Thread: Thinking About Giving My PC a Boost

I've been thinking about my computer alot lately (due to rFactor ). A while back I got an ATi All-in-Wonder 6800 video card for it's ability to do video capture. I now have a DVR and and don't really need it. I built my PC from scratch so I'm always wanting to get better parts. I'm debating an video card upgrade BUT....I came across an new toy. It's a Physics Accelerator. It makes the the in game physics ridiculous. It is not a video card replacement just a new component to go along with it.

I've never run across one of these so I was wondering if anyone else had. It's about a $200 component but it might make games like rFactor perfom like never before.

It's called the BFG - AGEIA PhysX Physics Accelerator Card

http://www.hothardware.com/articles/..._Physics_Card/

The problem is that the games have to be programmed to take advantage of this hardware so I guess it won't make current games any better.

All we have to hope for is that they get support for it from the game developers.

Originally Posted by Driverdb

The problem is that the games have to be programmed to take advantage of this hardware so I guess it won't make current games any better.

All we have to hope for is that they get support for it from the game developers.

There is some support already out there and they are making alot of effort to make sure of that. I saw infor for Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 and Unreal Champ. 3. Looks promising.

Originally Posted by EIR Loe.307

There is some support already out there and they are making alot of effort to make sure of that. I saw infor for Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 and Unreal Champ. 3. Looks promising.

Let's hope it's easy to optimize the games for this hardware. If it's just a matter of small changes and a recompile I guess we can expect plenty of games which takes advantage of it. If it's harder to implement I guess the developers won't bother until there's enough units sold. And the public won't bother buying the hardware until there's game support. The good old catch 22.

Originally Posted by Driverdb

The good old catch 22.

Don't ya hate that??

EIR, you thought about getting an Apple like me ?

Originally Posted by DanicaRules

EIR, you thought about getting an Apple like me ?

I have. I wanted a mac mini and/or a powerbook. Then I got a house and expenses.

I'll be ordering rFactor and then a gig of ram as soon as I get some $$. I'm going to keep an eye on that physics card. I think 2.25 gig ram in my machine will be enough to test the game out with. The min. is 512mb so I have that covered. My MB takes up to 4gig of ram so I have room to grow.

I may try to trade in my video card down the line though. It works fine but I think I could go for a nicer dedicated video card without the capture features.

I'm not an expert here but I think that thia physics card doesn't matter much on racing games, but more on those 3d fps games. I've been looking for gforce 8800gts or this new ati card (dont remember the name). combine those with 2g of ram and you will most definitely run rFactor with nice graphics.

Originally Posted by Harakimi

I'm not an expert here but I think that thia physics card doesn't matter much on racing games, but more on those 3d fps games. I've been looking for gforce 8800gts or this new ati card (dont remember the name). combine those with 2g of ram and you will most definitely run rFactor with nice graphics.

I would think it would make a minimal improvement in the cars handling capabilities and damage to the car. You would get better representation or wet weather or dirt tracks, gravel traps hard/soft tires, etc. Anything that increases the realism of the driving characteristics. I don't think it has any effect on the "look" or the game (as far as realism)

But to answer your question yes you're mostly right.