used somewhere. The lowest card I recommend for modern Physx support is a 9800 series, though I see people using lower cards with some good results as well. This is when coupled with a powerful ATI GPU, if your running pure Nvidia then I would not suggest anything under a 260, and the ATI/Nvidia hybrid runs better than a pure Nvidia setup.
So for what this thing is, even for its limitations, it's a VERY cheap alternative for playing the games it can support. However, as you can see, it's also very limited. It will be outperformed by running a more practical ATI/Nvidia hybrid system. However if you happen to be on a system, are an ATI user, and have no available PCIe slot for hybrid, this is an alternative option for you.
Like I keep saying, the ATI/Nvidia hybrid setup is quite powerful, and in many cases, even more powerful than running an all Nvidia build. The are many reasons this seems to be the case, however, that's for a different discussion, one that I am sure I will do soon. This entry is not to debate what brand is 'better". This is just my opinion based on my observations in my day to day gaming as well as online. Running a high end ATI/AMD card as your primary graphics adapter and a good Nvidia card as a dedicated Physx card, you will see incredible performance in games that support Physx.
Anyway... as I learn more, test more games, I will update this post. Until then, happy gaming!
This article is intended for those people out there who still want to use these dedicated Ageia Physx Processing Units for whatever reason. Perhaps your an ATI user who does not have a second PCIe slot available on your motherboard to run hybrid, or perhaps you are just wanting to mess around with it for fun, like me. No matter the case, this article is intended for you.
A couple abbreviations and terms used in this article you will need to know, though I am quite sure most everyone know them already, this is for the benefit of the rare visitor that may not.
- CPU (Central Processing Unit) Duh! :)
- GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)
- PPU (Physics Processing Unit)
The BFG Tech Ageia Physx Processing Card
Remember these cards? When they first came out they were not so popular. However it was more a software issue than hardware. Ageia simply could not give the hardware the support it really needed to succeed. That's why it was purchased by Nvidia in 2008.
Everyone was predicting that dedicated physics processors would not last, the jury is still out on that one, and that the then new concept of GPU physics was also unnecessary. Thinking that since CPU's were getting so powerful there would be no need for separate GPU or PPU based physics for gaming. Well, they were half right, the Physx engine itself just does not do so well on a CPU but does wonderfully on a good GPU or PPU, however there are other engines that do indeed run very well on both the CPU and a GPU. Such as Havok for example, which I talk about a little at the end of this article, but this is all about Physx and the old Ageia based PPU cards.
The last of the dedicated Physx processor cards were rolled off the lines back in very early 2008. After Nvidia made the move to GPU Physx. However, the last revisions of these old Nvidia branded Ageia Physx Processor Cards were out and still had a lot of life left in them, that was until Nvidia killed all support for them all together as well. The popular versions of these cards were sold by BFG and ASUS. This blog entry is all about the BFG 128MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Ageia Physx Processor Card however. So lets get down to it.
You can still buy these cards today, new, for under $20 (As of Sept 2010) from many different retailers and other sources online. So I decided to pick one up and see what I could still get this old thing to do.
This would be an alternative for someone who wanted to play "some" games out there that use Ageia/Nvidia Physx, yet they do not have an open PCIe slot in order to run an effective ATI/Nvidia hybrid system. Short of running an Nvidia GPU that is, and to be honest, it's not worth it to switch just for Physx support. Not to me anyway. The hybrid system is far more effective, if you have an open PCIe slot that is, if not then this may be your only other option if you truly want to mess around with Physx, though be warned, it will not work with most games made in 2010 as the old SDK is no longer supported an neither is the card at any level in the modern drivers.
Even though I am discovering the cards limitations, I am also learning that it does incredibly well with many games and still has a lot of life left in it, it's more powerful than many people seem to have given it credit for, though it does not support all Physx enabled games. The list of games is does support is larger than the ones it does not. As time goes on however, that will change, you still have to remember that this card is well over 2 years old. It has no support. Its simply out-dated.
All that being said...
As you all know, if you follow my blog, I am an AMD/ATI user. So thus short of using modified drivers to run Physx on my HIS Radeon HD 4870 Turbo IceQ4+ 1GB GDDR5, I do not use Physx. I also do not run a hybrid ATI/Nvidia setup to use my ATI card for all my graphics processing and an Nvidia card as a dedicated Physx processor. Not yet anyway, though this will be changing very soon, as an ATI/Nvidia hybrid setup is quite powerful and in many ways better than a pure Nvidia build in my eyes. So I figured this was the perfect time to put this old Ageia PPU to the test.
I prefer ATI over Nvidia for gaming for a multitude of reasons, however, running an Nvidia card for pure Physx support is a very good option, and one that will give you unprecedented performance across the board when Physx is in use while gaming. Especially since Nvidia removed the block that prevented this from being done before unless you modified your drivers.
For my purposes though, I just wanted to experiment and see what these old cards could do in a modern gaming PC, so I wanted to run it with no modified drivers at all. Even though they would not work anyway since this card is not a graphics card, there is nothing to "hybrid", its a pure Physx Processor, that's it.
So lets take a look at the cards raw specs.
- AGEIA PhysX processing unit (PPU)
- PCI interface (32-bit PCI 2.3 [3.3v & 5v support])
- 128 MB GDDR3 memory
- 128-bit memory interface
- Peak instruction bandwidth: 20 billion instructions/sec.
- Sphere-Sphere collisions/sec.: 530 million max.
- Convex-Convex (Complex Collisions)/sec.: 533,000 max.
This does not hold true for all physics engines, the Havok engine for example runs on any modern hardware very well and does much better when running on a CPU than Physx does. Havok is also not limited to a single hardware brand. It's also far more widely used than Physx yet less advertised, thus not as well known. Though this is a topic for a different discussion. If you want to know more about Havok, visit the website, I do touch on Havok a bit at the end of this article as well. However the main topic here is Physx and the Ageia PPU, so let's move on to that and see what this little thing can, and can't, do.
Setup
This is running the BFG Tech Ageia Physx 128MB GDDR3 PCI card on my current gaming rig (Link Here!). The driver versions for the card, 8.09.04 and 8.06.12, are both used as needed, nothing modified. In Windows 7 Ultimate 64.
Install was very easy. As soon as I installed the 8.09.04 drivers, Windows picked up the card, and it was fully functional. The last Physx Engine (SDK) that can be used on the card, is 2.8.1, so the game must be compatible with that engine in order to use this card.
This is the cards original listed requirements as well as my revisions as to the minimum needed for what I would personally consider "acceptable" performance:
- 1.4 GHz CPU or higher (2.6GHz or higher dual core)
- 128 MB of system memory (2.0 GB DDR 400 or better)
- Microsoft Windows XP: Home, Pro, or Media Center Edition (or Vista and 7 32 & 64-bit)
- CD or DVD-ROM drive
- 20 MB available disk space
- 300W or higher power supply (450W or higher)
- Available PCI 2.0 slot or higher
- (Mid to high-end PCIe) Graphics card with DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 2.0 support
- PhysX compatible game titles or applications (SDK 2.8.1 or earlier)
I decided to test the card out on Cryostasis first, since that game uses hardware and advanced Physx quite heavily, if this thing was going to choke I figured Cryostasis would do it. I am quite shocked to say that I was wrong. I performed flawlessly. With such a huge difference in performance with the card enabled and disabled while running everything at max with full Physx enabled, I decided to make a short video.
So I was running the game at 1080p resolution, all maximum settings, with both Hardware and Advanced Physx enabled. V-Sync Enabled. This thing worked great.
As you can see in this video comparison, leaving full Physx enabled, the frame rates dropped to an unplayable level while the BFG Ageia card was disabled. However, with the card enabled, the frame rates ran at a steady 60 the entire time, 60 because v-sync was enabled. It did drop to 55 at one point, for half a second, while recording the video. There were also times later in the game where the frame rates dropped to about 40 in a few places. However considering this games poor optimization, stability issues, and lack of multi-core processing support, this was not all that surprising. Though the game remained smooth from start to finish.
Now of course, the game runs flawlessly without any Physx what so ever, this is to show how well this old Ageia Physx Processor performs in this game with all Physx enabled compared to no Physx processor and all Physx still enabled running a pure ATI setup. I was quite impressed by this old BFG PPU (Physics Processing Unit) cards performance.
So you do not need Physx in any way to play and enjoy Cryostasis, the game runs fine on any ATI setup that meets the specs. You simply leave Physx disabled so it's not offloaded to your CPU. This game has no multi-core support and already has problems running smooth on may players systems due to this. You don't want your one core flooded with Physx as well as trying to handle the game.
Mirror's Edge Test
Already demonstrating how well the card can work in Cryostasis, I figured Mirror's Edge was the next logical step, since this game is much more popular. Not to mention a lot better than Cryostasis in my opinion, though Cryostasis is a decent game worth a play through, it really can't hold a candle to Mirror's Edge in the opinions of many, including myself. As far as games that use Physx goes anyway.
So this video is to show how the game runs without Physx enabled, then with Physx enabled but with no hardware support, and then with Physx enabled and running on the BFG Ageia Physx card. The difference is obvious. Running Physx with no hardware support easily drops the frame rates to the single digits. However, with the card enabled, the game plays just as smooth as if Physx was disabled all together. Never dropping under 60FPS in the recorded sequence. (v-sync enabled).
Compatibility With Other Games
So this testing got me going through and looking into all the other games I own that have Physx support and wondering what ones can use this card, and what ones cant, and how it would do if they could. These are my results so far.
These are the games I have tested on the BFG Ageia Physx Processing Unit Card and have verified full functionality on driver version 8.09.04 or 8.06.12.
No driver or system modifications. Running on the old un-modified drivers and a fully updated HIS ATI Radeon HD 4870 IceQ4+ Turbo 1GB 256-bit
GDDR5 video card.
There are far more games that work with this old card on these drivers, however, I do not own them to test them personally. So thus I will not be listing them here until I can, or someone can send me proof the game works, then I will update the list.
These are the games I have verified that ARE working on this card with driver 8.09.04. (Download driver here!)
- Age Of Empires III
- Alliance of Valiant Arms (Free to Play Online FPS)
- American McGee's Grimm
- Army of Two
- Bionic Commando: Rearmed
- Clive Barker's Jericho
- Cryostasis (Will only run on driver 8.09.04, not 8.06.12)
- Dracula Origin
- Gears Of War
- Medal of Honor: Airborne
- Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
- Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
- Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas
- Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2
- Turok
- Unreal Tournament 3
These are the games I have verified that ARE working on this card with driver 8.06.12 from Nvidia. (Download driver here!) (Driver 8.09.04 will give you a missing dll error with these games. This driver has those missing dll files (CUDA) that are not found in the Ageia 8.09.04 set. Thus allowing you to use the card in more games.)
- Mirror's Edge
- Overlord II
These games below I tested and verified, or are otherwise known, they are NOT working on the 8.09.04 or 8.06.12 driver.
In order to run these games, with Physx, you will need to run the latest Physx drivers and either run a pure Nvidia setup or a hybrid ATI/Nvidia setup. Using your ATI Radeon as your primary graphics processor and an Nvidia card with at least 32 pipelines (CUDA Cores) as your dedicated Physx Processor. If there is a way to get these games to run on these older drivers, then I am not aware of it, so if anyone has managed to do it, just leave a comment below and I will look into it. Please include specific details and sources.
- Metro 2033
- Mafia II
- Borderlands (Steam version)
Metro 2033 Note: Metro 2033 is a wonderfully beautiful and atmospheric game no matter if you use Physx or not. It does not use it so heavily that it's missed by any means.
Mafia II Note: Mafia II seems to use Physx elements quite heavily and there is a rather noticeable difference between having it enabled or disabled. This game is best enjoyed on an ATI/Nvidia hybrid setup.
You will need to use the driver listed in order for the game to run and use the Ageia Physx Card. Luckily, you can remove the installed Physx drivers quickly, easily, and repeatedly without any problems. At least that's the case in Windows 7 Ultimate 64. It takes about a total of 60 seconds to completely change my Physx driver version.
Quick Summary and Facts
- This card can and will work in Vista/7 64-Bit OS perfectly. Install the card and then the 8.09.04 software package. The OS will then pick up and use the card.
- This card has full support for most all games that use the Physx SDK 2.8.1 (engine) or earlier. The 2.8.3 SDK came out, for developers, in October 2009, so the card seems to work well for most all Physx enabled games made pre-2010.
- Driver support was removed for this card by Nvidia all together, updating to anything beyond the 8.09.04 drivers will cause the card to stop functioning properly. Even though the drivers say they contain updates for the card, they will cause it to stop functioning, pure and simple.
- If you have an available PCIe slot, not matter the speed (x4 to x16), in the end your better off running a hybrid ATI/Nvidia build. Running an ATI GPU as your primary graphics adapter and a good Nvidia GPU as a dedicated PPU, will give you support for all Physx enabled games. Even though from all the research I have done on this article, this old Ageia PPU can still perform on par and better than 9800 GTX series cards as a PPU. Perhaps even more, we will never know, since the support for it is gone.
Now someone reading all this may think you have to have an Nvidia GPU, or one of these Ageia cards, in order to enjoy the benefits of physics in video games, this is simply not the case. This is just to use the "Physx Engine" in games that support it. Video game physics is in no way limited to one engine, the only reason you see Physx everywhere is pure advertising. In all reality, there are far more games out there, over 300 across all platforms, that use the just as powerful, "Havok Engine". Here are just a few examples of games that use Havok over Physx on the PC, and in many cases, the console versions as well.
- Assassins Creed 1 & 2
- BioShock 1 & 2
- Battlefield 1943
- Company of Heroes & Opposing Fronts
- Dead Space
- F.E.A.R. II
- Fallout 3
- Far Cry 2
- Halo 2
- L4D 1 & 2
- Painkiller Series
- Prince of Persia Series
- Resident Evil 5
- Spore
- Splinter Cell
- Battlefield Bad Company 1 & 2 both use it on the 360 and PS3.
Havok is just as powerful as Physx, both engines can do the exact same things, though Havok can actually do it better on the CPU than Physx can. That was the initial focus of Havok, where as Physx has always focused on a separate PPU, and then after Nvidia purchased it, the GPU.
The other main difference is Havok is split into different product categories, where as Physx is all under one umbrella. Havok is split into independent products, known as "middleware", as well as one full product like Physx. They are AI, Animation, Behavior, Cloth, Destruction, and Physics. So technically, the Havok engine is more versatile than the Physx engine in this respect. Though like I said above, both can pretty much do the same things.
Also, like I mention above, Havok can run on the CPU with far less performance loss than Physx can. Even though Physx can and does run on the CPU as well in some cases. You simply see more performance loss than if it was running on a GPU or PPU than you would if it was the Havok engine.
So just because you can't run the Physx engine properly without Nvidia hardware, or Ageia in the case of this article, this does not in any way mean you are missing out on physics. The Physx engine is not the end all be all Nvidia would like you to think.
However, again, this would be a different topic for a different article. If you want to know more about Havok, this is a good place to start.
http://www.havok.com/index.php?page=havok-effect
Closing Thoughts
So there you have it. This is what I have been able to achieve so far. Not bad for this old, and quite out-dated, hardware I don't think. For under $20, there is some fun to be had with them yet, especially since you are not going to be running Physx that cheap on an Nvidia card unless you buy a good one used somewhere. The lowest card I recommend for modern Physx support is a 9800 series, though I see people using lower cards with some good results as well. This is when coupled with a powerful ATI GPU, if your running pure Nvidia then I would not suggest anything under a 260, and the ATI/Nvidia hybrid runs better than a pure Nvidia setup.
So for what this thing is, even for its limitations, it's a VERY cheap alternative for playing the games it can support. However, as you can see, it's also very limited. It will be outperformed by running a more practical ATI/Nvidia hybrid system. However if you happen to be on a system, are an ATI user, and have no available PCIe slot for hybrid, this is an alternative option for you.
Like I keep saying, the ATI/Nvidia hybrid setup is quite powerful, and in many cases, even more powerful than running an all Nvidia build. The are many reasons this seems to be the case, however, that's for a different discussion, one that I am sure I will do soon. This entry is not to debate what brand is 'better". This is just my opinion based on my observations in my day to day gaming as well as online. Running a high end ATI/AMD card as your primary graphics adapter and a good Nvidia card as a dedicated Physx card, you will see incredible performance in games that support Physx.
Anyway... as I learn more, test more games, I will update this post. Until then, happy gaming!
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